What Nobody Says About Domantas Sabonis

What Nobody Says About Domantas Sabonis

Domanis sabonis status as a player may just be one of the most heavily disputed conversations I’ve seen this season he’s been absolutely dominating the box score leading the league in rebounds by a decent margin ranking fifth in assists per game while also averaging an Uber efficient 20 yet there seems to be a

Pretty big disparity in the numbers he’s able to produce and how he’s perceived by the general public for one he didn’t make the allstar game despite filling the stat sheet for a team that’s consistently been in the playoff race and many fans will point to last year’s playoff series against the Warriors to

Make the case that he’s just way too flawed to be a centerpiece on a competitive team I think some of the concerns are valid but I also think that a lot of what he does offensively is just straight up misunderstood the most underd discussed aspect of his game is

How good he is at pushing the pace as a team the Kings average about 14 seconds per offensive possession fourth in the NBA and while some of that can be attributed to the speed of guys like Fox and monk the driving force behind this style of play is sabonis he’s a massive

Defensive rebounder leading the league at over 10 a game and all of their wings know to leak out so that they can start the break and while domas is great at making these Outlet passes it’s actually his grab and go game that really stands out if nobody steps up to slow his

Momentum he’ll take it Coast to co host and by stepping up I mean someone has to meet him early and stop the ball because if he’s given space to attack he’ll drop his shoulder and force his way to the rim so over and over again you’ll see him grab defensive rebounds beat

Opposing bigs down the floor as he initiates transition offense then as soon as someone steps up to stop the ball he’s finding a streaking teammate for easy points watch him on this one after grabbing a board and starting the break his head is on a swivel as he locates every Defender and every

Potential weapon surveying the entire floor before making a decision and with a little up fake Malik monks got a wideopen triple in the event that there is no Lane for him to attack as a driver and no streaking teammate to find with a pass that’s when he’ll instead move

Laterally and set up a handoff creating a two-on-one Advantage before the defense ever knew what hit him those two main actions are their bread and butter sabonis spends almost all of his time on offense operating in the middle as everyone moves around him and they’ll

Clear out for him to hand it off to any one of their wings he’s constantly making reads in these spots like here he keeps the ball instead of handing it off and herder keeps moving along the perimeter before setting a pin down for Keegan Murray to come run the Twan game

And he ends up with a highquality three these quick lateral actions are a great way to counter his lack of shooting ability you’ll see a lot of defenses intentionally leave him open hoping he’ll settle but he only takes one three a game and even less for mid-range instead using the handoffs to create

Spacing and force opposing bigs to either play up or live with a ball handler attacking so for the most part he’s stretching Rim protectors by forcing them to play on the ball which opens up the paint for a play like this where monk rejects the handoff on a back

Door cut here’s another example they’re setting up a handoff and he keeps the ball while monk Cuts back which leads to a real easy give and go and open dunk for the big man all of these quick decisions constantly moving the ball and setting up second or third actions

Whether that’s with extra passes handoffs the offense is constantly revolving around him and his ability to make the right read and I think it’s a skill set that most bigs just simply can’t replicate here’s a look at every player in the NBA averaging at least 30

Touches a game and how many minutes they spend with the ball in their hands you can see it’s a pretty Direct correlation the more you touch the ball the more you have it which is why in the top right you get those more heliocentric types of offensive players who control everything

And people really started to catch on when joic became a complete outlier in that he touches the ball more than anyone but because all of the decisions he makes are so quick he’s nowhere near the top in actual time of possession well sabonis is every bit as much of an

Outlier right now second behind yic and touches while not even even in the top 50 in possession time what’s even more interesting is when we remove all other positions from the equation though and just look at centers it really puts into perspective just how much more control these guys have within their offensive

Systems than any other big around the league and the reason for that becomes very clear when we look at the relationship between touches and turnovers as bigs start to operate on the ball more they become turnover prone but sabonis has such a rare skill set

Some of it has to do with system and Personnel but I really don’t think there are many bigs who can replicate what he does to the degree that he does it here’s one that starts with him stretching a rim protector to the ball up top as the king starts some off Ball

Action on both sides of the floor and all it takes is one misc for Fox to end up with a lob then as soon as he’s initiating action and that big completely abandons him to protect the rim again he’s not going to settle for the jumper instead attacking that space

On a drive just like in transition and forcing his way to a layup as a result bigs sort of have to play him straight up and then he’ll get into the handoff game with literally anyone as a team they’re averaging 11 and 1 half handoff points a game while no other team is

Even over seven actually it’s the highest Mark by any team since the tracking started back in 2015 this has become what they’re known for as for the individual recipients they have four players in the top 20 in handoff scoring three in the top 10 including Keegan

Murray who’s third at 2.8 points a game and herder who leads the league at 2.9 credit to these guys for taking advantage of these actions whether that’s through shooting or driving but there’s a reason sabonis is able to get the entire team involved in the Twan

Game and that’s the fact that he might just be the best screener in the entire NBA it’s a super underrated skill that nobody really mentions but because he’s so good at it pretty much anytime they set up these actions they’re pretty much guaranteed a two-on-one Advantage take

