It seems like he might play for a few months.
I’m failing to understand the “youth movement from day one” narrative around the team. Surely, Fox, Bogdan, Hield, Bagley and Giles are good enough to play a lot. If for some reason merit was an issue (and I don’t think they will be) those players will get a boost to develop them.
After that, it’s not like there are any / a ton of good vets. Also, all things being equal, they Kings will certainly play a younger player over an older player. So perhaps a moot point.
But, if coach thinks a vet … Z-Bo, or Kufos, or Shumpert … provides 15 minutes of basketball that provides the Kings with a better chance to win than one of the young players not listed in the first paragraph, why should we assume the Kings are going to play lesser kids over the vets?
The Kings owned their 2018 pick and chased as many wins as possible while ensuring that Fox and Bogdan got minutes. In 2019, they don’t have their pick. They want to stack up as many wins as possible for several reasons. Playing kids for the sake of playing kids doesn’t get you wins … especially not a team as bad as the Kings.
Bad teams and their media sell hope. Normally, that’s a pick or impact free agent. Neither are coming to Sacramento in the summer of 2019. So, they are selling “it’s all about growing the kids really hard.” Again, if coach thinks it’s close between Shumpert and Jackson or Z-Bo and Skal, then I assume the kids play.
Based upon last year, I don’t think the coach thinks any of his forward are currently better than Z-Bo. I wouldn’t be shocked if he played a decent amount early and that is scaled down a lot a Bagley and Giles get better.