Indiana Pacers Love/Hate series: Domantas Sabonis
By Tony East
What we love about Domantas Sabonis
Sabonis presents a rare breed of NBA player in the modern era: he is a solid passing big man.
Only roughly 15 big men had an assist percentage greater than Domas’ 12.7 percent. He can see passing angles better than almost anyone of his stature and speed, and he has basketball smarts that go far beyond his age.
When Domas gets the ball in space, instead of immediately thinking of putting in on the floor or putting up a shot, Sabonis looks for a constructive pass. It keeps the bench units humming and promotes cutting from his teammates.
He shows off his basketball smarts when he whizzes around the perfect dime to a fellow Pacer. How many young bigs can do this?
That is a sensational read. As soon as Domas feels/sees the weakside help coming to stop him, he fires the ball to the weakside cutter, and Alex Poythress gets an easy dunk. Simply superb.
As we also saw in that clip, Sabonis is an excellent screener. His 280 screen assists put him at a tie for the 10th most in the league, and that figure was the best in the league for anybody who played under 2000 minutes.
Sabonis’ sets hard screens with his arms wider than his body (that’s probably illegal, but I won’t tell if you don’t). He frees up dudes for open lanes by just being in the way, and with his gravity as a roll man being as large as it is, he transforms the defense just by setting an emphatic pick. That skill is incredibly useful.
That feeds into another strength that Domas owns. He excels at two actions that every team frequently executes: the pick and roll and the dribble handoff. The pick and roll we’ve covered. He’s a strong screen-setting big and clean passer.
The dribble handoff he succeeds in because he is decisive. He never falters once he starts: he is going to get the on-the-move guard the ball in the perfect spot and at the perfect time:
Sabonis clearly has a good feel for the game. His high basketball IQ shows possession after possession. If he could grow in a few other key areas, he could become an excellent player for the Indiana Pacers.