Slim Charless wrote:kalenclayton wrote:Slim Charless wrote:
So, I just happened to wander onto your board to ask about a trade. What do you think if it was a straight up swap of GIles for Jackson? Is he valued too high for that and you feel he can work at PF or C, or are you guys more flexible on him due to his injury history plus Bagley's showing out this year? Just curious.
Giles has a lot of potential and the front office has invested a lot into him. I think they would only move Giles for a substantial upgrade to the team. The team views Giles as part of the main core (Fox, Buddy, Bogi, Bagley, Giles). While I like Jackson a lot, I’m not so sure he will be more than a defensive specialist who can score here and there. He still has room to grow, but I’m unsure of his work ethic. That’s disappointing to me in many ways, but mostly because he has underwhelmed my own expectations. I thought Jackson could be the best player in the draft before he was drafted.
I can see why you guys would be hesistant to give up Giles. I don't know if him and Bagley can work as they seem to overlap to me, but I understand how you'd want to give that a longer look. I actually feel the same way about Jackson in that I think even if his offensive game never comes he has the great ability to guard the 1-3 positions at a high Marcus Smart/Tony Allen level if it all works out for him.
Speaking of defense, I didn't know Giles was known for being a very good one-has he been that impressive so far this year? I have watched some Kings games, as I live close to Sacramento and he didn't stick out that much, but you guys have seen him more then I have.
Giles didn’t pop really until the 2nd half of the season. The first half had him missing rotations and getting his legs under him. His passing was the first thing to jump out. The guy can flat out see the floor. This is partly why he fits with Bagley. I’ll get to that in a minute. Giles turned up his production in the 2nd half and never really looked back. He does a lot of things really well:
-great court vision and passing
-has a surprisingly good handle
-can shoot the mid-range
-has crafty post moves and very soft touch within 8 feet (pretty impressive when you see him)
-decent screen setter
-decent defensive rotator
-can turn up to good on-ball defense against post players, but this has yet to turn into a fully consistent thing
-his competitive fire is awesome, but he can get mad at some funny things that really were his fault
-proficiently boxes out and tracks the ball well
He has a lot of great attributes. He still has the injury concerns. His knees seem to be fine. The year off with rehab was crucial and the Kings staff was awesome for him. He did get ruled out for the final games due to a thigh injury. I don’t think it was a big deal and it was probably the staff just letting him rest fully.
He needs to work on his defensive awareness (namely PnP, PnR, and help). He got better as the season went on, but all of it was rather subpar to me. His on-ball defense can flash some awesome things, but he will need to keep pushing his intimidator image to make his biggest impact.
I think the guy actually fits well with Bagley. There will be issues with small ball, but he fits well outside of that. They both play with fire. They both are projecting to be very good rebounders. They both have potential to be good defenders. Where they fit is in scheme. Giles can operate really well out of the high post. His passing is near the top of the team. He’s a threat to shoot out to 18 feet. If he can move that out to the 3 and be consistent, then he will be quite scary. Bagley likes to operate in the low post and near the basket. I imagine we will see a lot of Giles to Bagley oops and post entry passes in the upcoming season. Defensively, they both just need time to work together, but they are friends and they seem to push each other. They have the athleticism to wreak havoc though.
