IN SPORTS: KINGS BIG MAN READY TO ROLL
‘I’m ready’: Kings’ Marvin Bagley III declares himself healthy for NBA restart
Kings big man Marvin Bagley III said he is healthy and ready to help his team resume its playoff push when the NBA season continues later this month at Walt Disney World Resort near Orlando, Florida.
“I’m doing great,” Bagley said. “I feel great. I feel 100 percent. Been feeling great, getting these workouts in and getting back in the gym. I’m ready. I’m ready to go.”
Bagley, the No. 2 pick in the 2018 NBA Draft, is averaging 14.2 points and 7.5 rebounds this season, but he has appeared in only 13 games. He was sidelined with a foot injury when the NBA suspended its season due to the coronavirus pandemic, but he said he is performing without restrictions this week in mandatory individual workouts at the team’s Golden 1 Center practice facility.
“Right now I’m doing everything in my workouts,” Bagley said Thursday during a Zoom call with reporters. “I haven’t been limited to anything. Just coming in, whatever they have me doing, I’m doing it. I don’t feel any pain. I don’t feel any discomfort in my foot. I feel great. I feel ready.”
Bagley, 21, has been plagued by injuries since he came into the league. Just weeks after being drafted, he was injured in his Las Vegas Summer League debut, suffering a minor “tweak” of his right groin and hip flexor that caused him to miss the rest of the summer.
Bagley missed 20 games due to injuries as a rookie in 2018-19, including 11 games in December and January due to a bone bruise in his right knee and five games in March due to a sprained left knee.
He missed 22 games at the start of the 201920 campaign after breaking his right thumb in the season opener against the Phoenix Suns, an injury that sidelined him for seven weeks. He was out indefinitely when the NBA season was suspended due to the coronavirus pandemic in March, having missed 25 of the last 29 games with a left midfoot sprain.
Bagley said the long layoff was “definitely
a blessing in disguise” for him. He said he used the time off to heal, improve his shooting and add muscle in anticipation of playing the center position, noting he is up to 240 pounds.
“A lot of centers are really muscular and have a lot of muscles,” Bagley said. “To be able to maintain my body and be able to bump against them every night, I knew that was going to be important for me.”
Kings coach Luke Walton hasn’t determined how he will utilize Bagley, who logged minutes as both a starter and a backup when he was available over the first half of the season. Bagley will join a loaded frontcourt that features Richaun Holmes, Nemanja Bjelica, Harry Giles III, Alex Len and Harrison Barnes, who logs significant minutes at power forward in smaller lineups.
Bagley started at power forward before breaking his thumb on opening night. Walton played him at center when he returned.
Walton admitted it would have been difficult to reintegrate Bagley into the rotation when the Kings were playing so well in March. The former Duke star might have a better opportunity in Florida following the shutdown, but Walton said he does not yet know what Bagley’s role will be.
“It’s way too early for that still,” Walton said. “I’m thrilled that he’s feeling better and looking good. You look into the season and one of the things you look at is missed opportunities. Unfortunately, and injuries are part of the game, but he missed a ton of the season, and that’s just so much room for growth for a young player that needs to happen. You need to play to continue to get better.
“So we’ll take a look at it when we get to Orlando and we’re really scrimmaging, and we’ll see who is playing well. Like I said, we were playing really well to end the season, so we weren’t really going to mess with what we had going on rotation-wise at that time. Now that there’s been this much time off, we’ve got to take a look at it again and we’ve got to see who is playing well, who is shooting the ball well, who is in shape.”