Life without their two cornerstone players has been tough for the Sacramento Kings, but they’ve learned plenty about their supporting cast.
Athletes getting injured is never a good thing. The Sacramento Kings have been dealing with injuries to their cornerstone players for the entirety of the season, which has undoubtedly set the team back in their development and progress.
As much as the injuries to Marvin Bagley and De’Aaron Fox have negatively affected the team, they have not come without silver linings, and might even be blessings in disguise.
Things looked ugly on opening night when the Kings were blown out in embarrassing fashion in Phoenix. We were worried about late-game injuries to both Fox and Buddy Hield as they limped into the locker room, both a little dinged up. The news the next morning was that they’d both be fine, but it was Bagley who had suffered a significant injury.
The original prognosis was that Bagley would miss 4-6 weeks with a fractured thumb, adding yet another chunk of development time missed due to injury for the second-year big man. His recovery has taken far longer than anticipated, though he will likely make his return to the court this Wednesday, which will be exactly seven weeks after the initial injury.
Things got even worse for Sacramento after the ninth game of the season. News broke on Monday, November 11th that Fox had suffered a Grade-3 ankle sprain and that he would be re-evaluated in 3-4 weeks. While a sprain of that severity causes players to miss an average of 33 games, it has been rumored that Fox is well ahead of that schedule. During the broadcast of Monday’s game against the Rockets, Grant Napier said “hopefully De’Aaron Fox in two weeks” when talking about returns from injury.
While the injuries have certainly hurt the Kings both in their development and in the win column, we might look back at this rough stretch as a blessing in disguise.
Here are four guys who have benefitted from the absence of Fox and Bagley: