Well, it’s official. The playoffs aren’t happening for the Sacramento Kings. It seems like just yesterday that they started off the season hot and looked like they would finally end their decade-plus playoff drought. However, it wasn’t a wasted season. The Kings ended another drought, and that was the “look like a competent team” drought, which has been concurrent with the playoff drought. There was hope at the end of last season that the Kings would have some success this season, and for once, that hope wasn’t misplaced. This season’s Kings are a nice team.
Now there are expectations for next season that are more concrete than “eh, I hope they figure it out.” They have Marvin Bagley, for one thing. After years of drafting busts, they now have a guy who totally looks like he won’t be a bust. Just that fact alone should get Kings fans excited. They should all be banging their cowbells over that one.
As for the rest of this season? Well, there’s no harm in letting Bagley take the lead for the final few games. He’s shown some decent iso-scoring ability. While iso-scoring is not fashionable in the NBA right at this moment, it’s still a valuable skill to fall back on in certain situations. The Kings also have plenty of talented passers to help get Bagley used to the concept of shooting quick jumpers off the catch (instead of hesitating and jab-stepping like he does now). In fact, why not let Bagley handle the ball a bit too? He might suck at it and he might get stripped every time, but if he even executes one pick-and-roll with Kosta Koufos successfully, his whole game could change for the better.
Let’s put it another way: if Bagley doesn’t average twenty points per game for the rest of the season, I’m going to delete every Kings-related video from my channel. Someone forward this to Dave Joerger.