Sabonis is A franchise player, not THE franchise player like a Jokic or Giannis. You can have a core of three players equal to Sengun's talent level and have a championship core. Green, Sengun and one more star piece like a Wemby or Scoot can be a championship core in 3-6 years.
if u want to call anyone who happens to put up nice numbers and is the best player on a good team a franchise player, then sure, Sabonis is a franchise player Kings are a fun story this year and are finally good for the 1st time in decades, but nobody thinks a team with Sabonis as their best player is doing anything of note in the NBA
Sabonis is having the best season of his career and is what? Fringe top 20 at best? it’s superstars that win titles
If Sabonis is a franchise player, then there’s so many other guys that are as well. I guess Myles Turner and Bam are franchise players now. Interesting
Sabonis and Fox are in their mid 20s. They have multiple years to improve their chemistry and be top 4 perennial seeds. If they add one more star to their team, they are a true contender. For example, if Keegan Murray blows up in the next couple of years, that alone might push them over to contender status.
superstars win titles the only teams in the past many decades to not have a superstar and win the title are the 04 Pistons and 2014 Spurs…they both had suffocating defenses and several stars like the Pistons or several former superstars/stars and an up and coming superstar in Kawhi like the Spurs if Sabonis is a franchise player, then that term is being used way too loosely
Fox and Sabonis are more talented higher ceiling offensive players than anyone including Rip and Billups on offense compared to that Pistons team.
there’s 2 sides to basketball, and neither Sabonis or Fox are overwhelming offensive players Kings literally have the 25th ranked defense right now led by those 2
And they are still the third seed in the west. And this is their first full season together with both not even arguably in their primes yet. As you say, superstars win titles. Offensive superstars win titles. And Sabonis and Fox being higher ceiling offensive players than anyone on that Pistons team by a wide margin gives them a chance to be contenders in the future if they can develop or aquire a third star. If Fox and Sabonis were in the Damian Lillard age range where they are in the tail end of their primes and this is their first time being a top 4 seed, I would say its a flash in the pan season for the Kings. But these guys just hit their prime, arguably not even in their primes yet. I'm not going to be surprised if this Kings team sustains being a top 4 seed for the next half decade at least.
3rd seed in the West doesn’t mean anything to me GS is banged up…PHX has had injury issues…Clippers have had Kawhi and PG in and out of the lineup all year yeah, nobody is betting on the Kings in a playoff series over any of those teams if healthy…I wouldn’t even trust them over the Mavs because they have an actual superstar in Luka again, Fox and Sabonis aren’t some behemoth of an offensive player, and I’m pretty sure Billups and Rasheed would look better offensively in this era…let’s please stop acting like Fox is Lillard on offense and Sabonis is Jokic or that they both have all this untapped potential 25th ranked defense… When teams can focus and scout solely on u and take away all your actions, do u have a guy that can get buckets in a playoff series regardless? When role players that helped u offensively can no longer be on the floor because they’re hemorrhaging points, can u get enough buckets despite that? Superstars can often do that. Guys like Sabonis and Fox, not so much until proven otherwise.
Another reason to commit to Alpi - our offense would be much better. Defense would suck, but it does anyway.
What about this era will make them look better? Did you see Billups when he was 25? Or Rip? They were low efficiency low assist guys even adjusted for their era during their first 5 or so years in the NBA. No where close to the level of production and efficiency of Sabonis and Fox at this age and again even adjusted for era.
depends if someone uses superstar loosely. I would disagree. that's not something you can throw around to a lot of players. There's probably less than a handful of actual superstars in the league A superstar is the highest level player can reach. I wouldn't say a superstar is someone without a title. Winning a title is part of actually being a superstar. Someone who hasn't won a title, hasn't reached that threshold off topic: nobody is worried about Sacramento winning a title. They'll get eliminated in the 1st round if they player someone like dallas or the clips
So Chuck wasn't a superstar? Nash? Vince? Malone(I know yuk but still)? Harden? Come on dude. Pretty of dudes who never had titles that were legitimate superstars. Was Durant not a superstar before the Warriors?
