Domantas Sabonis is NOT the PROBLEM in Sacramento…
Hey hey hey damont sabonis is not the problem on the Sacramento Kings team now this whole Kings season has been really funny in my opinion because they are essentially playing just as good as they did last year I mean even if you look at their record through 52 53 games however many
They played they’re like one game off from each other if not the same yet they received no love for the All-Star Game voting with thearon Fox and damont sabonis they just continued to be dis guarded amongst the rest of the West no one cares about the fact that they’re
Still a high-powered offense because every other team has gotten to their level in terms of offensive rating and they’re no longer the you know historic all-time NBA offense even though they are literally putting up the same numbers regardless Sacramento currently sits in eighth place in the Western Conference they are in that little
Cluster from that five to eight seed range where you could pretty much move anywhere in that section whether you win or lose on a given night but one thing that I do know for sure when it comes to the season is that damont sabonis is not getting nearly enough love for the
Improved basketball that he is playing as he has clearly become the most important player on the Sacramento Kings team at least you know in my opinion I love the fox he had an amazing season last year he got very popular you know clutch player of the year was the best
Fourth quarter player in all of NBA and he was a really exciting and fun player to watch but when it comes to this season I want to say he’s off a cliff but he has been more inconsistent there are stretches of games where he’s just not shooting the ball well he’s not
Getting points he’s not doing what he was doing last year and when those games and stretches occur it has been damont sabonis who has been the stabilizer keeping that offense flowing and just overall making this Sacramento Kings team still a tough team to beat every given night I mean let’s just take a
Second and look at the numbers that sabonis has been putting up ever since 2024 the you know turn of the calendar however you want to say it since that point he is leading the league in triple doubles I could be mistaken but I also think he’s just you know full season
Leading the league in triple doubles as well which you I know triple doubles aren’t cool anymore you know Russ and joic made them not cool but still a very impressive feat to accomplish but even just looking at the recent weeks his last three games he has triple doubles
Five of the last six triple doubles seven of the sorry six of the last eight triple doubles like he’s just 21 rebounds 26 rebounds 15 assists for a big man these are yic type numbers in fact even if we just check the averages from that first game of 2024 to now he’s
At 21 points over 14 rebounds almost 10 assists almost averaging a triple double not to mention he’s shooting 54% from three which I know it’s on one attempt a game but still ridiculous plus if you actually do go and watch the games it is evident that deont sabonis is the entire
Engine offensively for this king’s team and the main reason for that is because sabonis is currently the best high post player in the entire NBA you can probably throw joic in there but he just scores in such a larger variety of ways that I think if you just look strictly
At high post usage I don’t know what the numbers say but sabonis it test feels like he is the best in the league at that spot and a big reason why that assist number is so high in a lot of games recently is because he is just feeding off of these little handoff
Screens that he likes to set in the high post and whether it’s Malik monk dearon Fox Kevin herder coming off for a shot even Keegan Murray’s run a few handoffs with them it he’s just he’s just so good at it I could see how people could maybe
Say that these are like you know fake assists or something because all he’s doing is handing the ball off and setting a screen but it’s the fact that he uses those screens he is such a good screener that he’s able to get the you know ball handler the guy that he’s
Passing to so open that I it does count as an assist in the stat book so first of all you you can’t complain about that but second the point I’m trying to get to is sabonis is just an elite screen Setter and handoff guy that there is a
Reason why he gets so many assists this way and others don’t and despite the fact that he’s not the craziest ball handler and he’s not flashy or anything like that he still has a ton of strength he’s able to bulldo his way to the rim it makes driving to the rim very easy
For him especially if he fakes a hand off and then attacks the rim and he’s actually a pretty good passer off the drive I think this is kind of an underrated thing for sabonis he had one play in the game I watched where he had a nice little drive and dump to Kevin
Herder on a cut he had a few drives and kickouts to Shooters and although they’re not always assists because you know guys miss it’s still very impressive to see a big man doing stuff like this but I think perhaps the most interesting thing about sabonis career
Arc so far is you know everyone Hypes up the whole Brook Lopez thing of how he went from a post scorer to a deadly three-point shooter and I think it’s also important to talk about the Brook Lopez ification of damont sabonis as well because he too came into the league
Mostly a low post guy that would get you buckets down low he’d grab you rebounds and that was about it but he’s taken after the yic model and he is turned into one of the best passing and facilitating bigs in the entire NBA you can see him grabbing rebounds and
Pushing it up the court like a point guard you can see all the stuff from the high post that I just talked about for the last couple minutes all this is to say that you almost kind of forget that he’s actually also just a very capable
Scorer in the low post he’s again also a great rebound ER so offensive rebounds if he does crash the glass he’s really good at getting those putbacks more importantly he’s also just great as a rle man whether it’s the short roll and he’s kicking out or if he’s attacking
The rim again this goes back to those handoffs and screens that he is always setting in passing as again if the defense does decide to cover the man that he is handing the ball off to then you run the risk of leaving sabonis with
A head of steam to the rim and that is not a good sign for NBA defenses now I do think the one area where domont sabonis loses a lot of respective NBA fans is that he’s not the greatest Defender again he falls under that yic category where he is tremendous
Offensively but people just don’t respect him because he’s not the typical Rim protecting NBA Center that a lot of teams uh use in their lineups nowadays and while I can see the vision for that sabon is by no means a terrible Defender I I’m not going to sit here and say that
He’s all defensive or anything because you know guys are going to get his buckets against him but I just feel like it’s important to point out that sabonis gets his fair share of stops and has good defensive possessions as well and plus at the end of the day when he’s
Doing stuff like this on offense where he is literally controlling entire possessions and bending the defense to his will and creating baskets just off of himself by himself his you know gravitation whatever you want to say it’s fully Worth to have him on the court because he is a special talent so
Overall you I just I’m confused at this point when I see Talking Heads in the NBA media World say things like oh the Kings aren’t going anywhere until they upgrade damont sabonis or they’re not going to win a championship until they solve the sabonis problem because sabonis isn’t the problem he is the
Farthest thing from the problem on this king’s team if you want to talk about problems maybe talk about the fact that Kevin herder is wildly inconsistent and probably not a starter caliber guy in the NBA or talk about the fact that their bench is really really not good
Outside of Malik monk or maybe like the occasional good Daven Mitchell game either way sabonis has been the clear-cut best player on this team I’d be very interested to see if the Kings can secure a playoff spot and finish in that five to six seed range because obviously with the embiid injury he’s
Not going to win MVP and I would love to see not not necessarily see sabonis win MVP because that’s obviously never going to happen but I’d be interested to see what the discourse around sabonis is for MVP if the Kings do clinch that playoff spot cuz again just based off of the
Stats in it test alone sabonis has been an m VP level guy his impact on this team is incredible again with Darren Fox playing inconsistently he is the entire offensive engine for this team and if he struggles then the entire team struggles overall I would just like to see some
More love for damont sabonis because he deserves it but that’s all go for this one as always if you enjoyed make sure to like comment subscribe all those good things and I’ll catch y’all in the next one
It’s time for NBA fans to realize that Domantas Sabonis is playing at an MVP level for the Sacramento Kings and their mediocre record is not a reflection of him.
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#basketball #nba #sacramentokings #kings #domantassabonis #deaaronfox #keeganmurray
19 Comments
Great review 👍
he is leading the league in triple doubles this season
not jokic model,his fathers model
why are you wearing eyeliner stop it bro lol
The dho's sabonis sets are just as good as a pass to a wide open 3 point shooter. Not sure why ppl are counting it less.
The issue is more that Fox has been struggling lately so Kings haven't been winning as much.
As a Kings fan, one thing to note is that DeAaron Fox has had a bum shoulder for close to 2 months now. This team would be even better with a fully healthy Fox. As for Sabonis, he's having a phenomenal year and there is no doubt that he is the main player on this team because you know what you are getting every night, either a double-double or a triple-double. He is the definition of CONSISTENCY. On top of that, when both Fox and Sabonis are on, they are very difficult to stop. The problem the Kings have is their defense. It's not great and they don't get the benefit of calls because they are the Kings. The Kings get NO respect in the league and it's really frustrating as a Kings fan because this team is actually fun to watch and the casual fan does not even know.
The average fan does not understand high-basketball IQ players because they make the game look easy. Most fans are into athleticism, but those who have played the game have great respect for high basketball players who are extremely efficient. Sabonis has honed his craft to an art and there is a lack of appreciation for what he does night in and night out. In my book, he should be a 1st team All-Star…..I mean….look at his numbers. These numbers are insane!
Sabonis is great, he's the backbone of our Kings team, Huerter and Barnes are more of a significant hindrance and the bench outside of Monk and Lyles really need to step it up. Great video. subscribed.
The league is SLEEPING
I think this year we are not at the level of last year, we lost 5 games that we had to win due to mistakes between the coach and the players who did not give 100% of themselves, especially fax. Sabonas is are best player ❤
Great video, analysis. And no hate. There are some guys who put Sabonis as a centre at 7 place in the videos.
his +/- this season is exactly 0….zero. his presence, whether he’s putting up triple doubles or not, doesn’t push the Kings over the top to being a great team.
He needs to get traded so that people realize the kings would return to where they were before he came in.
Sabonis is just more athletic jokic, if he shot the midrange more i feel like they’d put up nearly the same stats but domas focuses more on getting everyone else involved
Nice video, thank you! (Not every day I write comments, especially positive)
Domas: Don't worry Sactown. I'll get ready for the post All-star break stretch to make sure that the Kings not only grab a Top Six slot, but hopefully a very deep postseason run.
I love seeing this coverage of Domas – offensively, he's like a quarterback who also doubles as his own offensive line.
I also appreciate the acknowledgment that he's not as bad defensively as he's often made out to be. He's not a shotblocker, but he's a good one-on-one post defender and does a nice job switching out on the perimeter. Will he clean up the team's messes on defense like an Anthony Davis or a Jaren Jackson Jr? Of course not. But he's one of the few guys on our team this year who's largely holding his own defensively. Just ask Nikola Jokic & Anthony Davis.
Domas will never be as good as Jokic, Jokic will never be as good as Domas
Ox 🐂 is AMAZING