Well, I'll give my two cents on this deal. I've done my best to be supportive of Bagley since we drafted him, and I was fine with drafting him at the time. It's easier to be critical three years later when we see what the results are, not only of Bagley, but of those drafted before and immediately after him. None of that was his fault, and he didn't aske to be drafted 2nd in the first round. Matter of fact, I believe he thought he should have been the number one pick. He would have been wrong, but I admired his confidence at the time.
If you take away the players he was sandwiched with, his numbers don't look so bad. At least offensively. I'm a results guy, and the reasons either positively or negatively don't matter that much after three years, only the results matter. At least that's how I would look at it if I were the GM. A player who has been mentioned in comparison to Bagley of late, and for obvious reasons, is Sam Bowie. He regarded as one of the worse draft choices in the history of the NBA. Why, because he couldn't stay on the court, and no matter how good you are, if your not out there playing, your of no value to the team..
So did some research and it turns out that Bowie played in 119 games in his first three years. How many has Bagley played in his first three years? 118 games. Now I believe that Bowie only played in 5 games in his 4th year, and I'd be shocked if Bagley didn't play significantly more than that. But so far, he's on the same career path as Bowie. To be fair, Bowie's injuries were chronic, and so far Bagley's haven't been. So there's a good chance for a solid restart, if not with us, then somewhere else.
Another question that kept popping up in my head is why is Holmes so popular with the fans, and Bagley isn't. It's not that Bagley has been hated upon by most fans. I would say that for the most part the fan base has been somewhat ambivalent toward Bagley. They neither love him or hate him, and hope for the best. Back to the Holmes question. It's certainly not something totally based on results, because they put up very similar numbers. Holmes averaged 14 pt's and 8 boards along with 1.7 assists while Bagley averaged 14 pt's and 7.5 boards along with 1.0 assists. I suppose the fact that Bagley was the 2nd pick in the draft, and Holmes was a 2nd rd pick enters into the equation because of expectations, but is that fair? That's a question for another day.
I think it would have helped if Bagley had a charismatic engaging personality like Haliburton and Fox, but he doesn't. Or if he does, he doesn't care to share it with us. He comes across somewhat aloof. It would help if he were out there waving a towel or fist pumping during a game like Justin James and crew. But instead he's sitting in the back row with ear phones on. I take umbrage with the idea that we don't have one of the best fan bases in the NBA. All fans ask is that you give them a reason to like you. And were not picky, we'll take any excuse. Just make an freaking effort, and we'll start looking the other way when your late on a switch or with help.
My gut tells me that McNair will do everything within his power to move Marvin this offseason. It's likely that the only conclusion is a divorce. It scares me because the last thing I want to see is Bagley traded, and then be in the all star game two years from now. It's a shame that Bagley followed up that "like" with removing all evidence of Sacramento and the Kings from his social media platform. One could have considered the "like" a reference to Ayton's post. But he went all in with the social media change. That's not how you endear yourself to a fan base that's been more tolerant of the injuries and poor defense than I expected.
He should feel blessed he wasn't drafted by the 76'ers or the Knicks where he would have been flayed and barbequed by now. I think all things considered, he's had a fairly easy ride as far as criticism is concerned. That's not to say he hasn't had a rough go of it physically, but that has nothing to do with the fans and I'm sure he wasn't trying to get injured. As I said when I started, I'm a results guy, and so far, Bagley hasn't given me anything to write home about. Yeah, I know, he hasn't stayed on the court long enough to get the needed experience. But at this point, I don't care about that. I only care about the results! The Why's are now irrelevant!!
