Film Festival Series: Domantas Sabonis
By Gideon Lim
On my way up
As the season progressed, Billy Donovan grew more adventurous with Domantas Sabonis on offense. That move saw Sabonis’ post offense sprout back into relevance.
Sabonis gets the floor cleared for him. He backs into the infinite mess of arms that is Karl-Anthony Towns, pulls out a Dream shake and finishes off with a clean lefty hook. Very neat.
Sabonis’ post repertoire seemed to be on full display midway. Against the dreaded Warriors, Sabonis whipped out a counter-move to his left hook shot. He does a jump stop and pumps his defender into the air, before cutting back to lay the ball off the glass.
On top of that, Sabonis had much more autonomy to make on-ball decisions. This play is one of my favourite plays all season. He catches the ball at the free throw line and the rest of the offense flows from there. He jabs right from triple threat position, drives on his left and comes to a jump stop. With Sabonis’ pivot foot established, Marc Gasol must have thought he had his angles covered. Instead, Gasol bites on Sabonis’ pump fake and watches himself whiz by as the rookie gently drops the ball in. Fantastic feel for the game from the rookie.
The ‘D’ in Domantas
On the defensive end, Sabonis seemed to be coming into his own as well.
For all his early season struggles, Sabonis seemed like he was learning to employ his undoubted basketball intelligence on defense. Here, he sees the play unfolding early and moves well to challenge Pau Gasol on the shot.
This defensive awareness is a marked improvement from his excessive-hedging days.
Mid-season report card
Through the midway point of the season, Domantas Sabonis seemed to have undergone a mini transfiguration of his own. On offense, the film room shows more adventure in his play. Zoom out, however, and the picture changes. While Sabonis continued to explore his offensive identity, he struggled to assert himself.
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When he was allowed to make plays like the ones explored here, it seemed like his superior game feel would benefit him. But those plays were sporadic for him. Sabonis flitted between camping passively along the baseline and having isolation plays called out for him. Even his playing time continued to swing between bunching with the starts and the bench mob. His changing job scope didn’t seem to help him find an offensive groove.
His saving grace was defense.
But, while his offensive game continued to swing between the two extremes, his defense seemed to make up for it with consistently stronger showings.
Approaching the All-Star break, it seemed as if, despite his offensive promise, Sabonis was starting to redefine himself as a defense-first player. Still, these transitions revealed a weakness that transcends even what his basketball IQ can overcome.