Kings reassign rookie Giles to G League Stockton again; for how long this time?

The Kings announced Wednesday they are sending rookie center Harry Giles III down to the G League for the second time in fewer than six weeks.

Sacramento reassigned Giles to the Stockton Kings hours before their game against the Oklahoma City Thunder at Golden 1 Center. They made the move despite the absence of rookie big man Marvin Bagley III, who is out with a bone bruise in his left knee.

Giles spent one game in Stockton on Nov. 11 before being recalled to Sacramento, scoring 30 points in 23 minutes against the Agua Caliente Clippers. The following night, he posted 12 points and six rebounds in 16 minutes in Sacramento’s victory over the San Antonio Spurs.

Giles briefly regained a place at the back end of coach Dave Joerger’s rotation, but his minutes mysteriously vanished after he stuffed the stat sheet with 10 points, eight rebounds, six assists, four steals and two blocked shots in 20 minutes against the Utah Jazz on Nov. 25.

Giles scored 13 points in 10 minutes in a blowout victory over the Phoenix Suns on Dec. 4. He totaled three minutes over the next six games before scoring 13 points in 22 minutes in a blowout loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves on Monday.

The Kings selected Giles with the 20th pick in the 2017 NBA draft. He played limited minutes in his lone season at Duke and did not play at all for the Kings in 2017-18 while recovering from a series of injuries to both knees.

Giles has posted modest averages of 5.3 points, 2.7 rebounds and 1.2 assists in 10 minutes per game this season, but he has flashed tremendous potential on the rare occasion he gets significant playing time. His averages per 36 minutes of 18.9 points, 9.7 rebounds, 4.3 assists and 2.2 steals rank among the NBA rookie leaders.

This story was originally published December 19, 2018 at 2:22 PM.