Kings mailbag: Is medical staff to blame for injuries? When can Harrison Barnes play?
Kings coach Luke Walton can finally begin to piece together his rotation after illness and injuries caused weeks of roster uncertainty.
Harrison Barnes, Buddy Hield, Alex Len and Jabari Parker have all recovered from COVID-19. Richaun Holmes is out of quarantine and De’Aaron Fox was a full participant in practice Friday for the first time since spraining his ankle in practice last week. Marvin Bagley III left the NBA bubble after suffering a foot injury, but otherwise the Kings hope to be at full strength when they resume NBA play against the San Antonio Spurs on July 31 at Walt Disney World Resort near Orlando.
The Kings will still be shorthanded when they scrimmage the Milwaukee Bucks on Saturday, but the roster will become whole in the coming days as Fox, Holmes and Barnes return to the floor. You have questions. We have answers, innuendo and speculation. Let’s get to it in this week’s Kings mailbag.
Note: Some questions have been lightly edited for length or clarity.
Are Kings at fault for injuries?
@hixhicks asks: Viewed from the narrow lens of a frustrated Kings fan, is the spate of injuries on the team a symptom of a downtrodden franchise or typical of what other teams experience over the course of a season?
That doesn’t appear to be the case, but the Kings medical staff has been the subject of scrutiny this season following a series of injuries to some of the team’s best players.
The Kings remained relatively healthy in 2018-19 in their first season under the care of Teena Murray, the team’s vice president of health and performance, and head athletic trainer Joe Resendez, but this season has been a struggle.
Bagley has been limited to 13 games due to a broken thumb, a left midfoot sprain and now a right lateral foot sprain. He briefly returned after missing eight games with the left foot injury, but the team had to shut him down for 21 more games after he aggravated the injury.
Fox commended the medical staff in December after recovering fairly quickly from a severely sprained left ankle, but then there was the shoulder injury to Richaun Holmes. For five weeks, the Kings vaguely described it as “an injury to the right shoulder joint” — and at one point allowed Holmes to participate in full-contact drills at practice — before revealing he had a torn labrum.
When Fox and Bagley both went down with injuries again in Orlando, I asked Walton about his confidence in the team’s medical staff.
“The medical staff does a great job,” Walton said. “They work extremely hard. Marvin came down on someone’s foot on an offensive rebound. That’s one of the most common things in playing basketball, so it’s definitely not that. Our training staff is very qualified. They do a great job and they’re very good at their jobs.”
The number of injuries the Kings have suffered this season is not unusual. Seven players have missed 150 games due to injury, according to Spotrac’s Injured List Tracker. How does that compare to the rest of the league? The Kings rank a middling 15th in games missed due to injury and 30th in number of players injured. That’s right. No team has had fewer players injured.
The injury woes in Sacramento this season have been more about which players are getting hurt. Bagley has missed 51 games and counting. Holmes missed 25 games. Fox missed 19 games. Bogdan Bogdanovic missed nine games. Those are four of the team’s best players.
Establishing continuity has been difficult with players floating in and out of the lineup under a first-year coaching staff, but at this point it doesn’t appear to be a reflection of the franchise – just regular old misfortune.
When will Harrison Barnes play?
@steelmattic asks: What is going on with Barnes? Is he going to be available against the Spurs?
Barnes cleared COVID-19 protocols and was traveling to Orlando on Friday morning. He will have to quarantine for 48 hours upon arrival, but he could join the team in practice as soon as Sunday. Walton said that might give Barnes just enough time to get ready for the first game against the Spurs.
“We’re going to evaluate him when he gets here,” Walton said. “We’re going to be smart about it, but Harrison was probably the guy working the hardest building up to when he tested positive. So we’ll see where he’s at and do some physical testing, but if he’s ready to play that first game, he’ll play. … As long as his baseline is at a certain level, I think he’ll have enough time to be ready for that first game, but we’ll have to wait and see.”
Role for DaQuan Jeffries?
@CJ4011 asks: Does Walton incorporate DaQuan Jeffries into the rotation now?
I wondered the same thing, so I posed that question to Walton following Wednesday’s scrimmage against the Miami Heat. The answer was a solid yeah-maybe, but that was before Barnes boarded a flight to Orlando.
“Yeah, that’s a realistic possibility if Harrison cannot join us,” Walton said.
There will be fewer minutes available for Jeffries and Corey Brewer now that Barnes has arrived to resume his normal role as a combo forward, but this is still a good opportunity for Jeffries and he is making the most of it. He has looked good throughout camp and stood out in Wednesday’s scrimmage, scoring 12 points on 5-of-6 shooting with two 3-pointers and a soaring alley-oop dunk.
“He’s earned that time,” Walton said. “He’s had a very productive camp. He’s really done a nice job of taking advantage of the opportunity given due to the fact that we’ve had, unfortunately, some injuries and some people out with the coronavirus. So he’s had his opportunity in practice and he’s really had a nice couple of weeks so far.”
What about Corey Brewer?
@TristanMG99 asks: Is Corey Brewer going to be in the rotation?
Brewer, a 13-year NBA vet, and Jeffries, an undrafted rookie, are in similar situations, competing for a dwindling share of the minutes.
Both have helped to fill Barnes’ combo forward role in practice, but Kent Bazemore has been running with the first unit at small forward. With Barnes back to log significant minutes at both forward spots, and with Bazemore there to fill in at small forward, there won’t be many minutes left for Brewer and Jeffries.
The allocation of minutes at small forward would change if Walton decides to start a small-ball lineup with Barnes at power forward. In that case, Bogdanovic and Bazemore would probably get most of the small-forward minutes, but Walton might need Brewer or Jeffries for wing depth under that scenario.
Either way, Walton is telling everyone to stay ready because injury or illness could change everything at a moment’s notice.
This story was originally published July 25, 2020 at 4:00 AM.
