The Athletic's Sam Amick and Jason Jones dropped a must-read report on the Sacramento Kings Friday morning. Amick and Jones addressed everything from Monte McNair's long-term plan to Luke Walton's job security, and which players on the roster could be available as the March 25 trade deadline approaches.
A lot of Amick and Jones' extensive report was confirmation on speculation we've been talking about for the last several weeks. Amick and Jones confirmed that it is unlikely that Luke Walton will be fired over the All-Star break, for example.
What we didn't know is that, according to rival executives, Mavin Bagley is "up for discussion" in trade talks, and how that factors into Nemanja Bjelica's bizarre benching earlier this season.
Bagley, who has one season remaining on his rookie contract ($11.3 million in 2021-22), has progressed in his first season starting (14.1 points, 7.6 rebounds per game) while making modest improvements on the defensive end. This has taken place, of course, amid his father, Marvin Bagley Jr., complaining about Walton on social media (just like he did Dave Joerger before him) and publicly asking the organization to trade him in early January. Rival executives say Bagley III is up for discussion in trade talks, but the interest in him is widely seen as minimal because of his struggles these past two seasons.
The Bagley component, perhaps more than any other, is a reminder of how challenging rebuilding can be on the players themselves. When the Kings made it a priority to start Bagley at the start of this season, sources say the veteran who lost his starting spot — 32-year-old forward Nemanja Bjelica — was incensed at the idea that he’d been supplanted simply because he wasn’t part of the long-term plan. Sources say Bjelica chose not to play from Jan. 9 until his return to the rotation on Feb. 12, in large part, because of his strong disagreement with the decision and the reasons behind it. On the official record, the reasons given for Bjelica’s absences ranged from “DNP-CD” to “back spasms” to “personal reasons.” He is likely to be traded before the March 25 trade deadline.
Although not terribly surprising considering Bagley's rocky tenure in Sacramento, this report is certainly news. It's important to note here that the source for Bagley's apparent availability is "rival executives" so take that for as many grains of salt as you wish. Amick and Jones are as reliable as it gets in Sacramento, though, so if they're willing to print it, I'm willing to believe it.
This also doesn't mean the Kings are actively shopping Marvin Bagley. It means he's on the table if the right offer comes along. I happen to think the Kings won't find an offer worth pulling the trigger on, but time will tell.
Bagley is a difficult player to trade at this moment in time. I imagine the return package won't significantly move the needle because Bagley's value just isn't that high, and the risk makes me uncomfortable.
Marvin Bagley is still just 21 years old, and finally healthy for the first time in nearly two years. While I haven't been floored by his play considering the high expectations that come with being drafted 2nd overall, we don't have a clear image of what Bagley will become two or three years down the line. If I'm the Kings, I'm not sure risking Bagley's potential is worth the underwhelming return you're probably looking at right now. The best move might be no move at all. Let Marvin Bagley play the year out, see what you have for a little while longer, and make a more educated decision on his future in the offseason.
Maybe Bagley shows no additional signs of development and his value sinks even further. Maybe he continues his recent stretch of decent offensive production and you keep him, or trade him when his value improves, but right now doesn't seem like the optimal time to make this move. I'm sure others will disagree with me on that, but those are my feelings on the Marvin Bagley situation as of today.
If Bagley's value is higher than I'm anticipating, I might feel differently on this. But as of March 5th, I'd consider a Marvin Bagley trade unlikely despite what rival executives are whispering. It's a fascinating report though, I'll give them that.
Monte McNair has exactly 20 days left to figure it out.
Here. We. Go.
I guess someone’s dad is happy to hear this report. 😉
How about Enes Kanter last night!
Seriously lol
…and the trade offers are pouring in!
Henry and Mike Bibby agree.
The Kings ownership and front office is dangerously unpredictable.
Playoffs or tank?
Tank Assistant
Bagley absolutely is tradeable. If someone offered a package that is more valuable than what you perceive Bagley to be (which isn’t inconceivable) then you move him. The only untradeable pieces might be Fox and Hali. But even they could potentially be had if the price was right.
per the report, that’s the problem, teams don’t value him so they’re not going to offer much.
