jgman22 | Pelicans

214 | 5 hours ago

That hand off game with all the pull up 3pt shooters Charlotte has would be very fun.

The defense tho, not so much

The_Uncut_Gem | Knicks

47 | 5 hours ago

Not a lotta stops on that team

Ok-Protection2513 | Hornets

37 | 5 hours ago

Hornets were a top 10 defense last year with maybe 1.5 good defenders in the starting lineup lol. The defense is nowhere near as bad as people think it is. Adding Sabonis certainly wouldn’t make it better tho lol

SquimJim

46 | 4 hours ago

Right but you’d be taking your one good defender out to replace him with Sabonis. I don’t think it’s a coincidence you started winning consistently once Diabate got put in the starting lineup

deemerritt | Hornets

10 | 4 hours ago

Completely agree. Diabate is an absolute demon and people don’t get that

a_moniker | Hornets

5 | 4 hours ago

Diabate would likely be starting next to Sabonis

gwokh | Pistons

8 | 3 hours ago

Miles goes to the bench in this scenario? Doesn’t that kinda fuck up the spacing if both bigs are non shooters

deemerritt | Hornets

13 | 3 hours ago

Miles is in the trade.

Ok_Instruction7642

2 | 3 hours ago

oohhhh yeah baby

gwokh | Pistons

2 | 2 hours ago

Makes sense salary wise. Still doesn’t answer the spacing issue.

deemerritt | Hornets

1 | an hour ago

I guess the idea is that Lamelo, Bridges and Kon are enough spacing to get away with it. All 3 are excellent shooters.

J-Crow11

1 | an hour ago

One issue with that then becomes how much offensive pressure can Diabate and Sabonis really put on a defense when they are on the floor together.

It’s not just about a lack of shooting between the two of them, but how threatening are the two of them to burn you offensively. Like the Spurs struggle to shoot, but they have a plethora of nasty slashers that make defenses not want to help even if the shot isn’t falling.

I worry with the combo starting next to each other, that it’s two targets for a defense to basically ignore on offense and gum up anything LaMelo, Miller, and Kon what to do.

The offensive rebounding by both would be the biggest deterrent to being ignored. But as we saw with Houston the past two years and then the Pistons this year, that only helps you so much, especially in the playoffs when teams can really dial in how they want to box out or deter those second chance opportunities.

Mg29reaper | Celtics

3 | an hour ago

Rockets where putting up offense with sengun adams and Thompson all on the floor. Just grab a shit ton of boards. The rockets collapsed because adams got injured.

J-Crow11

4 | an hour ago

That is true, the Hornets will have significantly better shooters so they won’t be entirely reliant on OREBs like Houston has been. I still don’t like the fit, though that probably is more because I have a lower opinion of Sabonis than anything to do with what this Hornets team is doing.

Mg29reaper | Celtics

1 | an hour ago

I personally love the fit. The spacing is fine when you have 3 insane volume shooters. They combined for 10.3 made 3s on 26 3pa. They are high volume efficient shooters.

Vicentesteb | Timberwolves

3 | 4 hours ago

Regular season is way way way way different to the playoffs.

boringexplanation | Kings

3 | 3 hours ago

His help defense is a lot better than people think. He has very high bbiq. If you can have a defensive anchor doing the primary rim protection, he does well with blocking passing lanes.

Turner-Sabonis gave Indiana a top 10 defense. It was the offense that was a problem when he was there.

johnfuckmennedy | Pacers

3 | an hour ago

And it was Nate McMillan running the offense so I imagine a decent offensive coach could figure out something.

HeyItzMe_ | Pacers

1 | 4 hours ago

Yeah I mean they would still have diabate and Kalk off the bench, I don’t hate this move if they can still get solid defense from those two

johnjohnjohn93

1 | 29 minutes ago

Sabonis seems like a good add for regular season but a will get played off the floor in the postseason. Warriors just begging him to shoot and him looking off every time was brutal and his rim protection is so bad just rebounding is not valuable enough.

I think a guy like Myles Turner (who fits on just about every team) would be much better and could replicate the Pacers with Ball-Kon-Miller-Bridges-Turner.

So maybe Green and Williams expiring’s plus a first and swap for Turner?

