Sacramento Kings head coach Luke Walton spoke to local media Wednesday via a Zoom call and stated that the team’s trainers are confident that Marvin Bagley is ready to play.
Bagley has only played in 13 games this season and had been dealing with a lingering left midfoot sprain. Since the season was halted, Walton has said Bagley has been busy watching film and that his body is feeling good again.
If Bagley is indeed ready to go when the season resumes, the major question for Walton and the coaching staff will be: Where does he fit in?
Walton was asked about Bagley’s role in the rotation in Orlando in terms of him being a starter v. important role player in the tournament.
It’s way too early for that still. I’m thrilled that he’s feeling better and looking good, and you look into the season and one of the things you look at is missed opportunities. Unfortunately, and injuries are part of the game, but he missed a ton of the season and that’s just so much room for growth for a young player that needs to happen. You need to play to continue to get better, Walton said. So we’ll take a look at it when we get to Orlando and we’re really scrimmaging and we’ll see who is playing well. Like I said, we were playing really well to end the season so we weren’t really going to mess with what we had going on rotation wise at that time, and now that there’s been this much time off we’ve got to take a look at it again and we’ve got to see who is playing well, who is shooting the ball well, who is in shape.
Walton’s decision to divide up minutes will be tough considering Richaun Holmes and Alex Len most likely will be available and they played really well this season. (Walton said none of the players on the roster have opted out of playing in Orlando at this point.)
Richaun has had a heck of a year, Alex came over in the trade and really made an impact for us with his physical play and his protection, just his overall size. So there’s a lot things, playing Harrison [Barnes] and Bjelly [Nemanja Bjelica] at the four gave us a lot of spacing that we seem to play well with, so there’s a lot of things we’re going to look at. Like I said, it’s a quick eight games to try to make some noise so we’re going to go with whatever we feel is going to give us the best opportunity and chance to win, Walton said.
There is a lot for Bagley to prove as an NBA player. ESPN recently ranked the sophomore NBA class and Bagley didn’t fare well. Orlando probably isn’t going to be enough to really prove everyone wrong, but it will be an opportunity for at least a little redemption in what otherwise would be a lost season for the big man.
The Kings will leave for Orlando on July 8, and once there, true training camp will begin.
I know it won’t happen, but these quotes make it sound like he is considering not playing him major minutes at all. Again, that won’t happen, but I sure would respect Luke a lot more if he did that.
“We’re putting the bandaid back together.”
“We’re on a mission from Vlad.”
And Vlade is confident in Bagley being able to play at the three spot!
So much for confidence!
“Where do you see Bagley fitting into your rotations when he is able to play again?”
“I’ll need to watch the tape.” – Luke
“All ready, coach!”
I hope Marvin doesnt have the pressure of 25 minutes a game. One, I think it will be hard to integrate him smoothly when he has had barely any time on the floor this year. Two, for his own development, having that pressure would add some unnecessary speed bumps to a short career that is full of them already. Let him energizer bunny it for some stretches, or in a blow out, but I cant think of one perspective that makes playing him a lot of minutes sensible.
Only one reason to play MBIII The one reason to play him major minutes. A major blowout as in 0-2 0-3 start. At that point just work on integration right? What else to do at that point. fingers crossed he gets 10-15 a night and get 10+ and 6+ in that time.
No longer able to hope a Kings draft pick completely transforms.
I was way more confident in Joerger getting the most out of Bagley than I am Walton, I hope my fear in that is groundless
Bagley’s best position is obviously
Or maybe
We could use a 12th man.
Holmes & Len have the Center spot locked, Giles will see a little relief time.
Bjelly starts at PF, leaving the back up PF minutes split between Barnes, Bagley, & Giles.
My guess as to how that breaks down:
Bjelly: 28 minutes
Barnes: 8 minutes (at the 4)
Bagley: 8 minutes
Giles: 4 minutes (at the 4)
Giles could see 0 minutes at the 4, but I don’t see all of those minutes going to Bagley. 10 minutes seems like his max, especially sitting out almost the entire year.
I disagree with Walton that it’s about winning. I see the remainder of this “season” as a giant asterisk at best, and this team has way, way too much invested in Bagley for him not to play significant minutes. Bagley’s ego is still at least quadruple the size of his game, but he needs to play to have any chance to improve. Play him. If Bagley plays like he’s played over the last two years, that tells us something important that’s better to know now than another year from now.
I agree. The Kings have [insert adverb] invested the fate of the franchise in Bagley. You better start developing him into a star or you are royally effed (may be inevitable like Thanos at this point but you better find out!).
I mean, think about it. The Kings’ opportunities to land stars are as rare as Kobe’s hamburgers, and the No. 2 pick was one of those once-every-twenty-years-or-so chances to change your place in the NBA landscape. That is how much is riding on Bagley.
I couldn’t agree more. These 8 games are about Bagley’s future with the Kings, not some dim chance of making the playoffs, that in my opinion, won’t even happen.
Just shut him down !!!
We are doing well without him…and with this roster left no minutes to him at all
He is a liability in every categories, cannot set a proper pick, not strong to play centre position.
Let’s just hope Walton and Divac are smart enough to know all those 8 games determine the team’s destiny…we need to make no mistake…..
And obviously, playing a guy who only played 13 games all season is a complete mistake.
Why the heck would these 8 games determine the team’s destiny?
We have much bigger fish to fry and getting a glimpse of where Marvin is right now in terms of development is one of these fish, IMO.
I think one mistake is thinking this a real continuation of the season. This is more like the opening week of a new season then a continuation of the season. I think any NBA head coach should evaluate all of his players during training camp. Some people might come back out of shape, and some players might just be rusty. In training camp who ever is playing the best and earns their minutes should play. Those who don’t perform should not play. That goes for every NBA player and I don’t see any reason why Marvin should be treated differently.
Summer League/Training Camp Lite¢
Let’s just hope Walton and Divac are smart enough
After 14 years we should be well past “hope”.
Marvin has had the better part of 6 months off to heal. 6 months is about the same amount of time as an offseason. If he cant play in these 8 games then its time for Vivek to start having the uncomfortable conversations about Vlade, Luke and probably Marvin as well.
I could not disagree more, as set forth in my reply to that washed up SNL guy (just kidding Carl!) above!
So much corona to go around in there.
Wait, are they actually literally changing out the floors for each game? I mean, I know that isn’t as difficult as it once was, but what a waste of time.
It feels like he’s basically saying Bagley is their 5th best frontcourt player:
Walton’s in a tough spot. If they don’t try to win, then they run the risk of looking like they’re endangering players’ lives for glorified scrimmages. If shortening the rotation and not playing Bagley gives the team the best chance to win, then they look like they brought him into the bubble for no reason.
I don’t know. I think history is going to give a lot of teams a pass for not performing well in these conditions. Lots of built in excuses.
I think Walton and the Kings are free to use this time to figure things out with their roster. And winning a few games along the way would just be a bonus.
Yup, use the 8 games as an evaluation of what the plan is going forward for next season. If Bagley still looks like he can’t beat out Holmes and Nemanja in the rotation, they have much bigger problems then trying to end a playoff drought.
In general, I think if you have a chance to win meaningful games, you should try to win. Especially since lottery odds are locked in. I don’t think they should be making personnel decisions or assessments based on an 8-ish game sample anyway.
I think they should err on the side of caution with his injury, and just shut him down for the next two seasons.
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