Why do Sengun and Sabonis get compared to Jokic instead of each other?
For whatever reason both get compared to Jokic but don’t really have the same game at all. Sengun and Sabonis are not bigs reliant on elite footwork in the post nor are 'Point Centers '. Both are honestly no more than good pssers at their position but they do not orchestrate offenses.
Why do they get compared to Jokic who plays a completely different style rather than each other who have the same style.
The similarities I see are:
They all routintely initiate offense with dribble hand off actions and mix ups out of the hand off. Once they can shake a defender or gain get a step or two on them, they can provoke a defensive rotation and then opportunities open up for cutters and spot up shooters that find their defender sagging off.
They all disguise their intent well by blending their body movements into different types of action, making them hard to read. e.g. Sabonis is amazing at timing a hand off at the apex of the upward bounce of his dribble so its hard to tell if he is going to take another dribble or hand the ball off.
They are all capable of screening and rolling as the screener or the roller and they can all make the extra pass, making the 2 man games they play very difficult to read and react to.
For some of the reasons already stated, the disguised action, willingness to pass or score, screen or roll, spin and shoot or spin and kick out. They can all play facing the basket or back to basket and seem equally comfortable doing either. As such they all have this quality I would describe as “illusive”. Its very hard to tell what they are going to do until after they have already done it. Deception is a big part of all of their games.