Indiana Pacers: Domantas Sabonis demands your attention

A 2016 lottery pick, Domantas Sabonis, was a forgotten man last year. This season he’s been quietly putting it all together for the Indiana Pacers. It’s time we started noticing.

To say that we as an NBA community tend to get prematurely excited over players is like saying freshmen in college tend to make poor life choices. With bloggers multiplying at a pace that would make a jackrabbit blush, the moment someone shows a pulse, there are a dozen posts screaming that “you really need to start paying attention” to Player X.

Nine out of 10 times, you really don’t. Call it a job hazard; when you’re trying to be ahead of the curve, it’s easy to fall off the cliff.

Occasionally though, the opposite happens. A player, for whatever reason, continues to fly under the radar when he has absolutely no business doing so. Maybe the majority of fans already formulated their opinion and are slow to change. Maybe he’s being overshadowed by a more successful teammate. Or maybe he’s just not doing it in a way that catches the eye of the casual onlooker.

In the case of Domantas Sabonis, the answer is D) All of the above.

A forgotten man

It’s not a stretch to say that Sabonis had one of the odder rookie seasons in NBA history. He’s one of the rare first-year players to start for a team expected to contend for the playoffs. Among last season’s playoff teams, only Sabonis, Pascal Siakam and Andrew Harrison started on opening night, yet very few people paid much attention.

Given Sabonis’ pedigree — a 20-year-old lottery pick, albeit in a weak draft — you’d have thought that this would have been met with more fanfare. Instead, it barely registered in the minds of casual NBA fans. From tip off, the 2016-17 Oklahoma City Thunder season was about Russell Westbrook first, second and third.

Even with Domantas’ unique story as the son of one of the most multifaceted big men to ever play the game, his rookie season quickly became an afterthought. Despite being the starter until March, he played just 20 mostly uneventful minutes per night and had the 10th-highest scoring average and usage rate of any Thunder player.

Simply put, the kid didn’t appear to be very good. Along with undrafted rookie Dorian Finney-Smith, Sabonis was the only player in the league to shoot under 40 percent from the field and play over 1,500 minutes, according to NBA.com. Standing around and waiting for Russell Westbrook to grace him with the table scraps of the offense clearly didn’t agree with Sabonis.

Luckily in the NBA, things can change in a hurry.

A different player

This year with the Indiana Pacers, Sabonis has done a 180, and yet he’s still going relatively unnoticed.

It may be in part because of last year, in part due to Victor Oladipo‘s nightly brilliance or maybe just because there’s nothing flashy about Sabonis’ game. He’s not a high flyer (only 25 dunks on the year), doesn’t swat many shots (0.5 blocks per game), and doesn’t rain 3s (18 attempts on the year, although he’s made seven).

Playing a key roll

Just this week, Sabonis played a big part in Indiana’s 22-point comeback win against the Cleveland Cavaliers.

After trailing by as many as 22 points in the first half, the #Pacers matched their largest come-from-behind victory of the season.

For a recap, highlights from @Mark_J_Boyle's call, and postgame interviews, check out our Game Rewind ⏪ https://t.co/Ind88pIoPE https://t.co/2AphoGkRNW
— Indiana Pacers (@Pacers) January 13, 2018

Check out how he fools LeBron in the low post at the 0:35 mark — a grown man move against a guy who’s seen his fair share — or when Sabonis makes the defensive play of the game by blocking a seemingly uncontested layup that leads to a fast break to bring the Pacers within two late (1:35 mark).

For the game, starting in place of the injured Myles Turner, Sabonis had 12 points, 15 rebounds and three assists. Early in the third when Indiana cut the lead from 14 to three, Sabonis scored six and assisted on a Bojan Bogdanovic 3-pointer. Before his big block, he made four key free throws to keep the Pacers close as the Cavs were trying to pull away. His impact was felt all over the court.

Questions remain

The questions surrounding Domantas at this point surround his defense and fit with the Pacers’ other young, talented center, Myles Turner. Oddly enough, the two issues may be connected.

Sabonis doesn’t profile as a rim protecter by any means. Among centers who defend at least 10 shots per game, he ranks 29th out of 34 in shooting percentage differential. Players are actually shooting two percentage points better when Sabonis defends their shots, putting him among the company of noted turnstiles like Kelly Olynyk, Enes Kanter and Nikola Vucevic. His block rate of one percent also puts him in the bottom-third of bigs in the NBA, according to CleaningTheGlass.com.

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Interestingly enough though, even though Turner’s two blocks per game are among the league’s leaders, the Pacers nominal starting lineup actually defends far better when Sabonis plays in Turner’s place. According to NBA.com, the Pacers starters have given up 108.9 points per 100 possessions, but when Sabonis is in for Turner, that number drops to 103.3 (the team scores more with Turner on the floor, but overall their net rating is about a point per 100 possessions better with Sabonis).

The Pacers have tried playing Turner and Sabonis together with uninspiring results; the pair has a slightly negative net rating over 173 minutes sharing the floor. The Pacers would be wise to test out the pairing more over the rest of this season, but if it never clicks, there’s at least a question as to who’s the better fit moving forward.

For now though, they just have to sit back, enjoy the ride and fantasize about how good a player who’s just coming into his own can get. As it is, he’s gone from an afterthought in the Paul George trade to a potential building block in just half a year.

Next: 2017-18 Week 13 NBA Power Rankings

Imagine where he’ll be six months from now.

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