Spurs rookie Jeremy Sochan's game is a minor protest against the NBA's orthodoxy

And, by the way, that’s the same guy who can do this.

“He’s wild,” Popovich told reporters earlier this season. “He’s doing whatever he wants. I just love watching him. It’s kinda like watching Manu [Ginobili] when we first got him — I have no idea what he’s gonna do.”

A young Ginobili was a reckless force, enough so that Popovich wondered if he could even coach him. He was a high-wire type who tested the Spurs’ preference for deliberate motion offense and often went rogue within the system. In time, Popovich learned to come around. Ginobili was maniacal and a visionary. He became known for his own, specific passes that most coaches would advise against and few players could even make — full-court bounce passes, cross-court jump passes, give-and-go passes that only the most perfect and gentle touch could loft.

Sochan is a 19-year-old averaging 2.5 assists to 1.7 turnovers per game so far, so there’s still some work to be done. He’s getting the reps, though, and showing flashes of a player uncommon. Ginobili’s greatest attribute was that he could see the game in its most arcane angles and crack new dimensions open within the superstructure. You see players like that on winning teams, integrating themselves as the connective fabric of their teams and in special instances rewiring the teams altogether. Sochan shows signs of a similar skill set. He’s unpredictable, a freestyler who toys with the rhythm of the defense. Perhaps he can become the sort of player that justifies doing things his way.

Ginobili, in his rookie year, was joining a Spurs team that went on to win the championship that year. Tim Duncan was in his fifth year, David Robinson in his last and Tony Parker emergent. The stakes for Sochan are lower. Today’s Spurs aren’t trying to integrate him into a winner, and there’s no tug-of-war between player and coach for the spiritual identity of the team because the team just doesn’t really have one right now. San Antonio's best players are Devin Vassell and Keldon Johnson, two encouraging young wings also in their own early and exploratory stages right now. The Spurs' best player might as well be the 14 percent odds they have at Wembanyama right now.

In this setting, Sochan can really just mess around. This has been the part that I can’t take my eyes off. His game is a minor protest against orthodoxy, and those protests are worth cherishing. Unlike with peers such as Banchero or Kessler, there’s no easy comparison, archetype or rubric for the player Sochan might become. I’ve purposefully resisted the Draymond Green comparison so far, because we’ve only ever had one player like Draymond since Draymond, and I’ve learned my lesson about suggesting we’re about to see a second. Historically, the players we compare to Draymond are players who elude easy definition, like Draymond himself. The last next Draymond Green was Scottie Barnes, who is nothing like Draymond Green but an exciting and fairly indefinable player in his own right. If Sochan reaches his ceiling outcome, I really don’t know what would look like. His Year 2 is going to be a fun one.