Kings News: Bagley Ready To Play; Three Players ‘Doing Well’ In Recovery From COVID-19

As of July 1st, all members of the Sacramento Kings are expected to participate in the season restart later this month

As NBA teams begin to ramp up activity towards a season restart, Sacramento Kings head coach Luke Walton had a press conference via Zoom with reporters to provide updates on his team.

Sacramento, who is 3.5 games back of the eighth-seed Memphis Grizzlies, will be back in action on July 31st in Orlando, Florida at the NBA’s ‘bubble’ site.

According to Luke Walton, as of now, no Kings player has opted out of Orlando.

— James Ham (@James_HamNBCS) July 1, 2020

Per James Ham of NBC Sports California, no members of the Sacramento Kings have opted out of playing the remainder of the season.

Three members of the team–Buddy Hield, Alex Len and Jabari Parker–were announced last week to have contracted COVID-19. On Wednesday afternoon, Walton stated that all three were doing “much better” after quarantining and having time to recover.

Luke Walton on 3 Kings with COVID-19: "You don’t want anyone to get sick, but if you’re trying to find a bright side, if you test positive now, most likely you’ll be ready to play by the time games come around in Orlando. All three of those guys are reporting doing much better."

— Jason Anderson (@JandersonSacBee) July 1, 2020

On how the team would respond if a player or other personnel decided to opt out of participating in the season, Walton stated that there would be “No judgment, no pressure” on those who did not want to travel to Florida.

Matt George of Sports 1140 KHTK reports that Walton made it clear that the real training camp doesn’t start until the team gets to Orlando. For now the team is focusing on individual workouts, skill work, watching film and conditioning.

Bagley Time?

According to Walton, the Kings training staff believes that the second-year forward is ready to play after missing most of the season with injuries.

The 21 year-old has missed 51 of 64 games this season due to breaking his right thumb on opening night and suffering a foot injury in December. Over 13 games, Bagley is averaging 14.2 points, 7.5 rebounds and 0.9 blocks per game.

Walton says it’s “way too early” to think about Bagley’s role. He’s happy he’s healthy and that will be looked at in Orlando

— Jason Jones (@mr_jasonjones) July 1, 2020

In 18 career games that Bagley has played in 30 minutes or more, the talented big holds averages of 20.1 points, 10.7 rebounds and 1.3 blocks per game while shooting 51-percent from the field.

While there is no clarity on what Bagley’s role will be on Orlando, the Kings could use a boost from their young forward in their bid for the postseason.

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