This is why the Sacramento Kings can't have nice things.
In June, the team selected Duke big man Marvin Bagley III with the No. 2 overall pick in the NBA Draft, the franchise's highest selection since taking "Never Nervous" Pervis Ellison with the top overall pick back in 1989. The 2018 draft was thought to be loaded -- a sentiment validated by the first 20 games of the season -- and the Kings played it safe by taking a known commodity. Bagley had been the top player in his high school class on-and-off since middle school, and he'd done nothing but produce at every level. So the Kings chose him over the hype of European sensation Luka Doncic, the allure of Trae Young and the upside of Jaren Jackson, Jr.
But now, just a month and a half into a season in which the Kings have shown significant improvement and offered their fans hope for the first time in a decade, Bagley, through no fault of his own, finds himself smack dab in the middle of the latest example of the toxic dysfunction that has made the Kings organization the laughing stock of the league for the past several years.
According to reports from both Yahoo Sports and The Athletic, the Kings front office, particularly assistant general manager Brandon Williams, is displeased with the bench role and limited minutes that coach Dave Joerger has assigned to Bagley and some of the other young players in the early part of the season. Things got so heated, in fact, that Joerger reportedly asked Williams not to attend Thursday's shootaround before the team's loss to the Los Angeles Clippers. General manager Vlade Divac has denied that Joerger's job is in jeopardy, but it appears that the tension between the two parties has only intensified despite the Kings' relative success.
And even through all that, Bagley is playing the best basketball of his young career. He's producing more. He's looking more comfortable. It speaks volumes to the maturity of a 19-year-old phenom who's been groomed for the NBA spotlight since before he could get his learner's permit. Bagley has been on a tear in his last six games, averaging 16.3 points, 10.0 rebounds and 1.3 blocks on 54 percent shooting in nearly 29 minutes per game. In his first-ever game at raucous Oracle Arena against the Warriors, he posted a career-high 20 points and 17 rebounds in a one-point loss.
"The game is starting to slow down very well for me. I'm starting to see a lot more things that I didn't see the first couple games," Bagley told CBS Sports. "Just by being more patient and just waiting for things to happen and looking around and seeing the floor -- I think I was rushing a lot of things in the beginning of the season, where I was just trying to -- I was anxious. When I just started calming down a little bit and just playing basketball, I think that's when it started slowing down. And it's slowing down every game I'm out there."
One reason the game might have seemed fast to Bagley is the fact that the Kings are currently playing at the second-fastest pace in the NBA (105.95 possessions per game, according to NBA.com) -- a 180-degree transformation from last season, when they were dead-last in pace (95.59). Teams are playing faster across the league, but no team has made as dramatic a transition as Sacramento.
"We felt like [increasing the pace] was the best thing for the most number of players," Joerger said. "It serves the strengths of the guys that we have. Willie Cauley-Stein can get up and down the floor, open up transition looks from 3 for Buddy [Hield]. We've got [Bogdan] Bogdanovic who can play as a playmaker or a shooter, and we brought in Nemanja Bjelica, who can stretch the floor for the No. 1 reason, which is we feel like we have one of the fastest point guards in the league. It just serves all of those things, and the go fast, play fast, get some easier looks, plays to all of those guys' strengths."
That speedy point guard of which Joerger fondly speaks is second-year breakout star De'Aaron Fox, who deserves much of the credit for leading the Kings to a strong start. He's improved significantly in virtually every stat category from his rookie season, most noticeably his points (17.5, up from 11.6), assists (7.5, up from 4.4) and 3-point percentage (38.1, up from 30.7). And yes, he is fast. Fox's average speed of 4.47 miles per hour is fourth among players who are on the court for at least 30 minutes per game, according to NBA.com. Bagley, fitting in nicely with the Kings' revamped system, has an average speed of 4.54 miles per hour -- fifth among players who've logged at least 24 minutes per game.
Fox's Bob Beamon-esque jump from his first to second season is part of the reason why Joerger feels strongly about bringing Bagley off the bench, rather than throwing him into the starting lineup like so many No. 2 overall picks before him. Last season Fox didn't permanently enter the starting lineup until the team's 15th game, and Joerger thinks there are benefits to bringing rookies along slowly, no matter how talented.
"I think when you have the opportunity to really earn it -- I know we did that with De'Aaron last year, we didn't give him the keys right away, just let him see some things, let him pick some stuff up," Joerger said. "Both [Fox and Bagley] are very cerebral guys. Now, all of a sudden when [Bagley's] time comes -- it might be next week, it might be in two months -- whenever it is to take on more minutes or take on a bigger role, he'll have earned it, and I'm really impressed with it. He is special. He is very, very talented and I hope I get to coach him for a long time."
Moving Bagley to the bench creates more spacing for the Kings' starting lineup with Bjelica at power forward, allowing Bagley to focus on being an energetic scoring big in the reserve unit. The result is a Sacramento bench mob that is sixth in the league at 42.2 points per game.
"It gives us a deeper team with him playing well," Fox said of Bagley. "He's letting the game come to him. I think he's just -- he's executing when his number is called."
Execution is what Bagley will concentrate on, as he attempts to shut off the outside noise about whether he should be playing more and whether he, indirectly at least, could eventually lead to his coach being fired. This could all be a moot point, however, if Bagley can consistently reach the level at which he's been playing over the past couple of weeks. His play could give Joerger no choice but to start him, conceivably making both his coach and the front office happy -- at least temporarily.
"Play to win, and not just play to be out there," Bagley told CBS Sports regarding his nightly focus. "Just be happy to be out there. Just play with passion and the will to win. I think that we do that every night, and I do that every night, and that's all I can ask for."
Bagley takes the court next when his Kings host the Pacers on Saturday night (10 p.m. ET -- watch on fuboTV with the NBA League Pass extension) as he looks to keep improving in his already-productive rookie campaign.
