Kid has made 5 threes in his 2 years in NCAA. He's now 13/25 (52%!!!) from three in his first 9 NBA games.
I can't believe just how good of a shooter he has become, and he's still only 20 years old. When I created this thread, I listed shooting as one of his weaknesses. Wow. 5 threes made over his entire 2 years (74 games) at Gonzaga. 32/72 (44.4%) over his first 30 NBA games.
Well that's because big men are always expected to be in the paint, I mean Cousins also has shown the range when he hasn't shot 3s in college. I think Yao Ming and Tim Duncan would have been really good 3 pt shooters if their coaches would have allowed them to take 3 pt shots.
I agree with the Duncan and Ming thing. With Sabonis though, it wasn't always so clear. He used to hit an occasional three in youth competitions before, but he was pretty streaky and incosistent. There's no denying that he has worked his ass off to become a good shooter. He's definitely not a naturally gifted shooter like Wiltjer who can literally hit any shot from anywhere on the court if he's left open. I'm really encouraged by Sabonis' rookie season. I think he'll be a very serviceable role player and will have a long & productive career as a pro. My baseline expectation for him as of right now is a rich man's Nick Collison who can stretch the floor. Domantas has already shown a very good basketball IQ and a knack for defense. His offense is just an icing on the cake.
Tough break for Sabonis' rebounding game to get on a team where Westbrook is chasing that empty triple-double record and in turn snatching every single ball from his own bigs on the defensive end just so he could pad his own stats.
http://i.imgur.com/6mI9Umu.png Interesting graph, portraying Sabonis as one of the top rim-protectors around the league, allowing similar DFG percentages at rim as guys like Gobert, Embiid, Porzingis, Hibbert. Pretty good for a 20 year old rookie with very limited physical tools. The fact that he can achieve those percentages without getting almost any blocks just goes to show that it's all positional defense and defensive IQ. He isn't relying on his jumping ability or length.
Where is this myth that he's athletically limited coming from? He's clearly very quick laterally, has a great first step, and decent end to end speed. You need to build your conclusions from observing evidence, rather than creating false causations to support your initial hypothesis.
He's more limited physically rather than athletically. That relatively short wingspan hurts him in some areas for sure. But he's a pretty good athlete no doubt. People like to think athleticism is all about jumping ability, but it's not. He's not the best leaper, but has really good footwork and is very mobile/fluid.
Currently: 3rd in FG% 4th in WS/48 4th in TS% 5th in PER 7th in eFG% 7th in BPM 9th in OBPM 14th in VORP It seems like he's exceeding those Greg Monroe comps, heh.
