Here's my speculated theory with absolutely 0 proof that I've echoed for a long time.
Harry Giles' potential was always based on his highschool hype. The last time he played healthy basketball was in his junior year of HS. Everything was based off everything his play and hype prior to his senior year. However, Giles never made that jump in development. He still hasn't... He played poorly at Duke. He looked nowhere near the same athletically, and showed very little skills. He was basically an off-ball big on limited PT.
The Kings drafted Giles based off the potential he flashed as a junior in HS and nothing else. A player with 2 ACLs. He was a low-risk high reward type player seeing that the Kings had a total of 3 1st round picks. Remember, we had just traded DeMarcus Cousins...our franchise player. There was a lot of uproar over the decision. The Kings drafted Fox, Jackson, and Giles.
Fox instantly became the face our franchise at draft night. The Kings promoted the living crap out of Fox. They needed to after the Cousins trade..or else, why would anyone keep being a Kings fan? They needed hope for Kings fans to look forward to. Fast forward to his rookie year, he starts OFF the bench behind George Hill. He plays decently, but nothing eye-popping. He actually struggled a lot for the majority of his rookie year aside from a couple clutch shots late in the season. He barely looked like a franchise PG... let alone a franchise player. I think any other take would be recency bias or homerism. We lost a lot of games. Our 15th overall pick Justin Jackson also had an underwhelming rookie year. But then... the Kings still had Harry Giles in the back. An high profile19 year old who they sat out the entire season. I think the Kings believed in his potential. However, the Kings also needed to market another player, and they choose Giles.
Suddenly you get random BS quotes like "Giles looks GREAT in practice." "Giles passes like C-Webb!" and a bunch of other BS fed media opinions by the FO to promote Harry Giles and craft a certain narrative. The hype got so insane that people actually started believing that Giles could end up being our franchise player. All based off what? Grant Napear shilling for the FO? I think the FO did believe in some of the talent potential of Giles, but they HEAVILY exaggerated his talents to give fans something to be excited about. Remember, we were slotted to be in the middle pack of the lotto once again..(before we got lucky and made up the jump to #2). There just wasn't much optimism to be had. Harry Giles was a huge bright spot for this team. People became more excited about Giles than they did about Fox and Buddy.
FAST FORWARD to Giles' 1st year playing: he looked extremely raw and underwhelming. His passing was highly coveted, yet he ended up with a whooping 1.5apg in his 14.1mpg of play.
His first year was disappointing. He looked very raw and not NBA ready. Lucky for the Kings, Fox broke out during this year. Buddy became a 20ppg scorer. Marvin also had a good rookie year. Everything about Giles was sent to the back burner...
But I think the Kings were also genuinely invested in Giles' development. For him to spend the offseason with his own personal trainers and not the Kings was probably a slap in the face. Then for him to come back with minimal improvements and speculatively out of shape? That's a big no for an organization who's trying to change the culture. Giles was never good to begin with, but they put a lot of time and resources in him. It seems like they're just cutting loose ends at this point. They acknowledged that he was a gamble, but it just didn't pay off. He's an injury-ridden player. I feel like the Kings just don't think he's worth the investment anymore. Vlade made the mistake of prematurely picking up Papagiannis' 3rd option.. that he definitely DID NOT deserve. Same for Giles. Giles has shown very little outside of his passing vision and love for Sacramento. But as an actual prospect? He's shown nothing to deserve his 3rd option being picked up.
I don't think there's anything else to it. Giles isn't good. Kings fans bought into his hype because there wasn't a ton to look forward to after that 2018 season.
Harry Giles' potential was always based on his highschool hype. The last time he played healthy basketball was in his junior year of HS. Everything was based off everything his play and hype prior to his senior year. However, Giles never made that jump in development. He still hasn't... He played poorly at Duke. He looked nowhere near the same athletically, and showed very little skills. He was basically an off-ball big on limited PT.
The Kings drafted Giles based off the potential he flashed as a junior in HS and nothing else. A player with 2 ACLs. He was a low-risk high reward type player seeing that the Kings had a total of 3 1st round picks. Remember, we had just traded DeMarcus Cousins...our franchise player. There was a lot of uproar over the decision. The Kings drafted Fox, Jackson, and Giles.
Fox instantly became the face our franchise at draft night. The Kings promoted the living crap out of Fox. They needed to after the Cousins trade..or else, why would anyone keep being a Kings fan? They needed hope for Kings fans to look forward to. Fast forward to his rookie year, he starts OFF the bench behind George Hill. He plays decently, but nothing eye-popping. He actually struggled a lot for the majority of his rookie year aside from a couple clutch shots late in the season. He barely looked like a franchise PG... let alone a franchise player. I think any other take would be recency bias or homerism. We lost a lot of games. Our 15th overall pick Justin Jackson also had an underwhelming rookie year. But then... the Kings still had Harry Giles in the back. An high profile19 year old who they sat out the entire season. I think the Kings believed in his potential. However, the Kings also needed to market another player, and they choose Giles.
Suddenly you get random BS quotes like "Giles looks GREAT in practice." "Giles passes like C-Webb!" and a bunch of other BS fed media opinions by the FO to promote Harry Giles and craft a certain narrative. The hype got so insane that people actually started believing that Giles could end up being our franchise player. All based off what? Grant Napear shilling for the FO? I think the FO did believe in some of the talent potential of Giles, but they HEAVILY exaggerated his talents to give fans something to be excited about. Remember, we were slotted to be in the middle pack of the lotto once again..(before we got lucky and made up the jump to #2). There just wasn't much optimism to be had. Harry Giles was a huge bright spot for this team. People became more excited about Giles than they did about Fox and Buddy.
FAST FORWARD to Giles' 1st year playing: he looked extremely raw and underwhelming. His passing was highly coveted, yet he ended up with a whooping 1.5apg in his 14.1mpg of play.
His first year was disappointing. He looked very raw and not NBA ready. Lucky for the Kings, Fox broke out during this year. Buddy became a 20ppg scorer. Marvin also had a good rookie year. Everything about Giles was sent to the back burner...
But I think the Kings were also genuinely invested in Giles' development. For him to spend the offseason with his own personal trainers and not the Kings was probably a slap in the face. Then for him to come back with minimal improvements and speculatively out of shape? That's a big no for an organization who's trying to change the culture. Giles was never good to begin with, but they put a lot of time and resources in him. It seems like they're just cutting loose ends at this point. They acknowledged that he was a gamble, but it just didn't pay off. He's an injury-ridden player. I feel like the Kings just don't think he's worth the investment anymore. Vlade made the mistake of prematurely picking up Papagiannis' 3rd option.. that he definitely DID NOT deserve. Same for Giles. Giles has shown very little outside of his passing vision and love for Sacramento. But as an actual prospect? He's shown nothing to deserve his 3rd option being picked up.
I don't think there's anything else to it. Giles isn't good. Kings fans bought into his hype because there wasn't a ton to look forward to after that 2018 season.
