Kings guard Bogdan Bogdanovic admits that playing for a lottery-bound team has worn him out mentally, as he told Jason Jones of the Sacramento Bee. “It’s more mental because we’re out of the playoffs and these games don’t give you the same feedback at the end of the game,” Bogdanovic said. The Serbian is averaging 11.9 PPG and 3.3 APG in 27.9 MPG during his first NBA season.
In other news around the Pacific Division:
- Montrezl Harrell has proven to be much better than a typical throw-in to a blockbuster deal, Elliott Teaford of the Orange County Register notes. The Clippers power forward is averaging 10.9 PPG on 64.4% shooting after getting tossed into the Chris Paul trade with the Rockets last offseason. “He’s been terrific. That was a find for us,” coach Doc Rivers said. “He just does more things than we knew. He’s a scoring post guy. We thought he was just an energy guy.” Harrell is also a contract bargain, as the team can make him a restricted free agent with a $1.84MM qualifying offer.
- Entering the summer as a restricted free agent, Lakers forward Julius Randle has displayed some durability this season, as Bill Oram of the Orange County Register points out. Randle is the only Laker on pace to play in every game. “That’s a goal of mine,” Randle said. “I want to be out there competing with them every night, and as long as Coach (Luke Walton) lets me go, I’m going to be fine. I’m going to be out there.”
- Kings rookie big man Harry Giles is eager to prove himself in summer-league play, Jones reports in a separate story. Giles has yet to make his NBA debut, as he spent the season recovering and rehabbing from multiple knee injuries. “I can understand having a guy coming off injury, that’s a rookie that hasn’t played, so I understand ‘Why are they hyping him?'” Giles said. “But … I’m ready to go. It’s not about the hype, it’s not about the media, it’s about me getting on the court and playing ball in Vegas. That’s my main goal, I don’t even think about anything else.”
Obviously they never saw Harrell play, if that’s all they thought about him before
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Clips nabbing harrell and Dekker were the most underrated parts of that trade. LA had a lot of great players, this blowing up the team bs should stop.
Austin rivers needs to play away from his dad. One of them need to go and I think the team they have could do major damage when healthy.
Welp you didn’t exactly do much to help the Kings become anything close to a .500 team Bogdanovic, maybe you should have done more then just average 11 points per game don’t you think? This Kings team severely needs a small forward who can score from all over the court making drafting Michael Porter Jr a no brainer this coming draft.