Film Festival Series: Domantas Sabonis

Brawn over brain

As Domantas Sabonis started to unfold his wings in the league, one glaring weakness started to emerge – his wingspan.

There were times early on during the season when I looked at Sabonis play and I imagined him facilitating from the post the way Draymond Green does with the Warriors. Or, him attacking the basket like Boris Diaw does.

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But, the more I watched his game film, the more I saw how his length affects his play.

The first sign of trouble emerged when Sabonis delved deeper into his post-ups. Shot blockers started to learn to avoid his fakes and wait till he released the ball, knowing that they had more time with him than with others to challenge the shot:

On defense, Sabonis’ length hurts him, because even for all his good instincts, he will still need to be paired with a shot blocker. Blocks tend to be few and far between for Sabonis. With far less buffer length, Sabonis is more likely to get into the air early to challenge the shot, thus making it easier for his attacker to get him into foul trouble.

Step by step, Domantas

I suspect that coming to terms with his physical inadequacy has been one of Sabonis biggest challenges entering the league. In his college days, Sabonis was seen as an elite post and rebounding threat, presumably because big men then weren’t able to engulf him in a mesh of arms the way NBA big men do now.

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Rebounding was pegged as one of Sabonis’ strongest suits coming into the league. Sabonis still has good instincts when it comes to snaring loose balls. I even think it might be useful to experiment getting Sabonis to bring the ball down the court to look for offense.

But, his length means he will never be an elite rebounder in the league. SB Nation put it nicely when describing Julius Randle’s prospects as a short-armed big man:

"In the NBA, the shorter your arms, the harder it is to reach your ceiling."

This early-career realization didn’t just alter his play, nor even his season. Grappling with his limitations within the big pond called for Sabonis to completely revise his own expectations as a player. The question now was no longer just about getting better. For Billy Donovan and the rest of the coaching staff, they now needed to devise a scheme where Sabonis would be best utilised.