The San Antonio Spurs have some work to do in figuring out who they believe belongs on this roster for the long haul. As they're making their determinations, it's entirely possible they come to the conclusion that they want Carter Bryant to eventually replace Jeremy Sochan.
No, this isn't me wishing Sochan away or failing to appreciate his talents. I believe there can still be space for Jeremy on this team as a complementary piece to Victor Wembanyama. However, there's a world where the Spurs end up seeing things just a bit differently.
When you're building around a superstar, you have to first get him a co-star at some level. That's precisely what San Antonio accomplished when they first traded for De'Aaron Fox, and then extended him earlier this month. That's part one of the equation to creating [a winning roster that can contend for a championship](https://airalamo.com/spurs-could-leap-even-biggest-fans-dont-see-coming).
But then part number two of your equation has to be supplementing the roster with other valuable pieces that will work alongside your star in order to amplify his talents, not minimize them. Jeremy Sochan does that, and so does Carter Bryant, at least in theory.
San Antonio may consider replacing Sochan with Carter Bryant
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As we think about this, the issue of roster overlap begins to come into play. What do you do when you have multiple guys who are valuable contributors and can do some of the same things on the basketball court? Well, one line of thinking says that you don't care too much about the overlap and you find a way to use both guys in their own unique ways. But then there's another line of thinking that would reject this notion.
That line of thinking is the one that more heavily considers the team's financial situation, and that's frankly what the Spurs are going to be forced to focus on after handing Fox his big extension. San Antonio [is going to need as many team-friendly contracts](https://airalamo.com/spurs-plan-build-title-contender-around-victor-wembanyama-surprise-fans) as they can take on. Sochan's currently still playing on his rookie contract, but he's extension-eligible, and that could complicate things.
If the Spurs think they can get similar or especially even better production out of Bryant, they might end up looking to move Sochan and hope that Bryant can simply fill his role and production. It's really not an unreasonable gamble for them to take, if you consider their similar physical builds and Carter's shooting upside.
Again, this is not me hoping this is the direction San Antonio will take, but I think it's reasonably something they might be thinking about.