Yes, largely due to the fact that Bagley sucks.
I don’t like that Bjelly decided not to play just because he wouldn’t start. However, I would be pissed off too if they started Bagley over me. I’m surprised this didn’t leak sooner.
At this point, I’d keep Bagley unless the right offer comes around. He’s slowly developing and maybe this offseason he can make a big leap. If Bjelly gets traded it should open up more minutes for him too…. which may help the tank.
“Role-player angry that team prioritizes lottery pick over him for playing time.”
That may be how Bjelica feels, but it’s neither smart, nor a good look for a guy who has a good rep around the league.
I think he’s more angry b/c Bagley sucks.
Ha.
please get rid of Bags. Please! As I’ve been saying, he’s never going to be a player to build around. Useless to try to force something that won’t happen. Don’t care that he’s 21. He not very good—which is why it’s hard to get much of a return. Just do it, whatever it is so you don’t have to use money on dead weight.
I think he is pissed because he is better, and, he took a risk for the club staying here to play rather than going back to Europe and he is a stand up guy who knows how to play the game mentally and physically.
I also wouldn’t be surprised if there are some sour grapes with Vlade being fired and the whole Bogi debacle. Nemanja’s whole demineer looks down.
He does look disenchanted often – I completely agree here
But he balls out and plays productive minutes. The dude is human.
Everyone gets that way when they turn 50.
Agreed … the sad part is, think where we might be record-wise if the best players got the most minutes, not handed them out to try to make the Great Bagley Experiment work.
When you can’t play a guy in the fourth quarter, that should clue you in that you can’t start him in the first quarter either.
Trash Bagley
Not really a good argument when Bjelly also sucks by NBA standards. If he was an above average NBA starter he’d have a legit gripe. But since he isn’t, you have to develop his replacement.
Tbf a lottery pick should still earn his spot or it’s a recipe for terrible team attitude/chemistry
I don’t think he was upset because he didn’t start, he was upset with not playing at all.
Which apparently, he insisted upon.
And again, how is Bjelica not playing on Bagley? He doesn’t call the lineups.
I’m not saying Bjelica is right, but I understand him being pissed about both not playing at all *and* not being traded. What is Bjelica still doing on the Kings? He’s not worth more than a second, and a second and dead salary for the remainder of the year seems like plenty. They’re killing his value in a contract year for no reason.
Totally agree. He’s in a contract year and is being benched for no good reason. This also comes off a very solid year from him when he was one of the better players on the team.
This isn’t a Z-Bo situation where he went from starter one year to sitting at home the next. Nemanja is there every night dressed and ready to play. And when he does play, he does just fine.
Personally, I feel there is something else going on. It wouldn’t surprise me if Nemanja quietly asked for a trade, so Walton just sat him, only to find out Monte is holding out for better offers.
“Okay, we want to trade this guy who’d like out because he isn’t playing. Let’s maximize his value by sitting him for two months.”
Do people actually believe this?
Yes. Typically players who ask to be traded get benched or don’t even dress for the games. Nemanja had multiple DNP-CD in a row.
Could it be that Monte got on the phone during that time and found there were no offers better than a box of rocks? He them tells Nemanja he’s gonna have to grin a bear it until he can find a trade partner so put on your big boy pants? Nemanja reluctantly agrees while wearing the Debbie Downer face.
Isn’t that exactly what happened with Harden until he was traded?
According to a Shams article they linked to in this article, there are multiple suitors for Bjelly (& Barnes).
I’m sure there are, I have no doubts about that, but there were also likely multiple suitors for Harden. It doesn’t mean a GM has to take the first few offers if they don’t pass the sniff test.
I’d argue that by insteting Nemanja back into the rotation his value has held. He’s shot 42% from 3 over the past 10 games after a pretty miserable start. Maybe that is why there are so many reported suitors who also happen to be contenders.
I’m hoping Monte is a smart GM and is embracing a possible bidding war for Nemanja.
