Marvin Bagley III: “I Am A Whole New Person”

The Sacramento Kings and Vlade Divac made a huge decision this summer when they decided to go for Marvin Bagley III at the NBA Draft.

The franchise from the capital of California had the second choice and a lot of different options. But they decided to take the teenager from Duke, who plays power forward.

The youngster is still adjusting to all the demands of the professional competition, and it seems that he does it very well.

If it weren’t for a knee injury and a bruised bone he suffered, we might even saw better performances.

Just a glimpse of his potential was seen last night against the San Antonio Spurs, one of the better teams in the league. Bagley scored 24 points and 12 rebounds and had 4 assists and 3 blocks.

https://youtu.be/GkbZ9E76JWI

The reporter asked him about his confidence, is it improved since the opening night, and overall, where is he now, compared to that game.

“I am a whole new person,” the player said during the on-court interview, and continued, “I was moving too fast to do stuff, but now I am a totally new person from game one.”

That was Bagley’s third double-double in a row, after having one against Philadelphia and Atlanta. In all games, his Kings came out victorious.

In the last ten matches, the 6-11 forward made huge progress, and some might say that the absence because of the injuries really helped the 19-year old, as much as this sounds odd.

During this recent period, his stats are significantly higher than the season averages. In 39 games during this campaign, Bagley posts 13.2 points, 6.9 boards each night.

In the last 10 contests, 15.6 buckets, 8.8 rebounds. The improvement is obvious. And not only when looking at the numbers, but also when observing the way handles his opponents, both offensively and defensively.

The highlight of the game against the Spurs was his alley-oop 360 dunk, which set the crowd on fire and pumped new energy in the team.

This truly magnificent move wasn’t something he hoped to do, and it was more of an instinctive reaction. According to player’s words, he himself didn’t know how that happened.

“It was just one of those things that when it happened at the moment,” Bagley said,” I wasn’t really thinking about what I was going to do. I just went up and it happened.”

The spectator at the Golden One Center went wild, and when that happens, the visiting team finds itself in a really difficult situation, regardless of its quality.

👀 MARVIN BAGLEY THE THIRD! 👀

📺: @NBATV pic.twitter.com/Ct1en4vkq4

— NBA (@NBA) February 5, 2019

This was the 7th straight win at home for the Kings, and that is something which hasn’t been seen for more than 10 years.

At the moment, David Joerger’s team has 28 wins and 25 losses and is 9th in the Western Conference, half a game behind the Clippers, and 1.5 behind seventh-placed Utah. They have solid chances of reaching the postseason, but they need to continue to perform like now.

“We are playing well as a team, and we got to lock in some more and finish our stretch at home. We are going to the All-Star break with great confidence,” he said, and indicated that the Kings aren’t stopping now.

The above-mentioned stretch at home lasts for three more games. Sacramento meets Houston on Wednesday, Heat on Friday and Suns on Sunday, and if they come out of it with a positive score, it would be a great success for them.

After its conclusion, Bagley and the boys will have one very challenging period, in which they have four consecutive games on the road. Three of them against top 3 teams in the West at the moment. Nuggets, Warriors, and OKC, following with a contest in Minnesota.

But nobody said that their fight it’s going to be easy. They have to justify high expectations and became true kings of their destiny.