Sacramento Kings take your best shot: Harry Giles
By Tyler Watts
A Royal Pain continues our take your best shot series with a projection of where Harry Giles should shoot from on the NBA hardwood.
The Sacramento Kings drafted Harry Giles at pick 20 overall in the 2017 NBA Draft. It was a fall for a talented big man. He was ESPN’s top player coming out of his school in 2016. Injuries have dampened his stock, so it will be interesting to see if Giles can bounce back this season.
Today, we take a look at Giles’ offensive game with the hope of projecting his most efficient attempt on the NBA court. It is worth noting that we have insufficient statistical information on Giles because of his injuries the last few years, so perhaps he could surprise us this training camp and preseason. Without further ado, let us burn some rubber.
Giles’ best shot
As I mentioned in my profile of Frank Mason, NCAA shot charts are difficult to locate, so let us first take a look at his stats.
Related Story: Kings must watch games for the upcoming season
A knee injury limited Giles to just 26 games last season. Furthermore, he had just 78 attempted field goals for the Blue Devils. Giles did shoot 57.7% from the field last season, and he did not attempt a 3-pointer. It is hard to draw any strong correlation from those numbers, so let us take another path to definitively determining Giles’ best shot.
Fansided’s own Trevor Magnotti wrote a scouting report on Giles during the pre-draft process you can find here. It is well worth the read if you are looking for more information on Giles. In the piece, Mister Magnotti confirms my theory that Giles does not have much of a jump shot. He will try to play like a traditional five and attack the restricted area.
The news is not fantastic as the Kings have a handful of similar players and the league as a whole appears to be phasing those types out, but Giles is an exceptional athlete if he can get healthy.
Final Thoughts
Harry Giles’ offensive game seems limited, and he will be looking to attack the basket and get buckets this season. Big thanks to Trevor Magnotti for his great article and helping us confirm Giles’ best shot. Give him a follow on Twitter @Illegalscreen.
I expect Giles will not see many minutes with Sacramento this season. Right now, he appears buried on the depth chart behind Willie Cauley-Stein, Zach Randolph, Kosta Koufos, and Georgios Papagiannis. I expect Giles will apply his trade for the Reno Bighorns and if he is playing well perhaps a mid to late season call up will happen. For me, it will just be exciting to see Giles on the court. Hopefully, he has a healthy and productive upcoming season.
A Royal Pain is the place for all things Sacramento Kings this season. We have a plethora of content from the offseason up on the site. Now, our team is focusing on all the information you desire to be ready for training camp, so please check back with us often. Thank you for reading.