Kings coach Luke Walton faces decisions with Marvin Bagley III almost ready to return
Kings forward Marvin Bagley III is ramping up individual workouts and nearing a return after missing the past month with a broken thumb, but coach Luke Walton said he hasn’t determined how he will use Bagley when he gets back.
Walton said Bagley is scheduled to be reevaluated Wednesday and will accompany the team on a four-game East Coast road trip. Bagley has been out since suffering a non-displaced fracture of his right thumb in the team’s season opener against the Phoenix Suns.
The Kings initially said Bagley would be out four to six weeks. Wednesday will mark the four-week mark for the 20-year-old power forward, who has gotten increasingly more physical in on-court workouts with assistant coaches such as Rico Hines and Jesse Mermuys over the past several days. Bagley has been able to run and shoot through most of his recovery given that the injury occurred to his off hand, but Walton said his readiness can’t be assessed until he is fully cleared.
“Once he’s cleared, we have to get him on the practice court,” Walton said. “I’ve played with players like Kobe (Bryant) who miss four weeks and they come back and they’re ready to go at a high level. And then I’ve been a player where, if I missed four weeks, I need another four weeks just to be able to run with everybody. It’s different for everybody.”
The Kings went 0-5 to start the season after Bagley was injured by Suns center Deandre Ayton in the final minutes of a 29-point loss on Oct. 23, but a lot has happened since then. Walton replaced Bagley with Nemanja Bjelica and moved Richaun Holmes into the starting lineup ahead of Dewayne Dedmon, the floor-stretching center who was brought in on a three-year, $40 million deal to play alongside Bagley.
The Kings have won six of eight with Bjelica and Holmes in the starting lineup, moving within one game of the eighth spot in the Western Conference despite losing point guard De’Aaron Fox with a severely sprained ankle. Holmes and Bjelica have played major roles in the turnaround. Holmes is averaging 11.3 points, 8.2 rebounds and 1.4 blocks per game. Bjelica, who is shooting 50.9 percent from 3-point range, is averaging 10.9 points, 6.1 rebounds and 2.2 assists per game.
That combination gives Walton a floor stretcher in Bjelica and an athletic rim protector in Holmes. That’s what Walton hoped he would get from Dedmon and Bagley, but Bagley was hurt on opening night and Dedmon hasn’t shot the ball nearly as well as he did over the past two seasons with the Atlanta Hawks.
Dedmon is averaging 5.2 points and 4.6 rebounds while shooting 38.2 percent from the field and 22.6 percent from 3-point range. He shot 38.2 percent from beyond the arc last season in Atlanta.
When Bagley returns, Walton will have to decide whether he will start or come off the bench and which of the team’s other big men should play alongside him.
“Those will all come into play,” Walton said. “… We’re going to get him back into practice and see how things are going, try groupings and all the things you mentioned, but there’s no answer to any of that right now.”
Bagley averaged 14.9 points and 7.6 rebounds as a rookie last season. Holmes said he is looking forward to having Bagley back.
“I can’t wait to add a talent like that to our lineup,” he said. “We all know what he can do on the floor. It’s just going to make us better, so we’re looking forward to getting him back.”
Sacramento Kings upcoming schedule
Nov. 22 at Brooklyn Nets
Nov. 24 at Washington Wizards
Nov. 25 at Boston Celtics
Nov. 27 at Philadelphia 76ers
Nov. 30 vs. Denver Nuggets
This story was originally published November 20, 2019 at 6:31 AM.
