Domantas Sabonis is a very good basketball player, but he is also a flawed one. He is a willing defender, but his lack of verticality makes it hard to build a great defense when he's at the five. Meanwhile, on offense, he's an incredible finisher and passer, but his outside shot keeps him from being one of the elite offensive players in the association. This is evident when you look at his Offensive Estimated Plus-Minus (OFF EPM), which is an impressive, but not illustrious, 19th-best in the NBA.
However, if this clip is any indication, Sabonis may be upgrading his offensive game, which would take him from a fringe All-Star caliber player to a clear-cut All-NBA baller.
Defenses are starting to respect Sabonis' jumper
Sabonis struggled the last time he played postseason basketball. In his last playoff series, in 2023, Sabonis averaged just 16.4 PPG on 51.7% true shooting because the Golden State Warriors instructed their centers to sag off him to protect the paint. He didn't hit enough shots from outside to make the coverage cease. So, he had to deal with a packed paint any time he tried to finish inside.
Since then, Sabonis has made a concerted effort to try and upgrade his jumper to avoid being treated this way in a postseason series. This season, his hard work has started to pay off, as the son of a prodigy now leads the league in 3-point percentage (48.5%).
The thing about basketball is that, when it comes to spacing, it doesn't matter how efficient you are. Rather, it's about how much the defense respects you from beyond the arc. That brings us to this next clip (which was wonderfully pointed out by the great Ben Pfeifer.
genuinely this was one of the most important plays of the night for sabonis. if defenses close out hard to him it might be over https://t.co/w991xbPX02 pic.twitter.com/aLhLEdgcoH
— ben pfeifer (@bjpf_) January 23, 2025
In the clip above, Trayce Jackson-Davis closes out after Sabonis hits him with a pump fake, giving the veteran big the opportunity to blow past him to the rim.
Now, there is always the chance that Jackson-Davis, an inexperienced sophomore, merely experienced a lapse in judgment. There is also no guarantee that this is how teams will guard Sabonis in a playoff series that they have heavily prepared for (I suspect that they won't).
But like Pfeifer pointed out, if this does become a trend for Sabonis, it changes everything for both him and the Sacramento Kings.