Harry Giles is finally coming into his own, but will the Kings be able to keep him?

Harry Giles has taken a strange path to success.

Giles was once the top-rated high school prospect in the country before a series of knee injuries slowed him down. Giles spent a year at Duke, but didn’t produce much when he played. Entering the NBA draft he was considered an injury risk and a long-term project. The Sacramento Kings selected Giles with the 20th overall pick and ended up treating his rookie season as a redshirt year. The Kings preached patience and spent the year building Giles’ strength and conditioning. They prepared his body to handle the rigors of the NBA.

In his debut last season with the Kings, Giles started slow. He struggled to stay out of foul trouble and his playing time was sporadic. But by the end of the season Giles had found a little bit of a groove and became a fan favorite. Despite being shut down with nagging injuries for the final 10 games of the season, fans were excited by the potential Giles displayed. He finished the season having played in 58 games, averaging 7 points, 3.8 rebounds, and 1.5 assists in 14.1 minutes per game.

This season started with another setback. Giles proclaimed at media day he was ready to go, but was then the team announced he was being held out of training camp for health reasons. Reports suggested some additional nagging injury, or possibly conditioning issues, but Giles’ debut was delayed. He missed the first eight games of the season and then played sporadic minutes for Luke Walton before eventually being benched for 14 straight games as a coach’s decision. Injuries to other Kings big men gave Giles another chance at playing time and he seized the opportunity.

Since returning to the lineup Dec. 29, Harry has earned Luke Walton’s trust and reminded Kings fans how special he can be. Since the All-Star break, Giles has taken it to an even higher level. In seven games since the break, in which the Kings are 6-1, Giles is averaging 12.9 points, 7.1 rebounds, 1.9 assists, 0.7 steal and 0.7 blocks per game. More importantly, in over 26 minutes per game, Giles is averaging just 4.1 fouls. He still has his moments where he commits an inopportune foul or allows his emotion to take over, but he’s demonstrating reserve to make sure he can be available to help the team.

The only concern is whether this signals Giles’ farewell tour with the Kings. This past summer the team declined Giles’ fourth-year rookie option, which would have paid $3.9 million next season and made Giles a restricted free agent the following summer. Instead, Giles will enter this offseason as an unrestricted free agent, but with a twist. Due to a rule in the CBA, the Kings will be limited in what they can offer Giles this summer. The Kings cannot exceed a first-year salary of the $3.9 million they would have paid him if they’d picked up his option. Other teams have no such restriction.

The Kings have said they hope to keep Giles around, indicating they expect to re-sign Giles for $3.9 million or less this summer. But Giles is playing great basketball and is turning heads around the league. Most teams will lack significant cap space this summer, so it’s possible the Kings’ gambit could pay off, but with each new game Harry is making the gamble look like a bigger and bigger risk.

This story was originally published March 5, 2020 at 4:00 AM.