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Domantas Sabonis thread

  • Thread starter Thread starter Straight forward2
  • Start date Start date
Svajunas said:
Lots of Gonzaga fans think that Sabonis is way more physical then Poeltl. Should be insteresting, if Sabonis plays good again and Gonzaga wins again, that should open some eyes.
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Well that's a very fanboy opinion to be honest :D Neither of them are the tough-gritty types, they both more depend on their smarts and feel for the game than actually toughness and strength. Poeltl on many ways reminds me of Divac the way he moves for a big man, but he is not nearly as gifted ball handler, and especially passer. It will be a good game for sure though.
 
Best of all, Domantas Sabonis was recently named to the College Sports Information Directors of America All-American Academic Second All-Star Team in basketball:

Men’s Basketball First Team

Canyon Barry – College of Charleston
Joshua Braun – Grand Canyon
Marcus Paige – North Carolina
Shavon Shields – Nebraska
Jarrod Uthoff – Iowa

Men’s Basketball Second Team

Grayson Allen – Duke
Craig Bradshaw – Belmont
Mike Gesell – Iowa
Alex Poythress – Kentucky
Domantas Sabonis – Gonzaga

Mindaugas Kačinas of the University of South Carolina Gamecocks was evidently also in the running.

Hopefully Arvydas insists that Domantas completes his studies and gets a degree.

:)
 
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Hepcat said:
Hopefully Arvydas insists that Domantas completes his studies and gets a degree.

:)
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It's a question now what's more important, to get a degree or find a best place to improve as a player. I don't think another two years in Gonzaga will help him to do the latter, maybe his stats would look even better, but he is really tested too rarely. Making constant double-doubles against weak opposition it's not the best way to improve IMO
 
Sabonis surely should move on. He's more NBA ready than D-Mo was. Skill wise, he's more ready than JV before entering the league (but JV had his own advantages off course).

Speaking about March Madness, game time really sucks and such a good match up...:( Will be hard to to decide if to stay online or to have some proper rest.
 
Sabas Jr. dominated against Poeltl and Gonzaga blew away Utah to secure place in Sweet 16. Didn't see all the match yet, just biggest part of 2nd half and was really impressed by Zags, both defensivelly/offensivelly team played great. Now with Michigan State bein' out of this side of the bracket, there're really good chances for Gonzaga to proceed to Elite Eight
 
Watched all first half and my impression was that Sabonis is superior physically than Poeltl. He's a bull inside. Poeltl was in foul trouble so the game doesn't reflect how good he is, but Domantas is really growing into force. What I liked the most, and I said it in previous years, his maturity and smartness in terms of positioning, body language in the court. He's playing with fire, but only in the moments where he should, he understands the moments where he can rest, he understands when he has to step back and let teammates do the job. That's IQ of basketball. And his defence at times where brilliant - how he was able to step out and stay with a smaller quicker opponent who tried to go inside. And that 3 was nasty. Sabonis and and Wiltjer carried Zags when the pressure was highest and later shots just went in for the team.
 
Domantas dominated Poeltl and even if this wasn't his day or some other excuse its clear he is no worse than him the same potentials . And If Poeltl is 6th in DraftExpress and 8th in nbadraft.net than were should Domantas be ? Clearly a lot closer DraftExpress seeing Domantas as 24th is ridiculous. My Opinion a strong top 15-10 with what he's showing right now.
 
Modis said:
Domantas dominated Poeltl and even if this wasn't his day or some other excuse its clear he is no worse than him the same potentials . And If Poeltl is 6th in DraftExpress and 8th in nbadraft.net than were should Domantas be ? Clearly a lot closer DraftExpress seeing Domantas as 24th is ridiculous. My Opinion a strong top 15-10 with what he's showing right now.
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Making this kind of statements based on one game is just crazy. By that assumption Evan Fitzner from St. Mary's should be above both of them since he destroyed them both in games. That's not how it works, you have to look at the whole resume of a player vs different competition. Poeltl is a better prospect by a mile, which of course doesn't mean of course he will end up being a better player in the end.

Also draft looks at the potential of the player, not how good is he right away. They try to project the player in NBA setting. Otherwise how can you explain Hezonja going 6th, a guy with almost no professional experience, or does anyone believe that Bender is Top 5 player at this moment in the world for this draft? Answers to all this are of course no, it's just how teams see and project players. In that perspective Poeltl is a much better prospect. He has clear position and measurables, good basketball IQ and athleticism for guy that big. Domantas is undefined in terms what he will play in NBA, has an issue in terms of whether he will be able to keep up with athletic PF on D, or big centers on D etc. A lot of question marks, that's why he is projected lower. Again, that doesn't mean he won't end up being a better player.

Jokic was a second-rounder and he is blossoming as a rookie, undersized C and he played basically 1 year of pro basketball with Mega Vizura in ABA League. It's easy for people to say he should've been a Top 10 pick now, when the reality is due to risk he was drafted where he should've been.
 
