The league's top LeBron hater might leave earlier than LeBron James.

Jeremy Sochan was fortunate. Prior to the start of the last Finals, he had nearly confirmed he would receive a championship ring. More fortunate still, he accompanied his new team, the Knicks, in defeating the Spurs, who had waived him, giving him a sense of vindication. But after the victory parade, Sochan faced a practical problem: where would he play in the coming season?

The Knicks clearly had no interest in re-signing him. Sochan played 16 regular-season games for the Knicks last season, mostly outside the rotation, averaging 2.8 points and 2.1 rebounds. In the Finals, he only made a brief appearance, messing with Wembanyama's mindset, and provided no real help to the Knicks. Of course, privately, Sochan might have leaked many Spurs tactics to the Knicks.

In short, Sochan faced the situation of winning a championship and then being unemployed. A month after free agency opened, Sochan finally found a job, signing with the Trail Blazers. The contract is a training camp deal, and Sochan will need to prove himself in training camp to secure a final roster spot with the Blazers.

But I am pessimistic about Sochan's chances of continuing to play in the NBA. Someone who was cut by his team mid-season and still hasn't found a job by the offseason is in a very dangerous position. As the 9th pick in the 2022 draft by the Spurs, Sochan managed to ruin his career in just four years, which is quite regrettable.

He was the highest pick the Spurs had before drafting Wembanyama, and was initially developed as a core player. In his first three seasons, Sochan averaged roughly 11 points and 6 rebounds. To put it nicely, he was consistent; to put it bluntly, he showed no improvement. In the fiercely competitive arena of the NBA, no progress means constant regression.

Sochan's problem is that he is too much of a jack-of-all-trades. He tried many positions for the Spurs, most famously when Popovich had him play point guard. Sochan essentially tried every position from 1 to 5, but eventually, Mitch found that the bench was the best fit for him.

After trying so many positions, he still couldn't find a style that truly suited him. In short, he can do a bit of everything but nothing well. As a point guard, he only had the advantage of height. His ball-handling and dribbling were poor, and his passing vision, court awareness, and even technique were far from NBA standards.

When playing on the perimeter, his biggest problem was clearly his lack of shooting. His career three-point percentage is only 28.6%, and he never developed a reliable jumper. By the later stages, he just gave up. Putting a player with no shooting ability on the three-point line makes him a natural offensive black hole.

When playing inside, his biggest issue is height. The draft report listed him as 6'9", and many people said his playing style resembled Hanamichi Sakuragi. In reality, Sochan might not even be 6'8", at most 6'7". Originally, his height was that of a power forward, but it turned out he lied about his height. He doesn't have the build for the interior, and on the perimeter he can't shoot, which hurt the Spurs badly.

In this situation, after his third season, Sochan still demanded a large contract extension, but the Spurs didn't indulge him. In his fourth season, when Mitch fully took over, Sochan completely lost the head coach's trust and was removed from the rotation. Coupled with constant minor injuries, Sochan was eventually let go by the Spurs.

Originally, the path ahead for Sochan should have been like that of the Thompson brothers: maximize his defense and use his switchability to prove himself on that end. But his body let him down, and several minor injuries made him completely disappear from the radar.

Aside from the label of a high-lottery bust, the most distinctive tag on Sochan is probably 'LeBron hater.' Born in 2003, the same year LeBron entered the league, Sochan was a die-hard Thunder fan as a child. After the Thunder lost to LeBron's Heat in the 2012 Finals, Sochan has regarded LeBron as his biggest villain.

After entering the NBA, Sochan became one of the few active players willing to openly 'hate' on LeBron. Most famously, during the 2023 playoffs, Sochan publicly posted on social media: 'Why does LeBron always flop?' and then argued with LeBron's fans. When the NBA emphasized cracking down on flopping in the new season, Sochan added a celebratory emoji in the comments, naturally taking a dig at LeBron.

Of course, Sochan's attacks on LeBron are limited to social media. On the court, every time they matched up, LeBron dominated Sochan. The two are not even in the same league. Sochan's flamboyant personality was once considered an outlier in Spurs culture. He constantly changed his hair color, wanting to be the next Rodman for the Spurs, but he only managed to copy Rodman's hair color.

Signing with the Trail Blazers is likely Sochan's last chance to stay in the NBA. Considering his demand for a big contract extension last year, people need to know their limits and quit while they're ahead.