The Sabonis Thread
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People falsely believe that Domas can’t or won’t shoot 3’s, but he had 2 seasons with Indy where he made at least 50 (On roughly 160 attempts).
Even the past 4 seasons he’s made at least 30. That’s not a lot, but certainly isn’t nothing either.
His 37.5% average the past 2 seasons is certainly not bad at all.
I happen to think it’s a good thing he doesn’t shoot so many, as this team is already too reliant upon it. Hopefully adding DDR along with Domas balances things out even more.
Even the past 4 seasons he’s made at least 30. That’s not a lot, but certainly isn’t nothing either.
His 37.5% average the past 2 seasons is certainly not bad at all.
I happen to think it’s a good thing he doesn’t shoot so many, as this team is already too reliant upon it. Hopefully adding DDR along with Domas balances things out even more.
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The 3 point shot is different for Sabonis than many bigs - because he can still run the dribble hand off from the top of the key. If he takes 3-4 threes a game and runs the dribble hand off from the top of the arc or sets up a pick n roll - then I think the offense is going to be impossible to guard.
I think this supports the eye test in two ways -- (1) Sabonis is a better overall defender than he typically gets credit for, largely on the strength of his decision-making as the primary defender on pick and roll actions and (2) Our need for an interior defensive specialist to compliment him is dire.
With Keegan expected to move to the PF position in the starting lineup next season, Monte will need to find a defensive big who slots into the 9-man rotation and can play significant minutes next to Sabonis before next season's playoffs or this team will be forced to depend on favorable matchups in order to make a long playoff run.
With Keegan expected to move to the PF position in the starting lineup next season, Monte will need to find a defensive big who slots into the 9-man rotation and can play significant minutes next to Sabonis before next season's playoffs or this team will be forced to depend on favorable matchups in order to make a long playoff run.
I still think that player is most likely Keegan Murray. Again, all of this doesn't really matter if the defense can find some sort of stability like it had appeared to last season. Maybe not what it was at the end of the season because that might have been a little too high expectation wise, but somewhere in the 8-12th in the league rating range is doable. The Kings run so much switching and rely on run outs so much that whoever is next to Domas has to be more versatile than anything else. The Kings now have a crop of long guards that can reliably play on ball and then switch which will allow Keegan to be pinged off less screens and give him the chance on help and run outs instead. We saw in the Warriors play in game once coach Brown took Keegan off of Curry and put Keon on him instead it was basically over for the Dubs. The Kings flat out LOCKED them up. Keegan moving over to Klay and helping down at his size was a big part of it too. If they continue to let him be in that role it's probably a matter of time before his college blocking numbers reappear. When he's been at the rim we've already seen his effectiveness in changing shots just standing with his arms straight up.
Really is funny that Keegan has 100% flipped his college expectation. The 2 big possible weak points on him were 1. Can he actually shoot? And 2. Can he defend the perimeter? And he's shown to be an elite player at both, somehow.
So now it's just adding in the rest of college prospect Keegan. If he incorporates that with the same level of shooting and perimeter defense, he's a star
So now it's just adding in the rest of college prospect Keegan. If he incorporates that with the same level of shooting and perimeter defense, he's a star
I'm not sure how the stats underlying this particular graph were done, but lots of advanced stats these days look at the difference between the actual shooting percentage put up against a defender and the expected shooting percentage, given things like who is shooting, and where they are shooting from, and how closely they are guarded. These are ways to try to get at how difficult the defender makes the shot that go beyond "was the shot blocked?", which is useful info for sure but may not capture the whole story.
