Marvin Bagley is dealing with a nagging wrist injury and will be playing through pain, according to Kings head coach Luke Walton. Walton added that Bagley was held out of contact drills in practice today.
Luke Walton said Marvin Bagley is going to be playing through pain. He did non-contact during practice today. Called the wrist a nagging injury. Walton said Bagley is feeling much better today.
— The Kings Herald (@thekingsherald) January 26, 2021
Bagley seemed to injure his wrist against the Portland Trail Blazers on January 13th. Bagley went up for a dunk, took a hard foul from Derrick Jones Jr, and hit his wrist on the rim. We’ve seen Bagley holding his wrist and grimacing between plays in games since, but it hasn’t limited Bagley’s playing time.
It’s encouraging that Bagley is able to play through the pain, but it’s concerning that the injury is taking this long to heal. It’s even more concerning given Bagley’s history of injuries that are initially diagnosed as minor and then result in Marvin missing long stretches of games.
In other injury news, Walton said that Hassan Whiteside is back from his injury, and is expected to resume his prior role in the rotation.
Luke Walton said the Kings missed Hassan Whiteside. “It will be nice to get him back on the court.”
— The Kings Herald (@thekingsherald) January 26, 2021
Walton says the team is going back to Whiteside first, but the team has confidence in Chimezie Metu
— The Kings Herald (@thekingsherald) January 26, 2021
Whiteside gives the Kings an interior physicality that Metu doesn’t, but playing Whiteside over Metu flies in the face of the idea that the Kings are benching veterans in favor of a youth movement.
After several days off due to COVID-related postponements, the Kings are scheduled to return to action on Wednesday against the Orlando Magic.
Gotta love how Walton is going to Whiteside first over Metu, but has benched Nemanja because you know… “youth movement.”
This is bad
We are about a week from the day most free agents are able to be traded. I wonder if a trade has already gone through, and they are staying quiet about it for now.
Speaking of trades, word is that Lonzo Ball is on the trade block. I wouldn’t mind trying to get him. Buddy for Ball would make sense. Not sure if the money works (haven’t checked the cap situation for both teams) but at this point, I don’t mind getting rid of Buddy.
Lonzo Bust is a poor mans Haliburton.
That’d be a pretty mean three-guard rotation, though. I don’t think that Ball is ever going to be a consistent scoring threat, but he defends well, and his passing skills are still elite. I’d probably do the trade. Even losing Hield’s shooting (also elite), the additional ballhandler and defender aspect would be a net gain.
Except for maybe the long throw ahead on the fast break, his passing skills are not elite. He overpasses because he is not confident in his scoring or penetration ability. He resorts to launching a ton of threes like Buddy, but unlike Buddy never proved to be consistent shooter from deep.
Lonzo is shooting 29% from 3 on 7 attempts per game. Pathetic. His assist to turnover is also crap for a supposed renowned passer.
Lonzo is a good to very good defender. I give him that. Can guard PGs and SGs. He would definitely help us on that end. But Kyle Guy is the better offense player (shooter and shot creator) and he would prove that if he was given the opportunity.
Buddy for Lonzo is a lateral move because you are trading for equally flawed players. But Buddy is less a duplicative player because we lost shooting when we lost Bogi and with the decline of Bjelica.
If you want to add Lonzo for defense, that is understandable motivation but you get a bricklayer and overrated passer to go with it.
I like where your heads at but I think Buddy is too much for Lonzo. I think if you could swing Bjelica (which helps spacing with Zion) for Lonzo…that would be my ideal trade. Don’t know if the Pelicans do that. Then flip Joseph or buy him out.
To me, Lonzo or Rubio would be a great bench PG fit next to Buddy. I’m a big advocate of moving Buddy back to the bench for Haliburton (maybe have him in the crunch time lineup). Just don’t know how to make the trade work without giving up picks which I wouldn’t want to do.
Fox, Lonzo,
Haliburton, Hield
Barnes, Robinson III
Bagley, Metu
Holmes, Metu, Whiteside
Bjelica is a washed up bum, patently obvious since preseason. He is a non-rotational player. He is 5 for 21 on 3s and that includes many shots from 3-5 feet behind the line because that is the only way he can get a clean look at the rim is “from the parking lot”. He is unable to create separation on his own. He is awful on defense too unless he is under the rim.