CaskJeeves | Raptors

0 | 4 hours ago

Just like LaMelo in a hummer

Slurms_McKenzie775 | Kings

3 | 2 hours ago

Sabinis is actually a solid man to man defender. Just sucks as a rim protector which is obviously very important.

theyoloGod | Tampa Bay Raptors

1 | 5 hours ago

Gonna win games 130-125

AntSmith777 | Lakers

1 | 43 minutes ago

Score 130 give up 135

hinghenry | Spurs

122 | 5 hours ago

Hornets know ex-King stars are key to the Finals

JEtigers12 | Kings

34 | 4 hours ago

Pain.

Nugur

19 | 4 hours ago

Everyone knows this. Even the kings

twovles31

6 | 4 hours ago

Trying to get Davion Mitchell from Miami seems like the best route for that for a team.

boringexplanation | Kings

1 | an hour ago

Who is he going to start over? Melo/Coby/Kon?

spaceninj | NYK

63 | 5 hours ago

Every Charlotte game will be 160-158.

Top_Bat5064

10 | 5 hours ago

So they’re gonna win it all?

spaceninj | NYK

25 | 5 hours ago

I didn’t say who gets 160 in every game.

FrankieBarbingo | Celtics

44 | 5 hours ago

As folks are saying, the defense won’t be great.

On the other hand, he’s still a pretty damn good player. He’s a great connector, the best rebounder in the league, and a decent scorer.

My dream for them is to replace Bridges(with anybody so that I can root for them), acquire Sabonis, and find some sort of defensive stopper.

Supreme_God_Bunny | Hornets

6 | 5 hours ago

Sabonis isn’t a PF so who is he replacing?

FrankieBarbingo | Celtics

13 | 4 hours ago

Those two things were separate.

Replacing Bridges is solely so I can root for your team to get out of purgatory lol. I liked watching the Hornets last year but he’s a piece of work so I couldn’t commit to it.

greenwhitehell

4 | 5 hours ago

Probably slide Diabate to the 4

SquimJim

4 | 4 hours ago

I guess then the question would be spacing with 2 non-shooters out there

ZandrickEllison

1 | 4 hours ago

If the Hornets trade for Sabonis, I think that’s a sign that they don’t view Diabaté as a long term starter. He’s a good energy player and rebounder, but Sabonis is a good rebounder too so it’s doubling down on a skill that’s not the most important.

deemerritt | Hornets

1 | 4 hours ago

Diabate was statistically our second best player last year. Hes only 24 so im not sure why they would do this. Our on/off with him the last two years has been very stark

greenwhitehell

1 | 2 hours ago

Yeah. At least the other 3 are both good shooters and very high volume bombers, so it could still work

IAmLeMickey | Hornets

2 | an hour ago

Yaxel 🤫

stomach-bug

1 | 2 hours ago

I guess move Diabate to the bench. He’s on an expiring next year so acquiring Sabonis can probably give the Hornets some sort of leverage on an extension

Not_Not_Stopreading | Cavaliers

18 | 5 hours ago

Sabonis would have to be real cheap for the Hornets to do this

little-tooos | Kings

17 | 5 hours ago

His contract is bad and he’s a liability in the playoffs, kinda makes sense for Hornets though as he will help the young players get good looks in the regular season

Supreme_God_Bunny | Hornets

-34 | 5 hours ago

How tf is he going to help them get good looks? He’s not a threat offensively

smalls_1804 | Knicks

40 | 5 hours ago

Because he’s about as good of a passing big as there is in this league outside of Jokic. Also sets monster screens which is such an underrated skill in the modern NBA

raziiiii | Knicks

3 | 5 hours ago

He will be lol

2020IsANightmare

18 | 3 hours ago

Sabonis is one of those players that every team in the league would want for the right price.

The right price isn’t 45 million U.S. dollars.

CombinationReady9376 | Kings

5 | 2 hours ago

That goes for every player older than 25 on this team.

IRanOutOf_Names | Heat

14 | 4 hours ago

Brandon Miller fighting for his life on defense to plug a thousand holes.

deemerritt | Hornets

6 | 4 hours ago

Miller isnt that great of a defender. HE has potential but he is liable to get 3 fouls in 5 minutes and sink our team. I think Kon was about as good as Miller on defense last year

oh_peaches | Kings

5 | 3 hours ago

I haven’t looked at the advanced stats so I imagine someone will come in with data to refute this, but I think Sabonis is not a horrible liability on defense.

Rebounding is a huge part of defense and he is an excellent defensive rebounder.

He is not long so can’t contest a lot of shots around the paint BUT he is as strong as an ox and has ok feet and usually in the right position.

A big part of the problem with Sabonis defensively is basically that you need the exact right type of PF on the floor with him. And that PF should be a bouncy, rangy rim protector type. A team who can introduce that presence on the floor with Sabonis would likely find that he is not totally a lost cause on that end.

Ok-Protection2513 | Hornets

3 | 3 hours ago

Who do yall think Brandon is lmao. He’s probably a worse POA defender than Kon

IRanOutOf_Names | Heat

1 | an hour ago

Oh I’m not saying he is. But I trust his effort level and I think he’ll be fighting for his damn life out there.

SpecialBeam22 | Kings

7 | 3 hours ago

Our sub would have a complete meltdown if the hornets actually did this and go far in the playoffs next year 😂

CombinationReady9376 | Kings

4 | 2 hours ago

Tyrese Vs Sabonis in the Eastern Conference Finals… lets go!!

vNocturnus | Kings

3 | an hour ago

Nah, I wouldn’t. It would be vindication for all the fans that actually understand that Sabonis is still a beast and one of the best big men in the league.

But the Kings aren’t doing anything with him, so it might as well be another team. And at least the Hornets are in the East, not rivals, etc.

SpecialBeam22 | Kings

1 | an hour ago

I totally agree with you. This wouldn’t bother me at all either, but you know how our sub is 😂

handles_messiah

5 | 5 hours ago

He’d help keep the offense flowing in the non-LaMelo minutes and his rebounding would be a big plus for the team. The defense will still be an issue but I don’t know if there’s a fix for that on the market.

Sounds like the Charlotte is taking the right approach, though, and just waiting for the Kings to get desperate

Outside-Sector9818 | Kings

5 | 4 hours ago

I understand not getting 14. But maybe 18 in play if we throw in our two 2nds…….??? Is that so crazy a proposal. I get the contract is high but he’s not utter trash or anything.

bubbles2255 | Kings

21 | 4 hours ago

It’s crazy to me how many people think he’s a net negative.

Vicentesteb | Timberwolves

3 | 4 hours ago

I mean everyone saw him get outplayed by Kevon Looney in the only real playoff series of his career.

He also makes 45m and then 48m a ridiculous number for his production and level of defense.

bubbles2255 | Kings

8 | 3 hours ago

He didn’t get outplayed, Looney just sagged off of him on defense. Sabonis was also playing with a busted thumb that whole year and still averages 17-11-5 in the series.

Its_Hoggish_Greedly | Kings

3 | 2 hours ago

And a bruised sternum!

vNocturnus | Kings

1 | an hour ago

Also the Warriors entire gameplan was selling out to shut down Sabonis as he was the focal point of our entire offensive system. Despite that, he was still at worst the 2nd best player on the Kings in the series and arguably still the most important.

If Fox hadn’t broken his shooting hand or if Harrison Barnes could hit a wide open 3 in the playoffs, the Kings would have won that series and nobody would be talking about Domas being “oUtPlAyEd” by Looney.

Also, after that series he started heavily focusing on improving his 3pt shot and, last year aside because it was an absolute mess, he managed to get up to ~40% on ~2.5 attempts. That’s obviously not primary shooter numbers but it’s not “non-shooting big” numbers either. Teams can’t just leave him standing at the 3pt line anymore.

Outside-Sector9818 | Kings

1 | 3 hours ago

You being a wolves fan, should know the plight of a cellar dweller. Unless you’re a nephew? (Idk your age) I mean making the playoffs how many times the past 2 decades? Give the fans something to smile about for once lol.

Either that or just really dangle those FRPs and try a big a win now move like the Knicks and wolves. 18th pick seems fair in what they say wanna do supposedly, i.e. not mortgage the future while still placing some chips down.

Ok-Protection2513 | Hornets

-4 | 3 hours ago

I mean hes 30, getting paid 40m for 2 more years, cant shoot, cant protect the rim, and isnt really a rim-runner. I dont think thats worth the 18th pick in a good draft

RedactedAsFugg | Kings

3 | an hour ago

I don’t know what you smoking but if a player drafted with the 18th pick turns out to be half the player Sabonis is, you would be celebrating out on the street lmao.

