Marvin Bagley has been at the center of dispute during a Kings season that hasn’t really gone as planned. From being taken in the draft over Doncic to being injury prone, the big man has heard a lot of jeers this year.
Even though fans were unhappy with Sacramento’s draft choice in 2018, Marvin Bagley showed a lot of promise in his rookie campaign finishing the season averaging close to 15 points a game on 50% shooting and adding 7.6 boards to go along with it.
Despite missing 20 games last season, his solid play, accompanied by the best season Sacramento has had in 13 years, silenced a lot of critics as he seemed to be solidifying himself as an integral part of this team’s future.
In what was to be a promising year where Bagley was supposed to continue to develop his game, he broke his thumb on opening night, sidelining him for quite sometime.
After coming back to the court for a short amount of time, Bagley injured his foot in late December which has kept him out of all but four games since December 26.
In the 13 games Bagley has played this year, he hasn’t been at all magnificent, and on top of his mediocre performances, Sacramento is only 2-11 when he takes the floor this year and 32-43 in his career.
While Kings fans sit and watch both their season go down the drain and their young, promising center stay sidelined most of the season all whilst Doncic blossoms into a superstar, tensions are running high.
Bagley just recently deleted his social media accounts, most likely due to all the criticism the 20 year old is receiving on the platforms.
Is Bagley’s situation frustrating for fans? Definitely — but it’s even more frustrating for the big man who doesn’t even want to be injured.
The fact of the matter is that Bagley is on the Kings. Not Doncic, not Trae Young. We need to be supporting Bagley regardless of his setbacks because, as a player in Sacramento’s organization, he can contribute to the success of this franchise.
Whether fans wanted Divac to choose Marvin or not, he’s here on this team and wants to win as badly as every other person rooting for Sacramento.
We can only hope Bagley doesn’t remain prone to injury as he is still over three weeks away from returning to the court.
He showed great potential last year, and even though he might not live up to the status Doncic seems to be achieving, he could be exactly what this team needs to complement Fox, Hield, and Bogi.
Whoever is rooting against Bagley isn’t doing anything helpful for this franchise. What’s done is done. He is still very young and has another season to allow his abilities to flourish. It’s a long flight over to next season so until then, please try to sit back, relax, and find the silver linings in this disappointing season.
I hope in my heart that Bagley has a great career but my mind fears he will miss much due vhf to injuries.
Kings should sign Bogie to extension pronto.