How Sabonis spaces the floor without shooting threes

How Sabonis spaces the floor without shooting threes

Damonte sabonis is having an incredibly underrated season and it’s kind of hard to wrap your head around the fact that he wasn’t selected as an Allstar despite averaging 20 points 13 rebounds and eight assists it’s even crazier when you consider the fact that he’s currently one of only four players in NBA history

To average 20 points 12 rebounds and eight assists in a season alongside Wilt Chamberlain Oscar Robertson and of course Nicola joic Sacramento’s offense is one of the most unique in the NBA and it’s been one of the most effective ranking fourth in offensive efficiency since the All-Star break and so I want

To dive into what sabonis does to really grease The Wheels on the offensive end and make everything tick for the Kings if you enjoy the video please consider subscribing and leaving a like it helps me out a ton all that being said let’s get into it sabonis gets viewed as

Primarily this dribble handoff Focus big man which isn’t necessarily Wrong by any means but I also think there’s a lot more to his overall game than just the dribble handoffs when talking about Rim running centers I don’t think sabonis gets all the credit that he deserves and

What really sets him apart is that with a lot of Rim Runners we normally think of the vertical threat the lob threat that they possess and that’s what creates a lot of their opportunities where the ball handler can just toss it up to them and they can throw it down

Don’t get me wrong sabonis can do that and he very frequently does but the difference with sabonis is that he has impeccable foot footwork once he gets going downhill towards the rim and that allows him to turn what originally might have been contested looks at The Rim

Into wide open ones through the use of post footwork and pump fakes just in terms of raw points per possession as a cutter and rle man this year he’s been one of the best Rolland cut bigs in the entire league additionally with his ability to get downhill and score and

Use that footwork to get himself easy looks defenses usually have to guard him a little bit further away from the restricted area they can’t just camp out in the paint because he’ll burn them he’s often times going to fake guys out of their shoes and then pivot into space

To get easy touches off the glass but then you add another layer of complication to things when you factor in those push shots that he has in his bag he’s one of the most efficient players in the NBA from floater range shooting 52% on significant volume this

Season where sabonis makes a lot of his money is when he gets the ball on the short roll as a scorer he’s going to be more than com able banging with you down low to try and get positioning and find his spot so that he can get the look

That he wants close to the basket even some of the strongest guys in the NBA are consistently going to get knocked off their spots by sabonis when he’s attacking off the catch to try and remedy this let’s say you put two sets of bodies on him like Miami does here

All that’s going to do is leave a guy like Keegan Murray wide open on the perimeter and sabonis is going to make that pass every single time in this play from their matchup against the Clippers they had zubot hanging down low to try and contain him

When he would get downhill and try to score while it does prevent sabonis from scoring it relies on Harden to make this rotation to the corner so Harrison Barnes is going to get a wide open look from the corner while Harden has his back turn with all the different ways

That sabonis can hurt you defenses have a much more complicated time processing what the offense is doing or trying to do and the kings are fantastic at capitalizing on that confusion the Lakers are setting up to defend sabonis and fox in a potential dribble handoff

And fox is going to cut up the middle which keeps LeBron home while pulling Reeves with him meanwhile dwarte is going to move out to the corner and get this light screen from Murray so that he can pop out to the wing and with everybody else kind of fixated on

Sabonis and fox nobody’s going to make the rotation to dwarte on the wide open shot defenses can become hyper fixated on defending sabonis and making sure that they have enough bodies to stop him but with dearon fox out there with him that leaves teams kind of short-handed

In regards to who can provide help it’s a double-edged sword you have to have enough help to be able to stop sabonis but you also have to have enough help to stop dearen Fox that’s why dearen Fox is able to score on this possession because when he drives it’s Anthony Davis’s

Responsibility to slide over and help but he can’t since sabonis is camping out near the dunker spot so he’s not going to feel comfortable providing that help and so dearen Fox is going to be able to get the Finish when sabonis is bringing the ball up he’s going to call

For Keegan Murray to set this flare screen for Fox and Ru is going to jump the pass a little bit allowing Fox to attack the basket since ruy overplayed the pass Anthony Davis is going to have to slide over to contain Fox on the drive this means that the rest of the

