Zach Lowe launched his new podcast on Monday, and I couldn’t have been happier. Lowe, now with The Ringer, is one of my favorite analysts and podcasters, and I was so happy to have the familiar banter between Lowe and Howard Beck (also great). The two discussed season awards, including All-NBA. As the conversation wound down, I was disappointed to hear that even Lowe and Beck viewed Domantas Sabonis as little more than an afterthought in the 3rd Team All NBA discussion. I was sad, but I also wasn’t surprised. I even understand it, if I’m honest. But part of me hoped that maybe Sabonis would still be recognized, if nothing else so there would be one thing Kings fans could point to as a truly good thing about this season.
In the end, awards are primarily driven by narratives, and Sacramento’s self-sabotage this season sent the team into insignificance in the NBA landscape. To Lowe and Beck’s credit, they felt the same about Devin Booker and Kevin Durant, who are having great individual years for an even more disappointing team. If voters care about team performance, if voters care about standings and wins, then the All-Star rosters serve as a clear indicator of where Sabonis stands to end up in the awards voting.
Individually, Sabonis has been more or less his same, reliable self. 19.2 points, 13.9 rebounds, and 6.1 assists per game. Sabonis again leads the league in rebounding, and he increased his volume and accuracy from beyond the arc, showing 40.3% from 3 this season. The assists are down this season, as the Kings moved away from using Sabonis as their offensive hub and added more Monk/Domas pick and role along with a lot more DeMar DeRozan ISOs. But Sabonis has been worse than his season averages lately. Sending out De’Aaron Fox and adding in another ball dominant guard in Zach LaVine have brutally impacted Domas’ production. He’s also been battling injuries, but anyone watching the game has seen the way Domas is often an afterthought.
Since the Fox trade, Sabonis is averaging 15.8 points, 12.9 rebounds, and 5 assists per game (via Basketball Reference). If we remove the two games Sabonis left early due to injuries, he’s at 17.1 points, 14.2 rebounds, and 5.4 assists. Slightly better (much better on rebounds), but still below where was. Sabonis is also down to 20.5% from three since the Fox trade.
Seeing your numbers dip post-trade deadline is a death knell for postseason awards, where voters often fall to recency bias. Hell, there are people giving Draymond Green serious consideration for DPOY based on 20 games, ignoring that he looked terrible on defense for most of the year before that. And who can forget Malik Monk being robbed of 6MOY because he got hurt for the final 10 games while Naz Reid boosted his stats as a starter.
Sabonis is very unlikely to get an All NBA nod this year, which could be a factor when there are already murmurs that he could be unhappy here and “seeking clarity” this summer. I won’t be as mad as I’ve been over other snubs (he foolishly writes, weeks before getting really mad again anyway), but I’ll be disappointed for Sabonis. He’s been a bright spot on this team, plays through injuries, and truly has had a season worthy of recognition, no matter what the result end up saying.
Sweet. I’m glad they finally filled the hole at… *checks notes* shooting guard.
I don’t know WTF we’re doing.
The only defense is if they think Monk is going to out for the remainder of the season.
They pr9bably just need a body in practice that is somewhat familiar with the offense and the players. He won’t be seeing time on the court in the final 3 games.
Also, nobody they bring in for the last 3 games will have any impact. So harping about it not being a PG is kinda silly, imo.
Living the Vivek way. Ego moron
And the real issue is that the kings don’t even recognize SAbonus. There is no excuse for not running an offense using his talents.
It’s a joke. This owner is a joke. His team is a joke. Barely hanging on.
Rolling it back already, eh?
Fans: we need a PG!
VicNair: Isaiah Thomas agrees to 1 year vet minimum.
We need someone to guard Steph Curry when we play the Warriors in a Game 7 and hold him to less than 60!
Let’s also bring back Metu for round tu!
With JVal arpound? Green vs Poole part 2!
In my opinion, he is not all NBA, but that’s my opinion. Maybe if he played the way he played in the last couple of games, he would have been all NBA for the whole year. Honestly tired of him running DHO 24/7 with inefficient shooters. It’s the fact that neither the coaching staff nor himself are helping him counterattack the defensive pressure they are putting on him. They can use sabonis skill level in so many different ways it’s actually crazy how they are miss using him now. Domas skill level can be used in many different ways, it’s surprising that they aren’t taking advantage of him now. He can learn a lot from studying prime Al horford in the half court.
Move over Terence Davis, I got your throwback right here: MIKE MALONE is available! See ya, Pizza Guy Emeritus!
Being the leading rebounder in the NBA is a real credit to his amazing work/effort habits . Not tall, long or quick jumper but gets more boards than all the players with more size, length and jumping ability . Joy to watch !
I screwed around with the espn trade machine and said a trade for Sabo and Lyles for Jokic was successful LOL. Denver lets the call go to voicemail.
You say “recency”, I say “relevancy”. Awards season is for teams that are relevant to the post season discussion. The Kings… sorta are but we’ve been watching them freefall for the last 2 weeks, with the last 3 games being the exception. I don’t know anybody who’s not a Kings fan talking about the Kings. They’re not good. They could be, but they decided to make offseason wholesale change in the middle of the season and hope for the best. The best did not happen. What’s to talk about? Domas is a beast on the boards? Old news, obviously, just like his perpetual double double. Win games that matter, and lots of them, and people have no choice but to talk about you for these awards.
Badge Legend