I’m assuming the reason that Bjelly & Barnes haven’t been traded is b/c McNair’s hoping for a bidding war. Amick & Jones also wrote that McNair hopes to trade CoJo, but I think that’s less likely to happen.
Yeah, the CoJo things surprised me. I really don’t think there will be any buyers for him.
That being said, he may have value to a contender who needs some backcourt depth and value his non-guaranteed deal next year. He’s close to an expiring so you never know…
Nooo, guys get benched when other teams start asking about their availability, not just because they ask to be traded.
It’s a players league, but only a small group of them can actually demand a trade and be accommodated. Bjelica is not among them.
DNP-CD – Did not play, can’t deal
Dunno Andy, I don’t think there’s any mystery about Bjelica as a player at this point. Sit him, don’t sit him…I’m not sure it changes much.
I agree with you, teams know who he is. That’s just more reason to give Bagley his minutes. I said the same thing about Bogdan, but we’ve managed to lose plenty of games with both of them getting hefty minutes, and neither are part of the long-term plan. May as well let Marvin get the game experience he’s missed while being injured.
All of this just reminds me how grateful I am that McNair let BoBo walk. Chronic knee injuries, and we want him contributing when he’s 32? Guh, pass.
Bjelly made the decision to not play at all.
Are you sure about that? I haven’t read it as that black and white. If a player declined to play wouldn’t he be subject to fines? They guy was dressed and sitting the sidelines every night, so why was he there if he declined to play?
This seems pretty black & white to me:
Sounds pretty black and white to me as well. He’s kinda throwing a tantrum by just refusing to play but he probably though that doing so would get him traded quicker which is what he ultimately wants. Not many 32 yr olds want to be part of rebuilding – just ask JJ Watt lol
I totally missed that, my apologies. Still, wouldn’t that kind of choice by Nemanja be subject to some kind of team punishment?
Either there was no team punishment or the sources for Amick & Jones didn’t talk about the punishment.
I’m absolutely certain that there is no professional sports franchise that prioritizes a player’s concerns because they happen to be in a contract year.
It’s good if you can do right by a guy, but Bjelica getting big minutes doesn’t move the ball forward, and it’s not as if he’s some kind game-changing talent.
Then move him. This isn’t complicated. There isn’t going to be a bidding war. Just get a second and move the guy. Problem solved. They should have done that three months ago.
I guess I don’t understand the rush to trade a guy who’s pissy in January when his value to other teams will be higher as the deadline approaches. Bjelica isn’t a starter in the league other than in very limited circumstances, and there’s just no reason to cut bait and accept less when the possibility still exists of getting more. In fact, packaging him with another player could yield a great deal more.
If you can somehow wrangle pick #38 instead of #58, isn’t that worth inconveniencing said player’s wishes? Even if he stays and goes elsewhere at season’s end, who cares? We’re arguing about nickels and dimes while billion-dollar business is going on.
I don’t think Bjelica’s value is going to change much at all at any point. You know what you’re getting.
Its got to be about using his salary as filler in other trades then
It’s not on Bagley. It’s a silly narrative that has been recently been spun about the Kings wanting to go young when it flies in the face of reality of Cory Joseph getting big minutes.
The Kings seem to want to spin by saying they want to see what they got in Bagley, but in reality there are plenty of minutes for Nemanja as well. IMO, when he got a handful of DNP-CD in a row, it wasn’t not because they were prioritizing Bagley. That’s bullshit and is evidenced by Bagley not playing in the 4th quarters of those games.
You don’t make rotation decisions based on what’s best for the development of a guy on a two way contract.
Also I would bet a large sum of money that Walton and McNair are on the same page about how to handle Bagley’s 4th quarter minutes.
Bjelly made the decision that he wouldn’t play. He benched himself.
Let’s not forget that tese are reports. Could be accurate or could be wrong.
It is weird that at the start of yhe season Bjeli played 10 games and was okay with coming off the bench and then suddenly became incensed and refused to play. In a contract year.
I think if Bagley is legitimately outplaying Bjeli or at least is ont he same level it wouldnt be an issue. But imagine being a former Euroleague MVP and a solid NBA contributor losing your spot to the concept of “must play the high draft pick regardless of production”. It suuuuucks.