Glen Robinson is not a keeper either but he is more mobile and more reliable with his 3 ball, shooting 45% vs Bjelica 24%. He is clearly outplayed Bjelica so whether Bjelica should be playing should not even a debate!
By contrast, Whiteside has made a positive impact almost every time he’s been on the floor.
I did a statistical breakdown last week, and IIRC correctly we are 4-4 in his games and 5.1 PPG fewer allowed in his games altough he has only played 13 MPG. It is good news to hear Whiteside will take the place of Metu. And it is good news this coach is no longer insisting playing Bagley at backup center, another bit of foolishness that contributed to our defensive collapse.
Welcome back Hassan!
FYI I like Metu, but the skills Whiteside provides is a pressing need that every fan should welcome. Now if only we get cut the deadweight out the second unit by benching CoJoSo for Kyle Guy we could play some impressive and inspiring basketball for 48 minutes instead of intermittent spurts.
Are you the same person that trashed Bjelica last week. He hasn’t cost the kings hardly anything and has won or kept us in games the last two years. This year he has not been good, that’s why he hasn’t been playing. But to disparage him that way when he has been mostly pretty good at his job is just not right. Vlade didn’t get much value for alot of the free agents he signed, but he did with Bjelica.
Dude’s got a weird Nemanja thing. Frankly, his acquisition is one of the best moves Vlade made during his tenure. You could argue Bjelica’s been one of the top two or three players on the roster since his acquisition.
Unfortunately, he appears to have fallen off the cliff this season. Whiteside would fall off the cliff as well, if the edge wasn’t faster than he is.
That’s true, I don’t think that VD made a better acquisition than Bjelica during his storied tenure as GM. Of course, on anything like a decent team, there’s no way that he’d ever start, but he’s been a positive for the Kings, generally speaking.
This year, though, he stinks on ice.
I’m surprised the “dad bod” hadn’t caught up to him a few year ago.
I really think we need to consider the possibility that the “youth movement” =/= play your 2-way guys and 2nd round rookies 25 minutes per game. It’s more like a “young members of the core movement.” Metu’s minutes simply don’t really matter in the long-term scheme of things.
The Kings have said a few times they like Whiteside because it theoretically allows them to play the 3 guard lineup without getting killed on the defensive end.
If only our guards would press extremely hard to create dribble-drive… Then the opposing player could settle for mid-range jumpers or run into Whiteside. “In theory”
To be honest, I wish they would allow less threes but I don’t know their mindset on defense.
The mindset is, “Oh, I thought you had him.”
Getting a little tired of Bagley’s endless physical ailments. Players play through pain all the time and you never hear about it. But not this kid, a little nick and it’s front page news.
From the “Bagley can’t do anything right” department. Sheesh.
Yea injuries are off-limits to me. Sports are hard and I’ve had so many myself. Heck, if it were up to me back-to-backs would never be allowed.
They should eliminate back-to-backs and start doing double-headers. Think of all the extra days off, and value to the ticketholder, assuming that the latter ever becomes relevant again.
Speaking of watching… Kings at Pels tickets $56 lower bowl Monday. The airfare is 400 so likely not going. Who here would consider going to a game with 2000 fans?
A big part of why the Kings should get rid of Bags sooner than later is because he’s gonna get injured (Badly)and no longer be trade able
Bags-no D, clogs O, gets injured. We already know what he is. Move on.
So your theory is that Bagley is injury-prone, and everyone knows it, so trading him would be a piece of cake. Or do you mean the Kings should just release him?
This is not a recipe for success.
Nope. I didn’t say trade him because he’s injury prone. I said get rid of him before he gets a long term injury (like a foot problem etc). Right now people would still want him but probably not if he gets seriously injured.
By that logic, we should get rid of all of the players, since they run the risk of long-term injury.
As do we all.
I can’t blame Bagley for this and I have to assume he is on the mend, based on the quotes.
The lack of clarity by the organization about his previous injuries and their timeline bothers me more and is a big reason why people make such comments.
The people in charge of firing Youngman (and others) are still here. I am looking at you, Vivek and Matina.
Glad Team Bagley now has an excuse for why this season didn’t go well. “Just wait until next year, when he doesn’t have the
footwrist injury!”He’s averaging about 14 and 8 in the games since the injury, and he’s playing through obvious pain and *he* hasn’t said a word about it.
I understand the snark but I don’t know that it’s fair to him right now.
Agreed.
