Jeremy Sochan’s four preseason appearances did not earn him a place on Portland’s opening roster. The Trail Blazers waived the 23-year-old forward Saturday, leaving a former lottery pick facing another search for minutes and the club with an unfilled standard-contract slot.
Portland’s October 17 announcement confirmed the release and his four preseason games. Luke Adams of Hoops Rumors reported that Sochan was on a non-guaranteed Exhibit 9 contract and would become an unrestricted free agent Monday if no team claimed him on waivers. The release itself does not establish that he has cleared.
The move leaves the Portland Trail Blazers with 17 players under contract, according to Adams: 14 on standard deals and three on two-way contracts. That distinction matters. Seventeen contracts do not mean all 15 standard roster positions are occupied.
An opening Portland chose not to fill with Sochan
Hoops Rumors reports that Portland could have converted Sochan’s camp agreement into a standard, non-guaranteed contract and retained him while remaining below the luxury-tax line. Instead, the club released him.
That leaves roster flexibility, but it is not evidence of an incoming signing. The team’s brief announcement did not identify a replacement or explain why it declined to keep Sochan. Nor did it set out how the remaining forward minutes would be distributed.
His recent career helps explain why this cut carries more weight than an ordinary end-of-camp transaction. San Antonio selected him ninth overall in 2022, and he averaged at least 11 points in each of his first three seasons. The Spurs tried him in markedly different roles, including point guard and small-ball center, Adams reports.
The franchise has since moved into a different phase, illustrated by its current Fox–Harper–Castle lineup experiment. Sochan’s route out of San Antonio preceded this Portland decision: he fell out of the rotation during 2025–26 and was released after the trade deadline.
A championship did not settle his role
Sochan joined New York and won a championship, but his court time remained limited. Hoops Rumors lists 6.9 minutes per game across 16 regular-season appearances for the Knicks and 3.3 minutes across eight playoff appearances.
That title was part of the backdrop to New York’s championship-defense preparations. For Sochan, though, a ring and a secure rotation job proved to be separate things. Portland offered a camp opportunity, not a guaranteed continuation of his NBA career.
Across 228 regular-season games, he has averaged 9.9 points, 5.4 rebounds and 2.5 assists, with 28.6 percent shooting from three-point range, according to Hoops Rumors. His next opportunity in the NBA was not established by Saturday’s announcement. First comes the waiver process; Portland’s vacant standard spot is a separate decision still to be made.