Bagley’s scoring average of 14.1 might be closer to 17 if he hit his free throws. Not bad for a 21 year old with potential upside.
All in all, I agree with the author. Bagley should be on the trading block, but I don’t see the Kings moving him right now, unless they get an offer they can’t refuse.
Only avg 3 free throws a game… so even if he shot 75% he would only be around 15 a game. But I agree with your general sentiment.
I did see that stat afterwards, probably would be closer to 15 a game. Still not bad for only playing 26 minutes a game.
Yeah I’m with you. Would trade if getting quality back but that seems like fantasy at this point. I’d rather keep and roll the dice that he turns into a quality starter.
There have been signs of his offensive game sense improving bit by bit…I don’t see why the same couldn’t happen defensively and at least get him to passable on that end.
He doesn’t want to be here. It’s just kicking the can a bit further down the road and hoping his value will have increased by then.
We’ll see.
This, I believe is how bad organizations think. “Maybe Bagely will become good Maybe Walton can be a good coach.”
Players don’t typically change much defensively. Look at Buddy. You think he’s gonna get better? No. Neither is Bsgs, not to any significant degree.
Good organizations look ahead a make educated/logical guesses. The odds are heavily in favor of Bags being meh. Good organizations cut bait before it’s too late. Move on, no matter what you get. There are sooooo many reasons why building w Bags is a problem/makes it so hard. Just like if they keep Walton.
I’m tired of these jaded Kings lenses. This team needs to do better not hope a blown draft pick magically turns into a building block. This kind of thought is why Sac is always bad.
Have a thumb, very well-said.
McNair didn’t pick Bagley, he has no investment in him or placating his dad. He should make a hard nosed calculation and do what he thinks needs to be done with Bagley, which is trade him if any decent offer comes along.
Does anyone here believe Bagley would be worth extending?
If not, then we need to trade him now while he still has “untapped potential” that other execs believe they could unlock, hoping that other teams think, “Well, it was the Kings, he was never going to be any good there.”
Let us recoup something for him and move on with a better understanding of what this roster needs (defense and attitude!).
No. Hell no.
14 a game for Bags 20 a game for the other team va his D. It’s the spread not the points. Bags spread is mostly negative. Like an average RB that loses 5 10% of the time,kills a drive more often than extending one.
I think even if he may not get traded this deadline, it’s easy to see signs that he’s not long for this team.
-His father’s trade demand.
-His lukewarm response to his father’s trade demand.
-The wishy-washy interview regarding future the other day.
-HIs coach’s aversion to using him in important moments. This isn’t a Luke thing; he’d have that problem under a lot of coaches.
-This is Vlade’s player, not McNair’s. Not to mention, McNair is a Daryl Morey student; has Morey ever valued players in Bagley’s archetype?
I agree with you, in that Bagley is available, because pretty much everyone is available. Despite the perpetual cries from a vocal minority, Bagley is showing real improvements, and shouldn’t be moved just to satisfy people who are angry at Marvin because some dumbass whose jersey is retired here decided that making the obvious pick just had to be some kind of trap.
Ignore everything except the results, Bagley is making strides. A player’s draft position doesn’t mean shit once they hit an NBA court. It tells you about the front office, not a bout the player.
Bagley will be a restricted free agent in a year and a half. If I were the GM, I wouldn’t want to have to pay him big money based on the hope that he’ll eventually become the second or third best player on a contending team.
That may be true and logical and all that, but it is much more fun to paint anyone willing to trade him as a Bagley hater.
I didn’t say anything about free agency. Did you inadvertently reply to me instead of making a standalone comment?
“sims, you fool! Can’t you see that this was an attempt to change the subject using a straw man argument?”
This is why I advocated for trading him last off-season. His value gets lower and lower the more he plays. This situation reminds me of when the Sixers had to trade Okafor for nothing.
Thanks again Vlade
Oh, definitely. We’d absolutely have gotten more in return last season if we’d shopped Bagley while he was injured for a couple of months. Suitors can’t get enough of a player on crutches.
