A play on words to describe Domantas Sabonis or what essentially translates to Domino’s Pizza in Latin… you decide! As the fallout dust settles from a wild trading deadline (and that’s just in New Jersey and Philly!), a lot of focus on the winners and losers has been discussed, pontificated, bantered, repartee’d? Repartaid? Reparty? Whatever, you get the point… maybe. And while there’s plenty of analysis of the players, generally it’s within the scope of the trade itself and lends itself to being contextually trapped. This statement probably makes way more sense in my head, so a prime example of what I’m speaking of is embodied best by Domantas Sabonis, newly acquired by the Kings in what is probably one of the more questionable trades last week. In a deal that also included Jeremy Lamb and Justin Holiday, the overall conclusion was that the Pacers came away with not just the best return, but the best player as well. Don’t get me wrong, I’m on the Tyrese Hailburton hype train as much as anyone, but the acquisition of Domas Sabonis might just be exactly what Sabonis and the Kings needed…
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Now, I’m not going to sit here and say that the trade will ever be justified to the Sacramento fanbase, all 12 of you. Quite simply put, you don’t just trade a player like Tyrese Hailburton, especially in this manner with reports showing that not only was the league taken by surprise at the availability of this young star on a rookie contract the next two seasons, but so was the majority of the Kings’ own front office. But reports showed that the player coveted the most by either team was the Kings’ belief that Sabonis wasn’t just a good basketball piece to the puzzle, but one specifically needed on the Kings. We can wax poetic on the actual machinations of the trade and everything that’s already said before, but the most intriguing part is how the Sacramento front office valued Sabonis and what they see in him, which leads to the main gist of this post. We’re gisting here folks.
The most obvious positive in bringing Sabonis over is that he becomes the best “established” player that De’Aaron Fox has ever played with. You also have both Lamb and Holiday who can immediately contribute on the wing, an area that the Kings also needed attention. And before someone points out that Fox and Sabonis may not be natural fits because of their poor percentage beyond the arc (that’s me, I’m pointing it out), I would counter that good point with the fact that Sabonis is probably one of the best pick-and-roll bigs in the league right now, and while it’s hard to create space without a deep-range shot, Fox isn’t *that* bad, he’s just *that* bad so far this season. Another caveat is that both these players really don’t provide much defense, but in the context of fantasy, this may not be a defining factor as Sabonis’ defense, or lack thereof, most likely won’t impede his time on the floor for the very reason the Kings moved forward with this trade, essentially balancing their talent by sacrificing their depth at guard to add to the front court. And it’s not like this recipe of a non-three point shooting ball-dominant point guard and a non-three point shooting non-defensive center ever worked. (Flashes of Jason Williams and Shaq lol.)
Suffice it to say, Sabonis is no slouch in the scheme of things and it’s not like the Kings were left empty-handed. With all the hype on Tyrese, it’s important to remember that Sabonis had already made two All-Star games before the age of 25. He makes smart passes, understands his strengths and weaknesses in the post, and as mentioned previously, is an expert at making space off a roll. And it’s the smallest of sample sizes, but consider this: on December 8th, last year, the Kings were 11-14 and just one game off the 7th seed. From that point to February 9th, just last week, they had lost 22 of 31 games. In just two games with Sabonis, the Kings have averaged 29.5 assists-per-game and jumped to 26th in defensive rebounding percentage to 7th overall. It’s still a middling team, but from my perspective, it was either trade Fox now and rebuild, or trade Hali and compete.
It definitely hurts losing a player like Tyrese, but don’t forget that Sabonis is almost just as young, is proven, talented, and so far from what we’ve seen with this new-look Kings and how they run with Domantas, they might end up having the last laugh if they can stay competitive and within reach of play-ins and grow from there. And while you might laugh at the middling team having dreams of grandeur, keep in mind that the standings in the West are still quite fungible with most of the teams ahead of them dealing with some sort of issue ranging from the Russell Westbrook dilemma, Portland trading everything besides Dame, Clippers dealing with the eternal injury-bug, etc.. Some would say that Domantas Sabonis coming to the Kings isn’t ideal, but I prefer to think it’ll be quite ideal if he becomes Dominantas Sabonis.
And that’s how you name-drop the title, folks. X-Box achievement unlocked. *Drops controller.
Jay is a longtime Razzball everything who consumes an egregious amount of Makers Mark as a vehicle to gain wisdom and augment his natural glow. Living in the D.C. area, he also likes spending time visiting the local parks and feeding lettuce to any turtles he encounters, including Mitch McConnell. You can follow him on Twitter @jaywrong.