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Very nice article about Sabonis and Poeltl battle. I found these quotes interesting:

Sabonis is 6'10 with a tiny 6'11 wingspan, given his size. When matched up against the best big men in the NBA, he'll be at a distinct length disadvantage, which forces him to rely on positioning, instincts and hustle. Yet those qualities are precisely the ones Sabonis used to shut a future NBA big man in Poeltl down.

At nearly 240-pounds with non-stop energy, Sabonis is capable of fighting with big men as a post defender and can at least knock them off their rhythm. Even when Poeltl carved out solid positioning, Sabonis forced him into less than ideal shots.

Sabonis' bread-and-butter is in the post, but he'll more likely be used in pick-and-rolls at the next level. He's one of those players able to find openings due to his fantastic footwork and patience. His soft touch just makes it that much easier to score, though he did miss one of the shots in the above clip.
http://www.sbnation.com/2016/3/21/1...l-nba-draft-jakob-poeltl-ncaa-tournament-2016

People speak about the lack of athleticism, but one thing is for sure, he has very good combination of mobility and toughness. He basically has frame of a center and he shows he can play against centers, but he also has the mobility sufficient for 4 position. Defensively he has such a natural feel for position and is sturdy enough to deal with both positions. I'm starting to think he might have an advantages at both 5 and 4. At 5 he'll be quicker and more mobile than quite few centers in the league and there he could roll to the basket he could use some drives, he could nail few jumpers against lumberjacking centers. At 4 he would be tougher and bigger than quite few 4 in the league - there he would need the ball in the post.

So what's the biggest threats or possible problems concerning Sabonis' transitioning to NBA? Probably these: NBA rarely builds around post players these days, Sabonis might not have enough of chances to utilize his post moves as his best asset. Sabonis wouldn't be able to deal with NBA 4 or 5 defensively as NBA tweener. Sabonis would struggle to shoot threes and jumpers and wouldn't find his offensive game.

I don't know what else and those with very big IF. Generally the optimism about Sabonis' NBA career only growing,
 
Domas with another big double-double (19+17), but, sadly, Gonzaga lost against Syracuse 60-63. They had the game in their hands with ~5min to go, leading by 9 (57-48), but finished the game in the worst way possible. Couldn't get defensive rebs, couldn't break full-court press, which led to lot of additional possesions for Syracuse and they took their chances.

Now let's see what the future holds for Domas
 
Guys, will Sabonis planning to declare for the 2016 NBA Draft or will stay one more season in Gonzaga?
 
vaslover said:
Guys, will Sabonis planning to declare for the 2016 NBA Draft or will stay one more season in Gonzaga?
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It's not known yet. During March Madness, he said that he is focusing only on Gonzaga now and doesn't think about the future yet. So we have to wait and see. It's really hard to say what his decision will be
 
Mindozas said:
It's not known yet. During March Madness, he said that he is focusing only on Gonzaga now and doesn't think about the future yet. So we have to wait and see. It's really hard to say what his decision will be
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Read in Gonzagas forum: One guy claims that couple people who are very close to Domas said, he will declare. I dont know how much of that is true, but I dont see a reason to lie about something like that.
 
Straight forward said:
So, Domantas officially declared. Now we'll have to wait and see the drafts. Here's young Liths discussing Domantas possible future :)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lZdZYVxF9A8
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I think it's good that he declared. The younger you get into NBA the faster you adjust to NBA style of basketball. You can be a star in other leagues, but it still takes time to get used to the NBA. For example, Nikola Mirotic was a Euroleague star, yet he also had an adjustment period when he got into the league. However, one argument for staying at Gonzaga for the third year could have been Domas developing his long-range game. He won't get an opportunity to shoot threes in the NBA when he almost hasn't showed that at NCAA level. I imagine him being used exclusively as an energy big off the bench for a first few years of his NBA career, until he shows he can bring some other things to the table at the next level.
 
omgsomuchpotential said:
I think it's good that he declared. The younger you get into NBA the faster you adjust to NBA style of basketball. You can be a star in other leagues, but it still takes time to get used to the NBA. For example, Nikola Mirotic was a Euroleague star, yet he also had an adjustment period when he got into the league. However, one argument for staying at Gonzaga for the third year could have been Domas developing his long-range game. He won't get an opportunity to shoot threes in the NBA when he almost hasn't showed that at NCAA level. I imagine him being used exclusively as an energy big off the bench for a first few years of his NBA career, until he shows he can bring some other things to the table at the next level.
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He might have a similar scenario to which D-MO had at the start. Will get few minutes here and there or might be sent to D League which wouldn't be bad for his further development is well.
 
NEW ! Scouting Video on D.Sabonis from DraftExpress pointing out his strengths .

 
Modis said:
And his Weaknesses

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I used to think DraftExpress were overly harsh on Domantas but after watching some of the scouting reports on other players, I don't think that anymore. They're just telling it how it is.
 
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