I understand and appreciate that individuals all think in a unique fashion, so can you help me understand how Bagley’s value is lower now than twelve months ago?
there is now more evidence that Bagley is who he is, and he’s year older now
You agreed with me, and you don’t even realize it.
Trash IS what Bagley thinks he is.
Wheres Marinković, the last draftee by The Valdefather?
I bet he has better game than Marvin THE BUSTley
Now trade buddy and bagley for Beal
Any interest in acquiring some of my very fine 50 cent pieces for a $20? Asking for a friend.
How about Buddy, Bagley, and a couple firsts?
I’d do buddy, bagley, and 1 first round pick. More than that is too much. I dont see the kings being a playoff team with that trade but they would definitely be better than they are now. maybe a 0.500 team if that trade goes through.
Not too long ago I was buying 50cent silver halves for $7.50 each. Those days are gone.
It would take Bagley, Buddy and about 5 first round picks/swaps. If the Wizards actually want to trade Beak they’ll get much better offers than what the Kings potentially could give them.
Agreed. It would take a boatload of picks and swaps. And therefore in the end not worth it.
I don’t know. I’ve been watching Bagley. I’ve even seen him put some effort in on the defensive end. He definitely has the potential to be a good defender. His offense is already there, pretty much. Hopefully he doesn’t turn into the next Michael Beasley
Nah, I’d prefer Zion, LeBron, Kawhi or Luka, maybe somebody like that instead.
Bagley should be SO much better than he looks right now. Not sure what to make of him. It’s a gamble to move him. He could easily put on muscle and take it to the next level. But he may also flatline and have a Jason Thompson career. Trading him now at his low value is a tremendous risk, but I’d throw him in if it was part of much more impactful deal.
I think he’s having a Jason Thompson career now. Also, a Bagley’s age Thompson will still at Rider College.
We should all be so much better than we are right now.
Actually, I think it’s the opposite. It’s more of a risk to think Bagely will become good and having to shell out $ then moving on.
Bagley will be lucky to have Jason Thompson’s career at this point.
Bagley is already better than Jason Thompson ever was.
Monte on phone: “He, fellow GM, just wanted to see what’s up and what your thoughts are on Marvin Bagley?”
Other GM: “I think Bagley looks better in a Kings uniform than my own team’s uniform.”
Monte: “Ahhh….well….ok, thanks and talk to you later.”
When is Bagley’s brother going to college? The Bagley family might move with him and Marvin won’t have to be living in his parents basement anymore. Even on his rookie contract he can afford a nice apartment in Sacramento. Seriously, I think by his sixth year (like Julius Randle, though they’re talking trade for him too) Bagley will be a top 10, top 20 big in the NBA. Not up there with some #2 picks like Kevin Durant and Carmelo Anthony but way ahead of other #2 overall picks like Derrick Williams and Jabari Parker (just to name guys who played for the Kings).
If the Kings stand pat on Bagley, Barnes and Buddy, I, frankly, won’t be unhappy.
Marcus is at ASU right now.
And he’s even worse in defense and not as dominant on offense. Coached against him multiple times at the hs level
They can only have one. Bagley or Hield. Having both is too much of a liability on the defensive end.
I would be very unhappy. I am positive Buddy and Barnes won’t be on the next Kings playoff team and about 95% positive Bagley won’t either.
How certain are you that Fox will be ?
Not very
That’s a tough one. I think because he just signed the max extension that he probably will be. I actually feel pretty confident that Haliburton will be on the next Kings playoff team though.
Carmelo was the #3 pick, because … Darko. That happened.
Thread Jack: I think TKH should not be copying sections from a paid website and posting for us to see. I understand its a slippery slope to try to paraphrase without copying, but I think its something to consider since good journalism is hard to find. Side note: I’m on a deal for The Athletic for $1/month, so good deals are to be had.
I’m assuming that’s just a snippet of the article? The link and author are included, so the site is being promoted. Seems pretty standard.
So it feels to me like this is ok, unless that’s a decent portion of the article.
