The Kings, long mired in relative insignificance, have surprisingly put together a strong start to the 2018/19 season, writes James Blancarte of Basketball Insiders. Buoyed by the play of guards De’Aaron Fox, Buddy Hield, and Bogdan Bogdanovic and big men Willie Cauley-Stein and Marvin Bagley, the young Kings have a winning record nearly halfway through their schedule as they look for their first winning season since 2005-06.
And while rookie Bagley, the No. 2 overall selection in last June’s draft, has garnered more national attention, Sacramento fans know that the development of their other rookie big man, 20-year-old Harry Giles, is perhaps just as important to the long-term future of this franchise.
Giles, who has bounced back and forth between Sacramento and Stockton this season, knows that while it may be difficult to stay patient, his time may be coming sooner rather than later, especially if Cauley-Stein decides to sign a big offer sheet elsewhere this summer and the Kings opt not to match.
“It’s good. It’s helping me develop. Stay patient and helping me slow down, translate my game to the big leagues. Just trying to play the game the same way I play there, be patient and play with poise. Just let the game come to me. I’m just trying to translate to this.”
Part of Giles’ emphasis on his game moving forward is to put a lot of work into different areas in order to round out his game in what has become an NBA filled with versatile big man who can play outside of the paint, especially on defense.
“(Defense) isn’t difficult but it’s a lot of different things. You got to put together with calling out the screens, the way you want to cover it and so many different things you have to do, positioning to get the rebound too. You got to be smart with things like that. It comes with time, it comes with experience. It comes with guarding different players. I think you guard every player in the league, it’ll change up. But for the most part, it’s great.”
Luckily for Giles, the Kings are open to waiting patiently for him to improve his game and develop, as general manager Vlade Divac doesn’t appear to be keen on making any drastic moves in order to increase the team’s playoff chances in sacrifice of the franchise’s future.
I dont see it honestly they drafted bagley to be there pf because giles has shown so little on the court. I think he could be a bench piece or maybe a starter on another team but i doubt he overtakes bagley now or ever.
He was injured all last year, no kidding you didnt see it.
He’s not there to take Bagleys spot. U should read the article before u post. Clearly stated above. He’s the being groomed to b the back up to WCS or take over for him if he signs a big offer sheet the Kings don’t match. Smh. It’s like a 5 paragraph article with 2 quotes my man. It’s not hard to read
Whats more idiotic is letting wcs walking for giles whom has no bounce and is a shell of what he was in high school. Giles is a pf not a center basketball ref too maybe you guys should try reading
Swing and a miss
Scary thought. Giles has played very little BB the past 5 years and he’s only 21. He was a flyer in the draft, and should still be thought of that way.
If Bagley develops as a PF (and IMO that’s his only path to stardom), and WCS isn’t re-upped at a big number, then Giles has a path to a starting position as a C over the next year, where his athletic profile is close to elite. If not, I think his 4-year clock will run before they really can evaluate him.
Whether he be the replacement for a departing WCS or a backup PF/C behind Willie and Bagley, I think Giles will be playing quality minutes for the Kings by next season.
Kings need to be re-signing WCS not waving him off and talking about Giles who lacks wiles. They will likely re-sign Koufas too. Bagley and Bjelica can both rebound. Have they given up on keeping WCS?
Who even said Giles was key to their future? He’s a “flyer” as @DXC said. The article is behind a paywall.
Harry Giles looks like a totally different person after sitting out last year. He went from clearly having no legs under him, and massively diminished athleticism to potentially being Chris Bosh. I’m excited to see how he does, but I also see the log jam at that 5 spot on this team, as well as a couple of redundancies both there and at that backup combo guard spot, with the need for another wing player.
I’m a fan of WCS, but I always thought he would be better with a different team. They have to figure out what to do with all of their bigs, b/c those guys have potential, and need chances to keep developing
I never thought Bagley was going to be a good fit there, but I really liked what he was doing before his injury, and he seems to have improved in areas that were questions for me, and obviously has a lot of room to continue to get better