Game Thread G24: Kings (12-11) vs 76ers (17-7) @10pm

[LightTheBeam]

By all means give him time. For me, I haven't seen the growth or IQ from Bags to suggest he's a special player.

I think if he does figure it out it will happen during his 2nd contract which probably isn't with the Kings.

But I'd love to be wrong! We need him to be the player he was projected to be. Bagley unlocks so much for the Kings.


The development of his corner 3 is literally the only one area I can say he's improved. Need more of this in all areas of his game.

I mean if the expectations is that hes going to be the player he was projected to be, or be a teams 1st or 2nd best player, I think that ship has sailed.

But players grow all the time, especially big men like him.

Julius Randle is a great example. (year 1 was a lost year) Year 2-4 he wasn't shooting 3s at all. The last 2 years he's been working on it, and this year hes shooting 38% on 4.2 attempts. Now Randle was always a better passer than Bagley but this year (year 7) hes doubled his assist numbers and is averaging nearly 6 per game.

I want to see Bagley become an efficient 15/10 guy who plays average defense, can shoot the 3, and is able to pass out of the block. It took Randle 6 years to get there, Bagley is essentially starting year 2 in terms of games played.

We have another 1.7 years of basketball to watch from him before making a decision.

He definitely seems to have been playing a little smarter on both ends, he's slowing coming along and the jumper is looking better but I still need to see him develop some moves on offense. He really doesn't have any moves when his back is to the basket, he just tries to either go through the defender or get by with that little jump hook. If he can establish a couple go to moves it will really open up his game. One thing I've noticed in the last couple games is he's looking for his guards after a rebound too, in the past he would grab a board and try to push it himself. Let's just hope he can stay healty

Ya definitely. I noticed he had 1 play in each of the last 2 games where the guards left him (think he was playing with the bench IIRC?) and then decided to take it up himself. Again IIRC both times he ended up going the length of the court, beating his man, but not finishing. Was sort of Cousins-esque, except Cousins would let the defender draw a charge or miss and complain that he didn't get the call while the other team was down the court for an easy layup.

The thing I like the most about Bagley is that he tries. I think as long as he keeps that up he will improve. He doesn't seem to have checked out, or like hes only in it for his own stats anymore. Hes trying to make the right move. Sometimes it works sometimes it doesn't. I can live with that.

Was listening to the Clippers broadcast the other night. They had an interesting stat, said in terms of average speed, Bagley is #1 on the Kings. Hes always moving, running down the court, adjusting. Its that kind of hustle that will eventually pay off.

[SmellingColors]

Just to add to this, I know Holmes was in foul trouble, but I loved that Luke rewarded Bagley's hard work earlier on against Embiid with some 4th quarter minutes. It's an incentive to continue playing smart basketball and hard on defense when you know you'll get some late-game burn by playing the game the right way.

Last night was the best Bagley's looked. If he can keep up the defensive intensity and take advantage offensively within the flow of the offense, he'll really make this team stronger even as early as this year. Going to be looking for that against some of these easier teams we have coming up.

[nolang1]

I mean if the expectations is that hes going to be the player he was projected to be, or be a teams 1st or 2nd best player, I think that ship has sailed.

But players grow all the time, especially big men like him.

Julius Randle is a great example. (year 1 was a lost year) Year 2-4 he wasn't shooting 3s at all. The last 2 years he's been working on it, and this year hes shooting 38% on 4.2 attempts. Now Randle was always a better passer than Bagley but this year (year 7) hes doubled his assist numbers and is averaging nearly 6 per game.

I want to see Bagley become an efficient 15/10 guy who plays average defense, can shoot the 3, and is able to pass out of the block. It took Randle 6 years to get there, Bagley is essentially starting year 2 in terms of games played.

We have another 1.7 years of basketball to watch from him before making a decision.

Was listening to the Clippers broadcast the other night. They had an interesting stat, said in terms of average speed, Bagley is #1 on the Kings. Hes always moving, running down the court, adjusting. Its that kind of hustle that will eventually pay off.

Yeah he’s too talented and works too hard to not eventually succeed barring injuries. We’re just in the era where the learning curve for bigs is steeper than ever (with the way the game is officiated, Bagley can get outmuscled because he’s young while Trae Young can leverage his lack of strength into 10 FTAs a game) and it’s not like there are a ton of younger bigs doing better; even someone like Zion has gone from being considered the future face of the NBA to making people realize, hey, it seems like they don’t do a good job of teaching young bigs to play defense at Duke.

Bigs who can roll to the basket, space to three, and attack mismatches 1 on 1 end up being very valuable on offense, and Bagley is ahead of someone like Christian Wood in that regard.

It’s become dogmatic for people to say that Bagley’s a tweener who’s too small for the 5 and not skilled enough on the perimeter, but this season he’s shown that he’s not any worse than Holmes at matching up against elite bigs like Embiid and Jokic (and obviously those two also have their way against plenty of bulkier centers as well). Holmes has been great and is of course better than Bagley at the moment, but I think it’s important to keep in mind that with this similar lack of elite size along with zero floor spacing ability he duplicates Bagley’s strengths and doesn’t really cover for any of his weaknesses. It’s no surprise that putting Haliburton (who has to be on the short list for 6MOY as well as ROY) in and going small with Barnes at 4 is a great lineup for a finishing big like Holmes. Bagley just has to continue to improve defensively (and Holmes was defensively unplayable/not in the NBA at this age) to be able to play 5 in those kind of lineups and add another dimension with his three-pointer.

Back to the basket stuff has never been his game and he’s much better beating opposing bigs down the floor (where the Kings frankly don’t do a very good job of finding him; Buddy in particular seems to screw up an elementary hit-ahead pass or 2-on-1 lob every other game) or facing up and attacking them with his quickness. When he is playing the 4 with Holmes, I’d like to see the two of them combining for 9-10 offensive rebounds a game; with Bagley’s (and Sacramento as a whole really) strengths and weaknesses I think the equation is shifted enough where it’s okay to risk more opponent fast break points for the reward of more putbacks or extra possessions. His year at Duke they actually had a top 10 NCAA defense in large part because he and Wendell Carter Jr. (who hasn’t exactly been a defensive game-changer either) demanded so much attention on the offensive glass that teams weren’t able to get out in transition as much.