The best player drafted with the 18th pick in the past 15 years is Jaime Jaquez. Next one, maybe Josh Green

RiskyBallaxd | Wizards

0 | an hour ago

You kings fans have to understand that people aren’t saying Sabonis is a bad player. They just don’t think he’s worth a frp on the contract he’s on

RedactedAsFugg | Kings

2 | an hour ago

Expires at the end of next season. I don’t think it’s as bad as people make it seem for the player he still is

Beetle919 | Hornets

1 | an hour ago

He’s on the books for 2 more seasons at 45m and 48m.

Outside-Sector9818 | Kings

2 | 3 hours ago

I feel you. Glad to hear a hornets fans’ opinion. You wouldn’t go for it even if we include picks 34 and 45? You upgrade a lil now, we an upgrade on picks in not a theft type manner as well. Just seems exorbitantly cheap to get rid of Saboner for just 2nd round picks, dude has an all-nba 3rd team on his resume.

Altruistic-Drawing25

5 | 3 hours ago

Oh joy I can’t wait for everyone to tell us how terrible he is and how we need to trade them. Then in a year everyone will be asking why we were so stupid and let him go.

sactown_13 | Kings

4 | 5 hours ago

DO IT

Greedy-Lynx-2746 | Thunder

3 | 4 hours ago

Bout as good of a fit as you can ask for and they can absorb the $$ easily

RiskyBallaxd | Wizards

2 | an hour ago

Offensively sure. Defensively it’s a nightmare

transizzle | SAC

2 | 5 hours ago

Sabonis and Kon would be devastating

Acceptable_Driver

2 | 3 hours ago

My condolences Saboner

Its_Hoggish_Greedly | Kings

2 | 2 hours ago

Why? Hornets have a better chance of making the playoffs than we do. Why would he want to languish on our team when he has the chance to potentially get back to the postseason?

twovles31

1 | 4 hours ago

Playoff and play-in riser Sabonis.

Willem_Dafuq | 76ers

1 | 2 hours ago

I don’t like the fit for Charlotte. I like Diabate’s defense and athleticism more for Charlotte. They can really get up and go with him. Savings would slow them down and isn’t as good on defense.

vNocturnus | Kings

2 | an hour ago

Defense is one thing, but he absolutely would not slow them down. The Kings adding Sabonis was what allowed them to become the fastest offense in the league and have the best offensive rating of all time (at the time).

He’s great in transition and his ability to get the rebound and immediately bring the ball up himself is a huge factor in pushing the pace.

EthicalBballFan | Heat

1 | 37 minutes ago

The fit for Charlotte is that he’s white. Kon is openly racist in his social media

Starveiled | Hornets

1 | 43 minutes ago

The offense could certainly be fun although there are obvious spacing concerns if he is out there with non-shooter like Moussa.

But, I wonder if Lamelo, Kon, and Brandon are all good enough shooters to where that wouldn’t matter as much. 1st and 2nd most threes made last season and Brandon would have been up there to without injuries.

Also, Lamelo’s unwavering audacity to chuck shots from different zip codes does alleviate spacing with 3 shooter lineups.

viviangreen68

1 | 13 minutes ago

I hope this trade works out because it would be nice to see Sabonis make the Finals. He seems like a nice guy.

Lolnumu | Hawks

0 | 4 hours ago

Bridges and Grant Williams makes the money work

spookyghostface | Hornets

0 | an hour ago

“please take this guy”

“we’ll get back to you”

FlipMoBitch | Bucks

-5 | 5 hours ago

Miles Bridges in SAC sadly makes too much sense

Cheechers23 | Raptors

-7 | 4 hours ago

The Kings are really determined to land a FRP for Sabonis, and I do not think that’s his value lol

Ok_Instruction7642

13 | 3 hours ago

mid to late first round is totally reasonable

Cheechers23 | Raptors

1 | 2 hours ago

Depends on the contract(s) coming back. Sabonis himself is not a good contract, so if they’re getting expiring contracts, they probably aren’t getting a FRP.

redshorts9112 | Kings

2 | 2 hours ago

He’s only low value and bad contract because he’s on the kings

moyopochtenie | Hornets

-15 | 4 hours ago

If they give us their 7th pick with him - then gladly. Otherwise, you pay him almost 50 million yourself for the next two years.

[Amick] Sacramento and Charlotte have had recent talks about Kings big man Domantas Sabonis.