Indiana Pacers Love/Hate series: Domantas Sabonis
By Tony East
What we don’t love about Domantas Sabonis
Fouls, fouls, fouls.
Remember that whole “Sabonis didn’t play 2000 minutes” thing from the previous slide? A lot of that can be attributed to the fact that he came off the bench. But some of the blame can be pointed at Sabonis penchant for fouling the opposing team.
Out of all the players who had as many minutes as Domas, Only Julius Randle committed more fouls per minute than Sabonis. He just struggled to stop guys from getting by him, and the only thing left for him to do was to foul.
He’s a step late returning to Nene here after a short roll, and all he can do to stop the floater is foul:
That also is the perfect segue of a clip to talk about another one of Sabonis’ weaknesses: defense in space. Around the basket, Domantas is solid enough. He keeps his hands straight up and is always in a decent position.
Away from the rim? He’s fairly useless. He’s flat footed and a step behind his matchup, regardless of who it is most of the time. Once he matures as a player – he has only played two seasons after all – he will improve in this area. As his pattern recognition and defensive positioning improve, he should grow somewhat as a perimeter defender. How much is up for debate, but as it stands now it is one of his greatest pitfalls.
Another department Sabonis needs to show some improvement in is turnovers. His 15.3 percent turnover rate was the worst on the roster last season – worse than Lance Stephenson. He coughs it up via poor passes, awkward dribbles, and charges more often than just about any big man – he had the 15th worst turnover percentage in the league amongst guys his height or taller. If he could take better care of the basketball, he would give himself more opportunities to make some of the passes and screens he excels at. Both he and the Pacers should want more of that.