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5 Young international NBA players ready to lead their country to glory

By Charlie Spungin

SAITAMA, JAPAN - AUGUST 01: Rui Hachimura #8 of Team Japan reacts against Argentina during the second half of a Men's Basketball Preliminary Round Group C game at Saitama Super Arena on August 01, 2021 in Saitama, Japan. (Photo by Gregory Shamus/Getty Images)
SAITAMA, JAPAN - AUGUST 01: Rui Hachimura #8 of Team Japan reacts against Argentina during the second half of a Men's Basketball Preliminary Round Group C game at Saitama Super Arena on August 01, 2021 in Saitama, Japan. (Photo by Gregory Shamus/Getty Images) /
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Jeremy Sochan
NBA Jeremy Sochan (Rob Gray-USA TODAY Sports) /

Jeremy Sochan, Poland

The 20-year-old Jeremy Sochan is the only player from Poland currently in the NBA and only the sixth ever. It may appear weird that Sochan is the guy who can bring international success to Poland considering that they’re ranked 14th in the FIBA rankings.

The country finished 8th in the 2019 World Cup, but this may have been a fluke considering they failed to qualify for next month’s edition of the competition. The last time that they qualified for the World Cup before that was in 1967. Poland did just finish 4th in the 2022 EuroBasket too. They can be good, yet they are incredibly inconsistent. They haven’t been to the Olympics since 1980.

Here’s the thing though: Poland’s main core of international players are getting up there in age. Their three leaders in minutes in EuroBasket and ages were Michal Sokolowski (30), A.J. Slaughter (35), and Mateusz Ponitka (29). All three of these players have been important to Polish basketball success as of late, but they need someone to take the reins in the next few years.

Enter Jeremy Sochan, who already has some experience playing for Poland. He played for at the U16 Division B European Championships for Poland in 2018 and 2019. In 2019, he led Poland to the gold medal by averaging 16.1 points, 9.6 rebounds, 3.0 assists, 3.1 steals, and 1.5 blocks on a 54.0 TS (49.0/26.9/57.1 splits), as he won the tournament MVP. For the senior team, he has played one game, which came in the qualifiers for the 2022 EuroBasket in August 2021 when he was just 18. In the 88-81 win versus Romania, he put up 18 points, 3 rebounds, 1 assist, and 2 blocks on 6-10 shooting.

Poland will be playing in one of the five Pre-Qualifying Olympic Qualifying Tournaments this summer, but Sochan will not be present.

To me, Sochan is one of the more underrated and intriguing young players in the league. He very quietly has juice off of the bounce with some really promising flashes of self-creation. He also makes some really good and creative passes while also being a high-end on-ball defender already. If he can become more efficient and have the shot coming around, he’s going to be a really good player for a really long time.

Even without a shooting leap, he will be a good NBA player in my opinion. His ceiling is really high, and his floor is pretty damn good too.