Defense is going to be responsible for helping defensive bonis when he gets the pass from Fox on the roll but since there’s nobody left out there on the weak side Murray’s going to get a wide openen look for three the Lakers had been defending the pick

And roll with drop coverage for the most part and Anthony Davis would be sagging off to cover any drive or pass to sabonis on the roll so when sabonis runs this dho from Murray early in the offense ruy is going to get held up on the screen and the drop coverage by

Anthony Davis allows Murray to pull up for the open look when he’s pushing in transition the defense is going to gravitate towards him leaving Guys open for kickouts and then with Sacramento’s fast-paced offense they can keep the defense in rotation and attack Closeouts to develop advantages until they get the

Look that they want the other Factor at play is that sabonis can fake the dribble handoff just as easily as he can run it and if you as a Defender are not fully prepared for either of those possibilities he’s going to be able to punish you we talk a lot about this idea

Of spacing and while sabonis has been a great three-point shooter this year just in terms of raw efficiency his volume is incredibly low he’s only attempting about 13 per game so just because they’re going in it doesn’t necessarily mean that the defense is always stepping out to guard him on the perimeter

Sacramento attempts threes at one of the highest rates in the NBA so with a guy like sabonis who isn’t necessarily demanding defensive attention out to the perimeter how is Sacramento able to be such a high volume three-point shooting team and still maintain such an effective offense well ‘s a flaw in the

Logic here the problem is that spacing is often inherently equated to three-point shooting and that’s just not necessarily the case spacing usually makes it easier to create an advantage but you don’t have to run a five out offense to have effective spacing this play is a really good example of a

Different type of spacing this is more of a horizontal type of space with Barnes and Mitchell more towards the Baseline and herder in the opposite corner it leaves this region of space across the half court around the free throw line This spacing allows Keegan Murray to get downhill towards the

Basket so that he can get the space that he needs to get into the shot now let’s say defenses are playing a little bit more inside Sacramento is still going to have guys tucked into the corners that you can’t help off of is this area of

The floor over here not space it gives Malik monk plenty to work with so that he can punish the drop coverage with the floater you’ll see a lot of teams are willing to just play Drop coverage against sabonis with their bigs in the pick and roll but that allows Sacramento

To generate a lot of those floater range shots and those are shots that they hit at the highest rate in the NBA this season at 49.4% so they’re clearly comfortable taking and making them Sacramento is able to mitigate any spacing concerns that you might have with sabonis by surrounding him with Shooters and

Knowing how defenses are going to react to the movement Shooters around him and they’re able to take advantage of that from there this play they’re running out of time on the shot clock so the ball goes back up to herder up top sabonis is going to come up and set the screen for

Him and the suns are going to hedge against herder allowing sabonis to roll down low and herder’s going to find him this forces Craig to slide over to help leaving the pass to the corner wide open and it creates a great shot here sabonis is going to set a ball

Screen for herder and look at all this spacing inside the ark that they have to work with herder drives and forces nurkic to sh and sabonis role causes Kevin Durant to have to sink and it’s going to force the tag from Gordon as well and this is just

Going to leave Barnes wide open for the easy look and he also could have kicked it out to Keegan Murray if he wanted to the Kings have been one of the best teams in the NBA since the allar break and deonis sabonis continues to be one of the most uniquely impactful players

In the NBA on the offensive side of the ball the kings are a perfect example of a team having a clear approach on the offensive end and knowing how to put their players in the right spots in order to manipulate a defense and create the right looks for the guys that they

Have really hope you guys enjoyed this video I’d appreciate it if you considered leaving a like and subscribing if you want to see more stuff like this shout out to my patrons for supporting the channel thank you all so much for watching and I’ll see you in the next one

Domantas Sabonis wasn’t selected as an NBA All-Star this year despite helping the Sacramento Kings compete in a hotly contested Western Conference. The tandem of De’Aaron Fox and Domantas Sabonis is one of the deadliest two-man combinations in the NBA, and the Sacramento Kings offense is consistently one of the most potent offenses in the NBA. So why does Sabonis not seem to get the respect that he deserves?

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