Rookie Report: Marvin Bagley Continues to Dominate For Sacramento Kings

With Harry Giles shut down with an injury, Marvin Bagley III continues his big play as the Sacramento Kings’ season nears an end. How will his three-point shot improve his game?

Alas, the week finally came. Yes, the Sacramento Kings were finally eliminated from playoff contention last week after falling to the Houston Rockets on March 30, even after a 20-12 night from Marvin Bagley III.

This feels like a major disappointment even though… I mean, read that sentence again! The Sacramento Kings were not eliminated until the end of March! That has not happened since I was in high school. It is a major accomplishment (relative to past “success”) and much of that growth and improvement came off the backs of the team’s two rookies.

Although there will not be much to say about Harry Giles (read below), I am happy to report that Bagley has continued his elevated play since coming back from injury. We will dig into it below in a slightly shorter Rookie Report as the season winds down.

As always, the Rookie Report considers a week to be Sunday to Saturday. Thus, the Rookie Report this week is only looking at the games against the Los Angeles Lakers, Dallas Mavericks, New Orleans Pelicans, and Rockets.

On to the Rookie Report!

Marvin Bagley

Weekly Stats: 17.3 ppg, 8.3 rpg, 1.3 apg, 0.5 stls, 1.0 blks, 50.0% FG, 40.0% 3PT, 52.9% FT

Overall: 14.7 ppg, 7.4 rpg, 1.0 apg, 0.6 stls, 1.0 blks, 51.7% FG, 30.0% 3PT, 69.8% FT

Advanced: 19.2 PER, .574 TS%, 15.1% TRB, 6.1% AST, 3.4% BLK, 23.7% USG, ORtg 112, DRtg 110

Marvin Bagley continued his strong push to end his season, putting up a 17-8 line this week. His biggest game was likely the one against the Lakers where he put up 25 points, 11 rebounds, and a pair of nice assists. What stands out to me when rewatching the tape is the fact that Bagley never seemed to take his foot off the gas, even when the Kings were down by double digits.

As Bagley continues his (hopefully long) career with the Kings, it will be worth keeping tabs on his three-point shooting. Watch the clip above against the Lakers again. Notice how fluid his three-point shot can look in the context of a play. At his worst, he can tend to force the long ball at the expense of anything else going on the court. At his best, however, he takes advantage of his defender leaving him alone on the perimeter and makes the opposing team pay.

Marvin did not shoot many at all this year (1.4 attempts with 0.4 makes), but his shooting stroke looks good enough that he could become a nice stretch option in the future. Obviously, his main strengths will always lie in his post game and elite speed. But if he can add a perimeter weapon to his repertoire, his value will be immense to his squad, maybe even enough to vault the Kings into the playoffs for the first time since the Bush administration.

Keep in mind that DeMarcus Cousins did not shoot many threes for the first couple years of his career either. Once he found that aspect to his game, he became a perpetual All-Star. Bagley, take notes.

Harry Giles

Weekly Stats: N/A

Overall: 7.0 ppg, 3.8 rpg, 1.5 apg, 0.5 stls, 0.4 blks, 50.3% FG, 0% 3PT, 63.7% FT

Advanced: 14.3 PER, .526 TS%, 13.9% TRB, 15.2% AST, 2.3% BLK, 232.% USG, ORtg 101, DRtg 109

Unfortunately, Harry Giles did not dress for a single game this week. Thus, not much to report. It frankly did not surprise me that they eventually shut Harry down for the rest of the year. With the playoffs out of reach and the season done in a week, there is little point in continuing to play him.