<br> I only got to see Sabonis in the tail end of his career with the Blazers, but I think Vlade is up there with him as the best passing center.
Will Donatas regularly dunk on athletic centers from still position? Will he be a bruiser type of player (Marc Gasol, Bynum, Bogut, Cousins, Pekovic)? Will he be a very good post defender? Does he have any Mad Max in him? Would he punch someone to protect a teammate? Will he add a ton of muscle? Like, will he get to ~270-280 pounds in his early 20s and way over 300 in his mid 30s? Those are the real questions here, and... no, that seems unlikely. After that, he'd still have to improve his passing and shooting to get to Sabonis. He obviously got compared because of these two things, but he's not there. To me, Donatas is shorter, less defensively gifted, less offensively polished than Pau Gasol at the same age. So I don't know what's his upside, but i think much lower than that. Rasheed Wallace on a lazy day?
I don't think it should. They are both natives of Kaunas, Lithuania. I think that's where it should stop
Sabonis in his prime which was in europe was a freak of nature. He was a 7'4 giant who ran the point, played the SG, SF, PF and Center. Sadly NBA fans never saw him in his prime. Due to politics we missed out on watching a true marvell in his prime. David Robinson called him the toughest player he had faced in the 88 olympics. Yes more then Olajuwon and Shaq.
Well, this comparison is kind of off. Way off Here's a video of young Sabonis before injuries. http://www.youtube.com/embed/06usV6451ik?feature=player_detailpage Yes. Robinson compared to him looked like a teenager.
he was at 279 in his Soviet days before going to Spain, that's ~24-25 years old. He eventually played at ~320 in his last Portland years. I've no idea what was his exact weight at Donatas' age, but he wasn't a skinny guy.
Maybe this is the Jones- Lesser Dwight redux. I wasn't saying that D-Mo was going to ever be Sabonis. I tried to make that clear. I was asking the question as to whether his game will end up being similar to Sabonis's in style. Because I never got to see Soviet Sabonis, I was talking NBA Sabonis, also. And for those that are questioning his passing, watch some D-league highlights.
The Sabonis in the nba was a high post passer. His strength was he was still terrefic at finding cutters slashing towards the basket. He often started off the Blazers high post offense.PJ Carlisimo and Dunleavy knew his knees couldnt handle the physical punishments which the NBA game had to offer so they camped him out on the high post.
it's like with guards. Many can make the right pass and sometimes the brilliant pass, but there's that Nash/Rubio kind of vision (anticipation) and passing that you see once every X years. As for playing style similarities, disregarding talent level.. well, there are some, obviously. But there are also huge differences, whether we are talking about young or old Sabonis. Obviously, the old version was much slower and much more plodding than Donatas will hopefully ever be until his 50s. Young Sabonis was dominant physically. Sabonis game was very physical, despite his skill level. The guy who's the most similar to Sabonis today is Marc Gasol. He's smaller and doesn't have the elevation, but there are many similarities.
Let's not forget about Drazen Petrovic. One of the greatest 3pt shooters of all time and would always score 20ppg on high efficiency. Didn't get any all star games most likely due to the bias against the eastern-bloc back then. He did get all-NBA 3rd team in 1993. Jordan gave him lots of praise as well. Tragically died in a car accident so we never got to see his best years
D - Mo does not have Sabonis potential Sabonis was already elite at D-Mo's age. Sabonis was the consummate BIG MAN. My All-Time Greatest center. Absolutely complete. BIG Man skills: Post up , Rebounding, Post defense, Paint defense, strong small man skills: PASSING, outside shooting, ball handling, agile Intangibles: High BBall IQ, Fierce competitor, Tough as nails Weakness: health, durability D-Mo is tad bit soft, and IMO self-centered. He does have "some" of Sabonis' skills and qualities but I don't think he'll even come close to Sabonis level.
Dmo is PF Sabonis is one of the best C's ever. I think D-Mo is more like Ilgauskas type of player if to compare with other Lithuanian athletes, but if there will be another Sabonis in Lithuania, et's be real here, it's going to be JV.
