i don’t get the kings bagley situation. injuries are obvious, but guy has had flashes of double doubles and 3 range. i mean, harkless is playing 25 useless minutes a night, why not get this some trade value?
Bagley's RSE ( Rookie Scale Exception) slotting is like 10-12 million. So a team trading for him would need to give up some kind of positive asset, then have the cap space to carve out room on their cap for him, then give him minutes knowing he's going to be a zero defender, low BBIQ, a ball stopper, a non rim protector ( but has the tool set for that) and no real legitimate consistent three point threat.
If Bagley breaks out for a new team a little, now they have forced themselves into a situation where you have to think about giving a decent sized contract to a mostly unproven player who is seen as lazy and also has character concerns.
Or if that team is interested, they can wait until Sacto doesn't offer Bagley a qualifying offer and sign him as a street free agent for the minimum. The DVE ( Designated Veterans Exception) slotting for Bagley is going to less than 2 million a year, with the NBA itself actually paying a portion of that salary in cash. Since the DVE is an exception, that means if Bagley falters, he can be cut and another player can be signed without be stuck with outgoing cap implications ( the cash payout however is still the teams responsibility)
For example, the Warriors signed Jose Calderon with the DVE years ago to find a ring chaser for their roster. When Matt Barnes became available later, they cut Calderon and signed Barnes. In effect, the Warriors were not trapped by Calderon's contract since it was an "exception" They were not forced to trade off his contract just to make cap room to sign Barnes. They were on the hook for the actual cash payout to Calderon though.
Bagley is cheaper and offers less risk and less commitment as a fringe street free agent.
Double Doubles are not that valuable. In fact, if we are talking NBA bigs and pivots, if they can't defend the rim and can't space the floor, they are a massive liability. There is usually an inverse relationship between heavy rebounding numbers and effective rim protection. Enes Kanter can give you a ton of double doubles. He can camp around the rim on both ends because he has no rim protection responsibilities, because he can't defend the rim. Since he can't space the floor, he clogs the driving lanes that neutralizes his offense since his lead guard can't penetrate as easily. A floor spacer draws out the opponents big. Or forces a mismatch somewhere. Packing Kanter in the paint offensively means his natural cover, like the opposing rim protector, is already in a better position to neutralize any slashers.
Bagley is also low BBIQ. Meaning he can't quarterback the defense. He doesn't rotate well and he's not switchable. When you are dumb, you can't anticipate, and nearly all NBA players simply don't have the ability to recover 100 percent of the time against this level of competition. Bagley has an interesting overall tool set but he's fundamentally bankrupt. When your basics are bad and it appears you aren't smart enough nor willing enough to work on them, what's the point anymore?
The Kings have come to a point where it's no point to lose more games to quasi develop a guy they know they don't want to keep long term anyway.
Can Bagley be fixed? Maybe a team like the Heat can help him some. But you can't fix stupid. Maybe he can be a situational Stretch 4 at some point ( A long range bench gunner only coming in for specific spots during the game but not really in the core rotation) Point to note - You could have signed Killian Tillie for like 750K as an undrafted free agent to give you that instead of all the lost opportunity cost for Bagley.
You used to be able to rely on teams like the Kings and Pistons and Charlotte and New York to have front offices who would do stupid trades and bail you out of your personnel messes. Not anymore. Franchises, following the trends, are hiring young guns like Troy Weaver and Brock Aller and it's harder to find stupid teams to absorb your problems in trades.
The core reasons why the Kings desperately want Bagley gone are the exact same reasons no other team wants him right now.