This play for example sabonis hands it off to Monk and there’s no Lane to attack so he comes back for a second screen that takes Den Wy out of the play forcing ad to jump out and that’s a free two points I’m not sure I’ve ever seen a

Player more worthy of having the brick wall badge on Hall of Fame just look at this one completely folding a chasing Defender to turned the possession into a power play before catching inside and throwing it down on a shot blocker sabonis is an incredible finisher around

The rim and what I like most is his aggression even with Rudy gobear positioned perfectly in his deep drop coverage he takes it right at him for a bucket anytime he’s met with drop like that he’ll attack the space with his shoulder Turner’s already recovering from the side and by going into his

Chest he creates some separation for a layup here’s another example the big sits way back so when he gets it in the short roll he could very easily get to a mid-range jumper or maybe a floater like many other bigs would do like I said he doesn’t settle though instead using the

Shoulder and an up fake to create an opportunity at three from the line another thing that helps him as a finisher is that he’s a pretty gifted vertical athlete so on a play like this where the big is late to get back to him it’s not the shoulder bump rather going

Up over the top this season he’s attempting just under eight shots at The Rim every 75 possessions good for the 96th percentile and he’s made about 71% of them those sort of interior scoring numbers can really stack up to almost anyone yet there seems to be an idea

That because a lot of his opportunities are assisted they’re created for him or easy finishes but that just is not the case at all actually according to play-by-play stats.com his shot quality of 0.55 is actually lower than some notable slashers like Giannis Zion RJ Barrett or Westbrook which really speaks to his

Ability to score through traffic or with added contact and that only makes his true shooting percentage of 65.8 while scoring 20 points a game so much more impressive his ability to get downhill and finish creates some issues when it comes to covering the two-man game against a team like like Denver who

Wants to hedge it’s tough to recover and relying on a forward to rotate down and meet him at The Rim isn’t exactly ideal when putting two on the ball you pretty much need a third Defender to slide over from the weak side and get to sabonis before he can build that momentum to

Which he’ll counter by showcasing some more of that highlevel passing on this next one you’re going to see the defense start in a drop but after a big screen Isaiah Jackson is forced to switch onto the ball and turns away Fox’s attempt only for sabonis to put it right back up

With ease he’s one of the best offensive rebounders in the NBA ranked fifth at 3 and a half per game and the way he so relentlessly crashes the glass like this allows him to consistently punish mismatches as does his low post game whenever he finds himself with a smaller

Player switched onto him he’ll seal off position deep in the paint for free points and this area of his game pairs really well with the way they like to push Pace because getting down the floor quickly often leaves him with cross matches which he’ll attack with the back

To the basket game against switches or mismatches it’s really difficult to stop him from generating easy opportunities so when he sets up defenses tend to bring extra attention whether that’s a double or a rim protector roaming to his side and that of course opens up more opportunities as a playmaker when it all

Comes together you’re left with a guy who can just abuse smaller lineups first it’s the inside position position collapsing the defense and kicking it out to a shooter for a wideopen three and when it’s missed he’s right there for a second chance putting it right

Back up for two plus a foul with that said his post game isn’t nearly as effective when the other team throws size at him on the season he’s averaging just over two points a game in the post on a relatively inefficient 0.93 points per attempt he tends to rely heavily on

Physical advantages to kind of bully his way into hooks layups and doesn’t really have any counters he’s uncomfortable turning over his left shoulder the footwork can be choppy at times his offhand isn’t the greatest so like I said when teams throw big bodies at him that’s why he’ll operate primarily out

In space now people will take this limitation and run with it but it’s only such a small part of his vast offensive Arsenal the way he operates as a sort of Point Center brings a level of movement and connect ity to the team that otherwise wouldn’t exist over the last

Two seasons he’s played nearly 5,000 minutes and in that time the team averages 29 assists every 100 possessions that’s incredible and in about 2,000 minutes without him that drops all the way under 25 to really put that into perspective the difference between 29 and 24.7 would be the difference between being ranked Fifth

And 29th this year I’d also like to point out that his unique skill set takes a ton of the decision-making load away from their guards and wings who can focus more on attacking which is why despite having such a disparity in assists with domas they still average more turnovers without him there are

Other things he clearly improves while on the floor such as the volume of attempts they get at the rim and the percentage they shoot when they get there or overall shot quality and it all falls under the scope of offensive efficiency in general a 20.5 offensive

Rating with him on the floor more than Elite and a fivepoint swing to 115 without him look say what you want about some of his defensive limitations or the fact that he’s not a great outside shooter isn’t some big time isolationist and maybe can’t create his own shot to

The degree of many others but that doesn’t take away from what he excels at pushing the pace getting everyone involved with his passing screening in quick decisions finishing plays at the rim and of course punishing mismatches he’s one of the best offensive bigs in

The NBA and has played a major role in a complete franchise turnaround by the Kings if you enjoyed this breakdown make sure to drop a like subscribe and turn my post notifications on to be first on more content if you’re interested in my more in-depth research make sure to

Check out my website and social media profiles you can find those links in the description feel free to let me know down in the comments what you think of sabonis as always I hope you all have a great day and I’ll catch you guys in the next one

Domantas Sabonis dominates the box score, yet perception doesn’t match that production, showing how misunderstood his game can be.

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