How do Arvydas Sabonis and Jokic compare

[migya]

Having recently watched Sabonis against Shaq in the 98 and 00 playoffs he has similarities to Jokic with scoring and passing. He pulls off some great passes and shot quite well from distance and with hooks. His defense was quite good also.

How does he compare to Jokic overall? Think this era Arvydas would be better.

[krii]

Having recently watched Sabonis against Shaq in the 98 and 00 playoffs he has similarities to Jokic with scoring and passing. He pulls off some great passes and shot quite well from distance and with hooks. His defense was quite good also.

How does he compare to Jokic overall? Think this era Arvydas would be better.

Think Shaq with Jokic's skillset. That scary.

Of course, if he had a modern, expensive medical team on the go.

[70sFan]

Sabonis didn't have the offensive skills Jokic had and by the time he went to the NBA he was significantly less capable physically as well.

Young Sabonis was way more athletic than Jokic, but he also didn't have the same skills he had later on.

Overall, Sabonis had the potential to be an all-time great, but it never really manifested on the basketball court due to injuries. No version of Arvydas that ever existed was on Jokic level.

[The-Power]

Think Shaq with Jokic's skillset. That scary.

It's also imaginary.

[migya]

Having recently watched Sabonis against Shaq in the 98 and 00 playoffs he has similarities to Jokic with scoring and passing. He pulls off some great passes and shot quite well from distance and with hooks. His defense was quite good also.

How does he compare to Jokic overall? Think this era Arvydas would be better.

Think Shaq with Jokic's skillset. That scary.

Of course, if he had a modern, expensive medical team on the go.

That's a big take but I heard over twenty years ago from those that saw him play in the 80s that he was like a 7'3 Larry Bird and opted to pass too much and could've been an even better scorer.

[70sFan]

Having recently watched Sabonis against Shaq in the 98 and 00 playoffs he has similarities to Jokic with scoring and passing. He pulls off some great passes and shot quite well from distance and with hooks. His defense was quite good also.

How does he compare to Jokic overall? Think this era Arvydas would be better.

Think Shaq with Jokic's skillset. That scary.

Of course, if he had a modern, expensive medical team on the go.

That's a big take but I heard over twenty years ago from those that saw him play in the 80s that he was like a 7'3 Larry Bird and opted to pass too much and could've been an even better scorer.

There is a great YT channel about Sabonis where you can watch his highlights from various stages of his career:

https://www.youtube.com/@sabonistkachenko8778

[krii]

Think Shaq with Jokic's skillset. That scary.

It's also imaginary.

He was scary physically – probably on a level of Shaq. Well, actually they were comparable in size and weight, I think that Sabonis was slightly higher. With no knees in his Portland period, he was challenging the young Shaq beyond anyone I've seen those years.

Re Jokic skillset... Oh course it's different and hard to asses because we're living in a completely different basketball era that allows more of a Jokic-like style to be implemented. But Sabonis was doing pretty much the same stuff with 3-point shooting and GOAT-level passing, on top of his crazy athleticism in an era that praised ISO-shooting more than anything.

Also, don't forget how dominant he was during his span in the Spanish league – long after two Achilles injuries.

He was having an extremely high BB-IQ, vision, passing, range, and athleticism. Pretty much everything the people on the below video say draws an image of the 1980s/1990s Nikola Jokic but enhanced with brute physicality.

Watch on YouTube

Having recently watched Sabonis against Shaq in the 98 and 00 playoffs he has similarities to Jokic with scoring and passing. He pulls off some great passes and shot quite well from distance and with hooks. His defense was quite good also.

How does he compare to Jokic overall? Think this era Arvydas would be better.

Think Shaq with Jokic's skillset. That scary.

Of course, if he had a modern, expensive medical team on the go.

That's a big take but I heard over twenty years ago from those that saw him play in the 80s that he was like a 7'3 Larry Bird and opted to pass too much and could've been an even better scorer.

I mean, of course, there's a lot of 'what ifs' in here. After all, what we've seen in Spain and the NBA was a slow, heavy genius who passed and shoot everything he could. And even with no knees he was an MVP in Spain, dominated European competitions, and then came to NBA to still pursue an impressive career and in short spans show his dominance over pretty much everyone (that's how I perceive their duel with Shaq). So, as long as the question go whether this era Arvydas would be better than Jokic, I would say yes. Because, on top of pretty much the same mindset and vision, he was heavier, taller, and – apparently, because we couldn't see it with out eyes – quicker than Jokic.

[Ryoga Hibiki]

One thing that I think must be clear whenever thia comparison is brought up, in my view: Sabonis was never close to have skills to the level of Jokic. Not the same passing, not the same shooting, not the same post game.
It's possible that a healthy Sabonis, coming to the NBA in his early 20s, having no major injuries so young, could have approached similar levels but that's because he was much bigger and more athletic.
Another point that I always make: prime Sabonis was when he was in Madrid and the first few years in Portland.
Otherwise he was either too young and raw or too broken and definitely unable to sustain a full NBA season. This idea of an athletic a super skilled giant was an hypothetical, that guy never really existed.

[70sFan]

One thing that I think must be clear whenever thia comparison is brought up, in my view: Sabonis was never close to have skills to the level of Jokic. Not the same passing, not the same shooting, not the same post game.
It's possible that a healthy Sabonis, coming to the NBA in his early 20s, having no major injuries so young, could have approached similar levels but that's because he was much bigger and more athletic.
Another point that I always make: prime Sabonis was when he was in Madrid and the first few years in Portland.
Otherwise he was either too young and raw or too broken and definitely unable to sustain a full NBA season. This idea of an athletic a super skilled giant was an hypothetical, that guy never really existed.

Why do you think 1993-98 Sabonis was better than Valladolid Sabonis?

[krii]

One thing that I think must be clear whenever thia comparison is brought up, in my view: Sabonis was never close to have skills to the level of Jokic. Not the same passing, not the same shooting, not the same post game.
It's possible that a healthy Sabonis, coming to the NBA in his early 20s, having no major injuries so young, could have approached similar levels but that's because he was much bigger and more athletic.
Another point that I always make: prime Sabonis was when he was in Madrid and the first few years in Portland.
Otherwise he was either too young and raw or too broken and definitely unable to sustain a full NBA season. This idea of an athletic a super skilled giant was an hypothetical, that guy never really existed.

Why do you think 1993-98 Sabonis was better than Valladolid Sabonis?

Watch on YouTube

He made the Valladolid team a real team that could challenge everyone in Spain. Already in his first season, he was the clear best player in the league. I mean, 23p/13r/2a is not a particularly easy line to have in European basketball. His second season started with another injury recovery, but they again reached the playoffs (by the way, before Sabonis they never reached such a level in national competitions). In his third season, he had 21.4p/13.4r/2.5a/2.0b. Again, not the most common line in Spain.

By the way, I should not like him, given that he played in Madrid

[fanofthegreats]

Jokic could end up the best player ever. Sabonis isn’t even close.

[Big J]

Jokic could end up the best player ever. Sabonis isn’t even close.

NBA Sabonis isn't, but pre back injury Sabonis was like Jokic who played defense.

[JRoy]

Sabonis was bigger, set great screens and could pass, shoot and rebound but Jokic is an all time talent a couple tiers above Sabonis.