Sacramento Kings: Ranking De’Aaron Fox and the rest of the starting 5
5. Marvin Bagley III
In his third season, the Kings were expecting Marvin Bagley III to take another step forward in his development. Instead, the power forward has shown signs of regression early on in 2020-21.
Bagley has now made seven starts this season, which is already a career-high. But his scoring numbers are down, averaging a career-low 10.9 points per game. His scoring regression can be linked to his struggles from the field, where he’s shooting an abysmal 35.8 percent. He’s also turning the ball over at a career-high clip (2.3 turnovers per game) and missing free throws at a career-worst rate (58.3 percent made).
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Nobody on the entire team, regardless of minutes, has a worse PER on the Kings than Bagley. Monday night’s blowout loss to the Golden State Warriors was arguably his worst performance of the season, as he scored just five points while turning the ball over three times. Then again, he scored just four points two games earlier against the Houston Rockets.
Bagley’s father tweeted a trade request a few days ago, although it didn’t come from Bagley himself. He’s only 21 years old, but the way Bagley has been playing lately, his value in a trade isn’t going to be particularly high.