Now, if he misses some games to “wrist soreness” I 100% blame the organization for their misleading info. We heard for weeks that Bagley had “foot soreness” last year until he was ruled out for weeks, which became the season. Did we ever get an official diagnosis on the guy?
I’m not a guy that believes in misdirection or misinformation by an NBA team, but fool me once…
Ah, missed this comment before I made mine. Hundred percent agreed, Adam.
Never forget Ayton broke that wrist when he was on the juice
Chilling with the strom. Anybody else?
Strom?
There’s a guy that makes me wish Hell was real.
Is it the lifetime spent fighting against civil rights you don’t like? Or the raping and impregnating of the family’s under-aged servant?
Whiteside anchoring the defense so Kings can play a three-guard lineup is very theoretical.
The viable theory I floated before the season began was a starting lineup of Fox Hali Buddy Barnes Whiteside. There’s your 3-guards, move Barnes to the PF and your defensive anchor compensates for lack of size at the other positions. I think it is more than a theory to play with spacing and quickness at positions 1-4 and complement with a guy in the middle who can clean the glass and erase mistakes. This is a proven template to kick ass because you are balancing offense and defense in proper proportion. Even if you disagree it is worth experimenting with for a quarter or three but our rigid minded coach lacks the imagination and courage.
It’s also a proven template that’s REALLY easy to blow up with a 5 with any shooting ability. To use this next game as an example, Vucevic would be shooting open corner 3s and pick-and-pops all day. As such, it’s a situational/matchup lineup. Not a reliable primary approach.
I like Hassan. Something about a working man who doesn’t take himself too seriously, just earning his paycheck in a league full of prima-donas, really appeals to me.
“Playing through pain”? That’s nothing. You want to talk pain? We Kings fans have been WATCHING through pain for 15 years straight! Rub some dirt on it! (That’s what we do to our eyes after each game, after all.)
I’m not clear as to why the injury to Bagley’s wrist, presumably a bone bruise, is “concerning” because it’s lingered for two whole weeks. Those things take months to heal, and that’s for a person that isn’t playing NBA games. He’s going to take shots to the wrist, over and over, and some days he’ll be able to play through it, and some days he won’t.
If it’s a more serious injury than that, then the medical staff should bench him, although historically, that crew has offered some malpractice-ish diagnoses. Remember Kevin Martin playing two games with a broken hand that the staff had diagnosed as “sore?” If I played ball for the Kings, I would always ask for an outside practitioner to take a look at any injury that I might get.
As to Whiteside, there will be matchups where that makes sense, against a Steven Adams, for example. But in general? Give Metu minutes, dumbass.
I’d be less concerned if they said it was a bone bruise, because that would be a diagnosis which comes with a normal recovery time frame. The Kings, however, haven’t told us that it’s anything. So either it hasn’t been diagnosed as anything other than being sore, or they’ve diagnosed it but aren’t being forthcoming with injury information.
I’m basing my butt-pulled diagnosis on the info that he whacked his wrist on the rim. There could certainly be a fracture or loose bodies as a result, but I’d assume that he wouldn’t be playing if it were something like that.
I honestly don’t care if I know every last detail about player injuries. I think the only people that really give a damn are degenerate gamblers. If I had any faith in the team’s medical staff to get these things right, I’d be content with “wrist soreness, probable to play,” but all things being equal, I do have concerns about Marvin playing through it until he’s gotten competent medical advice from a doctor whose concerns are with the patient, and not wins and losses.
I haven’t seen any reports of a bone bruise. Common wrist injuries also include ligament damage and a broken minor bone (there are a shit ton of bones in the wrist).
All of them delicious.
One thing I thought was curious during the Knicks games was how DC mentioned a few that Bagley needs to learn how to hide the pain from the opponent. His point was that if you show the opposing team that you’re experiencing pain, then they will exploit it by intentionally slapping the injured wrist whenever possible. I know it’s kind of a nature instinct to wince or massage a nagging injury, but it’s not going to make the injury heal quick or feel any better. It’s probably the opposite, since the opposing team can essentially prolong the injury by inflicting pain with hard fouls. Point being, I’m curious to see if Marvin tries to conceal any pain he’s experiencing tonight.
Don’t let them in
Don’t let them see
Be the forward you always have to be
Conceal, don’t feel
Don’t let them know
Well now they knooooooowwwww.
Let it go .. shoot a three .. use the right .. don’t let them know ..
Your #2 draft pick…. Mr. Glass.
Badge Legend