Grooming Marvin Bagley

December 19, 2018

Home » Commentary » Grooming Marvin Bagley

Few people like to discuss injuries and many are too superstitious to mention the subject. I generally have both reservations but sense it’s an appropriate time to hope, and assume, that the Kings are going to carefully control the recovery of Marvin Bagley and his playing time the rest of the season. Against the Warriors last week Bagley was bumped under the basket and fell on his left knee. He arose and soon scored a layup, his fourth point in five minutes, but had to limp off the court and into the dressing room. An MRI ruled out the worst – structural damage – but detected a bruised bone. Since the projected reevaluation of his knee won’t occur until about two weeks after the injury, and Bagley probably can’t practice hard in the interim, he may miss about a month. The most recent setback follows an early December muscle pull in his lower back that consigned him to the bench for two games. And in July, Bagley suffered another bruised bone, this one in his pelvis, and had to sit out the rest of the summer league.

This sequence certainly doesn’t prove Marvin Bagley is injury prone but does demonstrate that at this stage of his career, when he’s only nineteen and rather thin by NBA standards, he’s getting bounced around more than he’d prefer. When Bagley’s knee heals, the Kings will probably limit his minutes, at least for a while, to something close to the 23.1 he’s averaged for the season. Such restraint may not be easy for the team because Bagley’s 12.7 points and 6.1 rebounds a game project to a stellar 19.8 and 9.5 per 36 minutes. However, since the man starting ahead of him, Nemanja Bjelica, is playing well and the team is winning more than losing, it’s possible we won’t see any more 30-minute outings from Bagley. He’s only had two of those as a rookie, the longest stint being 34 minutes against the Warriors in November when he scored 20 and snared 17 rebounds during a one-point loss.

At this point, and in particular during the off-season, Bagley and the Kings will focus on adding muscle and weight to a frame that needs more armor. I’ve seen his weight listed from 195 to 235. He certainly doesn’t weigh the latter and I hope he’s heavier than the former. Whatever his current weight, he needs at least 15 more solid pounds before next season. Bagley’s limited minutes to date, which have aggravated some fans and a few officials in the front office, now appear to have been an inspired plan of restraint by coach Dave Joerger. Let the young fellow get experience without pushing too hard on the accelerator, then patiently transform him into a hardened target.

George Thomas Clark

George Thomas Clark is the author of Hitler Here, a biographical novel published in India and the Czech Republic as well as the United States. His commentaries for GeorgeThomasClark.com are read in more than 50 countries a month.

Recent Commentary

Books

HITLER HERE is a well researched and lyrically written biographical novel offering first-person stories by the Fuehrer and a variety of other characters. This intimate approach invites the reader to peer into Hitler’s mind, talk to Eva Braun, joust with Goering, Goebbels, and Himmler, debate with the generals, fight on land and at sea and…
See More
Art history and fiction merge to reveal the lives and emotions of great painters Vincent van Gogh, Pablo Picasso, Frida Kahlo, Diego Rivera, William H. Johnson, Lee Krasner, and many others.
See More
This fast-moving collection blends fiction and movie history to illuminate the stimulating lives and careers of noted actors, actresses, and directors. Stars of this book include Humphrey Bogart, Clark Gable, Marilyn Monroe, Bette Davis, Alfred Hitchcock, Clint Eastwood, Cate Blanchett, and Spike Lee.
See More
In this collection of thirty-eight chiseled short stories, George Thomas Clark introduces readers to actors, alcoholics, addicts, writers famous and unknown, a general, a lovelorn farmer, a family besieged by cancer, extraterrestrials threatening the world, a couple time traveling back to a critical battle, a deranged husband chasing his wife, and many more memorable people…
See More
Anne Frank On Tour and Other Stories
This lively collection offers literary short stories founded on History, Love, Need, Excess, and Final Acts.
See More
In lucid prose author George Thomas Clark recalls the challenges of growing up in a family beset by divorce, depression, and alcoholism, and battling similar problems as an adult.
See More
Let’s invite many of the greatest boxers and their contemporaries to tell their own stories, some true, others tales based on history. The result is a fascinating look into the lives and battles of those who thrilled millions but often ruined themselves while so doing.
See More
In a rousing trip through the worlds of basketball and football, George Thomas Clark explores the professional basketball league in Mexico, the Herculean talents of Wilt Chamberlain, the artistry of LeBron James, the brilliance of Bill Walsh, and lots more. Half the stories are nonfiction and others are satirical pieces guided by the unwavering hand of an inspired storyteller.
See More
Get on board this collection of satirical stories, based on news, about the entertaining but absurd and often quite dangerous events following the election of President Donald J. Trump in November 2016 until January 6, 2021, shortly after his loss to Joe Biden.
See More
Join Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders, Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, Jeb Bush and other notables on a raucous ride into a fictional world infused with facts from one of the roughest political races in modern U.S. history.
See More
History and literary fiction enliven the Barack Obama phenomenon from the African roots of his father and grandfather to the United States where young Obama struggles to control vices and establish his racial identity. Soon, the young politician is soaring but under fire from a variety of adversaries including Hillary Clinton, John McCain, Sarah Palin, Sean Hannity, and Rush Limbaugh.
See More
These satirical columns allow startlingly candid Saddam Hussein and George W. Bush to explain their need to control the destinies of countries, regions, and, ultimately, the world. Osama bin Laden, Dick Cheney, Condoleezza Rice, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Karl Rove, and other notables, not all famous, also demand part of the stage.
See More
Where Will We Sleep
Determined to learn more about those who fate did not favor, the author toured tattered, handmade refuges of those without homes and interviewed them on the streets and in homeless shelters, and conversed with the poor in the United States, Mexico, Ecuador, and Spain, and on occasion wrote composite stories to illuminate their difficult lives.
See More
In search of stimulating stories, the author interviewed prostitutes in Madrid, Mexico City, Havana, and Managua and on many boulevards in the United States, and he talked to detectives and rode the rough roads of social workers who deal with human trafficking, which is contemporary slavery, and sometimes used several lives to create stories, and everywhere he ventured he witnessed struggles of those whose lives are bound In Other Hands.
See More
In compressed language Clark presents a compilation of short stories and creative columns about relationships between men and women.
See More