RealGM

Who is a better player?

During their time in the NBA? Nikola Jokic.

Both at peak.

Very hard to judge because of Sabonis' late arrival to the NBA. By the time he was in the NBA, he was essentially past his prime, but was still a very impactful player.

I'd give the edge to Sabonis, but Jokic is the closest thing to him. I'd love to see what Jokic could do if he got his body really fit, because he's already a great player, but he starts out every season overweight and out of conditioning.

Young Sabonis was better player than Jokic, but he was rarely healthy and never reached his real peak.

Because of that give me Joker.

Definitely Jokic, if you think Sabonis it is because you're thinking who he might have been and not who he was.

If Sabonis was healthy in his prime? Easily Sabonis. He would have been in the Kareem tier. It was a similar situation to Walton.

Jiminy Glick wrote:He would have been in the Kareem tier. It was a similar situation to Walton.

Oh, not another KG thread!

Domantas Sabonis and Jokic would be a better comparison.

Jaivl wrote:

Jiminy Glick wrote:He would have been in the Kareem tier. It was a similar situation to Walton.

Oh, not another KG thread!

I'd rather have prime Garnett on a team over prime LeBron for a tournament that has all great players on each team. Better defender and rebounder and also a great offensive player.

Jokic, although Sabonis had more talent.

Jokic pretty easily. Not Arvydas' fault that he arrived to the NBA so late, but speculating how good his NBA peak/prime would have been based on assumption and what he did in the Soviet league is too dishonest for me.

Pre NBA Sabonis? Yeah, he was probably better than Jokic. His scoring was underrated, though his defensive reputation is too high for the lack of footage/data we have of him. I think overall Sabonis does fill in that 7 footer two-way play sweet spot, though Jokic is so good offensively he really doesn't need much defense to become an all time great.

If Sabonis played today he'd also give his teams some major stretch 5 ability. He has crazy gravity from low post, high post and beyond the arc - combine with his passing and big body for screens that guy is going to anchor some great offenses without having to score much.

It would seem the hypothetical healthy prime sabonis in the NBA may have a slight advantage over jokic given his defense. Unfortunately we were never lucky enough to see that. It reminds me, I still haven't checked out what's supposed to be several full games of young sabonis here:

viewtopic.php?p=81270114#p81270114

Worth checking out while we have a few more days with no games!