Sacramento Kings: Shutting down Harry Giles was the right decision
With Harry Giles still sidelined after suffering a thigh bruise against the Dallas Mavericks on March 21, the Sacramento Kings made the right decision to shut him down for the season.
Harry Giles’ rookie season with the Sacramento Kings has come to an early end after the team decided on Tuesday to shut down the rookie big man for the team’s final five games as he continues to recover from a thigh bruise he suffered last month.
Despite no reported setbacks or structural damage, the Sacramento Kings have decided to play it safe with their prized rookie. As a result, they’ll hold him out for the rest of the season, rather than risk further, more severe, injury in meaningless games after the Kings were eliminated from playoff contention Saturday.
"He’s got some stiffness in his thigh that just isn’t changing,” Sacramento Kings Head Coach Dave Joerger told the SacBee on Tuesday, “We’d rather err on the side of caution and get to his therapy, rehab and workout regimen for the summer.”"
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Despite growing concern the injury might be worse than initially though due to his extended absence, Joerger did his best to quell those fears, telling the SacBee that nothing had changed in regards to his day-to-day status, but that they felt it’d be better to just shut it down for the season. Joerger said they’d like to see him back on the court for NBA Summer League action, which starts on July 5.
Giles, who tore both of his ACL’s in high school, stressed the injury, or level of caution, wasn’t related to his surgically repaired knees, and insisted he’d be fine in the long-term.
While the loss of Giles for the rest of the regular season is a blow to fans who wanted to see Giles in action before the season concludes next week, it was the right move for the organization to make.
After struggling mightily in the early stages of this season, Giles has turned it on over the last month — posting averages of 9.7 points, 4.6 rebounds and 2.2 assists and a 51.9 true shooting percentage. He also posted a season-high net rating of plus-5.8 this month (10 games), an improvement of plus-47.4 (not a typo) from October (six games).
Still, his long-term Health is infinitely more important than whether he could or would continue his hot play upon his return. As such, shutting down Giles was the right decision for the organization to make. There’s just no sense in risking Giles’ long-term Health in the Kings’ pursuit of a .500 record.
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Losing Giles, and his energy, for the season’s final 11 games hurts, but it hurts a lot less than potentially losing Giles for another entire season, as was the case last year.