The NBA is full of underrated young players who are bound to breakout in the 2019-20 NBA season. Indiana Pacers big man Domantas Sabonis is one of those players who has the best shot to star this upcoming season.
The son of Arvydas Sabonis has lived in the legend's shadow for most of his career, but the former Gonzaga Bulldogs standout is starting to make a name for himself.
Seen as one of the league's best bench players last season, Sabonis averaged 14.1 points per game and 9.3 rebounds per game while shooting a very efficient 59.2 percent on all field goals.
Sabonis was able to dominate second units all across the league last season, using an inside-out game and a decent amount of grit to get to the basket and be an excellent rebounder.
That ability to fly to the rebound was especially effective on the offensive end last season, as Sabonis was statisticaly the twelfth-best offensive rebounder, averaging 2.5 offensive rebounds per game while grabbing 11.5 percent of missed shots for the Pacers.
These solid statistics prove that Sabonis may be due for a raise this off-season. He certainly won't be coming off the bench anymore, as after an impressive third season in the NBA, he is now projected to start at the 4 alongside fellow talented young big man Myles Turner.
While Sabonis and Turner have not started many games together, Pacers star guard Victor Oladipo is confident that the two big men will do well together because of how well their games complement each other.
“I don't know. I’ve never seen it before,” Oladipo told IndyStar when asked if he thinks Turner and Sabonis can co-exist as starters. “Those guys work really well off each other. I think they’ve been working on that … last summer when they went and worked out together for a few weeks in Dallas. They have really good chemistry together.”
Turner and Sabonis both had time this off-season to practice their game on an international stage, and Sabonis in particular looked to have improve his game even more.
Sabonis was one of the key contributors for the sixth-ranked Lithuanian national team this off-season, scoring double-digits points in more than half their games and played effectively playing alongside center and fellow NBA player Jonas Valanciunas. Valanciunas plays a similar role to Turner, making Sabonis' transition to the starting lineup a little easier for Pacers fans to swallow.
Although Turner has proven to be more effective from the high post, he can use Sabonis as a low-post threat while the two can present Indiana with one of the NBA's most lethal frontcourt duos.
That potential for an elite frontcourt for years to come is why the Pacers need to find some room in the budget to extend Sabonis.
The Pacers should take a page from the Brooklyn Nets' playbook when it comes to paying Sabonis. The New York team recently extended Caris LeVert to a three-year, $52 million deal. LeVert did most of his impact in Brooklyn off the bench last season, proving that bench players deserve big contract extensions.
A similar deal should be constructed in Indiana at some point in the next couple months for Sabonis. With Kawhi Leonard leaving for L.A., the Eastern conference is as open as it has been this decade.
With no Lebron and no Kawhi in the conference for the first time in 15 years, there are still talented teams like Brooklyn, the Milwaukee Bucks and the Philadelphia 76ers, but there is no clear-cut favorite. Toronto's championship blueprint from last year proved that a deep team with talented young players can win an NBA title.
With Sabonis, Turner, Oladipo and newly-acquired point guard Malcolm Brogdon, Indiana boasts a roster with up-and-coming players who when combined have at least a puncher's chance of making it to the Finals. To solidify those championship odds, extending Sabonis should be a main priority for the Pacers in 2019.
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