Very small part of the article. The article goes into a lot of other things with the FO, luke, Monte, Dumars, etc. I would agree that they are still promoting the Athletic.
It is funny though, every time the Athletic posts an article there are immediately articles about the same thing from bleacher report, clutch points, SB Nation, etc. The Athletic is becoming the go to for written sports journalism.
Yeah the article in question is almost 2000 words. The amount were shared from it is on the upper end of how much I’m comfortable sharing from a paywalled article. It’s always a fine line to walk, because we want to respect the paywall, but we also want to share relevant information and context.
Any time we share from a paywall we’re considering two aspects: how much of the content are we sharing, and are we providing enough of our own analysis to warrant it.
Some places will just take snippets and share them without any other insight, analysis, or commentary. That, to me, is basically just stealing content. Whereas here Tony is using that snippet for a larger discussion, going more in depth on that specific topic than the article being referenced.
That’s the interesting part to me. It sounds like the implication is that there is a percentage of paywalled material that is okay to share, as opposed to a word count. As a rule of thumb, would you say it’s ten percent? Twenty-five? The snippet in question is definitely substantial, at over 230 words.
Would it be better to use a smaller amount, and then add additional context from the writer? It’s more work, but I know that the writers here are more than capable of the task.
This is a summary of a book by Cory Doctorow from 2016 called Information Doesn’t Want to Be Free. There are some really good ideas about copyright law, censorship, and the ability of people to access information in the internet age.
I see both sides of it. As someone who loves doing research, I’d love to be able to freely access any possibly available bit of information, while at the same time knowing that people who have created this information deserve to get paid for it. I’m not even sure that there’s a way to equitably balance those competing viewpoints. From my point of view, this short video with Harlan Ellison is difficult to disagree with.
Not a year goes by when your employer doesn’t expect you to be more productive without providing additional compensation. At some point, the bill must be paid, or the productivity/content will disappear so that writers can earn a living doing paid work.
My guess is that Amick and Jones would bless TKH’s posting and link. The Amick/Jones article is immense, and the amount quoted in the article above is but a fraction of it.
This is not copyright infringement under these circumstances – it’s free advertising.
Agree, and I literally joined The Athletic yesterday after seeing this article. Money well spent, what a beautiful, informative app!
So did I after reading the 1$/month comment. That’s a great deal! The snips are free promotion, they’ve always made me want to sign up but I’m too cheap
I don’t expect that Amick has the juice to decide what portion of his work submitted to the Athletic is fair game for other sites, whether he approves of it or not.
To me, Bagley being available & having a low trade value was only the 3rd most important part of the article. Bjelly benching himself & the reasons that Walton won’t be fired were more important aspects of the article.
You can say this about every single NBA player. Hoping for transformations seems like a wasteful business strategy to me.
.
.
Luke Walton on Jan. 24, via James Ham and NBCSports. The Bee and James Ham trying to check and balance each other amidst the dysfunction…
Sounds like one is talking to the player and the other the team.
Exactly
In 99 cases out of 100, there’s very little that you can do with eighteen-year-olds other than to hope that they become what it is that you want. The option of drafting a kid who already meets every expectation for a jump to the NBA is exceedingly rare.
The entire draft is based on hope for transformations. That is literally the business model for professional team sports.
Agree. Wasteful and bad business policy. Not what good teams do. Kings fans have set the bar too low. We have Kings syndrome. Glomming onto anything, hoping for miracles, ignoring reality/logic.
You can absolutely hope for transformation prior to a certain amount of minutes played in the NBA, IMO. If Haliburton didn’t improve one iota the rest of his career, he’d be a pretty solid player. But I’m sure the team is hoping he “transforms” into something more than that.
Fox, as well (that was the entire basis of giving him a max extension).
Since Bagley pretty much missed his second year, for all intent and purposes he’s in his second year. I’ve seen improvement from his rookie season thru now. Like James Ham said “there is a ton of talent there”. Since interest is minimal I would let Bagley play out his rookie contract, then go from there.
Or, he sucks, won’t get better and I’d gladly take any player on any roster plus a second round pick for him just so we can all move on finally.
Either way.