What are the benefits and pitfalls for the Sacramento Kings with the Fox, LaVine swap?
The Sacramento Kings’ trade of De’Aaron Fox to the San Antonio Spurs will go down as one of the most consequential transactions of the “Beam Team” era.
The franchise clearly hopes to reconfigure the roster back toward its 2022-23 trajectory when it ended its historic playoff drought. If not, it has the potential to put Sacramento on the path toward creating a new one. Star players are the ultimate currency in the NBA and the Kings just moved theirs hoping to get one in return in Zach LaVine.
This franchise-altering decision to move Fox, the fifth overall pick from 2017 who blossomed into the NBA’s Clutch Player of the Year in 2023, comes with potential benefits and pitfalls.
The Kings receive an All-Star talent
Getting LaVine from the Bulls signals what was widely believed: the Kings didn’t have an appetite for a rebuild. LaVine gives the Kings a 24-point-per-night scorer in the midst of one of his most efficient seasons. The move shows that Sacramento, which sits at 24-24 and 10th in the crowded Western Conference race, wants to get back to the postseason this April.
LaVine, who turns 30 on March 10, is making a career-best 51% of his shots and 45% of his 3-point attempts. His 60.7% effective field goal percentage is higher than his consecutive All-Star seasons from 2021-22 and 2021-23. Despite his injury history, LaVine this year has missed just five regular season games before being out the last three for personal reasons.
He’s expected to make his Kings debut at Golden 1 Center on Wednesday against the Orlando Magic, according to a league source.
The Kings played LaVine and the Bulls earlier this month while he was in the midst of a six-game streak with at least 30 points. LaVine scored 36 points in Sacramento’s afternoon win in Chicago.
“It doesn’t surprise me,” Kings interim coach Doug Christie said before the game of LaVine’s scoring hot streak. “If you give him space, he can shoot. If you let him get by you, he’s aerial. He’s got mid-range. I mean, he’s a four-level scorer in my opinion. Deep 3, 3, mid-range, at the basket and he shoots free throws as a high clip.”
The numbers say LaVine this season is scoring at a more efficient clip than Fox, who was dealing with a pair of hand injuries at the time of the trade. Fox has indicated he’ll need surgery on his pinkie on his shooting hand and suffered a thumb injury on his right, non-shooting hand in the first game of Sacramento’s current road trip.
Fox’s 3-point shooting was glaringly down this season after having his best shooting campaign last year. At 32% this year, it fell back toward his career average from the career high 37% in 2023-24. But his overall effective field goal percentage has been down the last two years following his breakout campaign during the playoff season.
Did the Kings get enough for the future?
Instead of taking LaVine to try to remain competitive this season, the other path would have been to prioritize young players and/or draft picks. The Spurs came out of the deal without giving up any of their best draft capital, namely the Atlanta Hawks’ unprotected first-round picks in 2025 or 2027 they received in the trade for Dejounte Murray, or Stephon Castle, Devin Vassell, Keldon Johnson or Jeremy Sochan, any of whom could have been part of a long-term rebuilding project for Sacramento.
Instead the Kings will be taking on LaVine and the remaining years of his five-year max contract, which had previously made him difficult for the Bulls to move. LaVine is slated to make $44.5 million this year, $47.5 next year and $49 million on a player option for 2026-27, which he will likely pick up.
The risk in the contract is tied to availability concerns. LaVine had surgery to repair a floating bone in his foot in February of last year, ending his season after 25 games. LaVine also tore his ACL in 2017 after just 24 games. He’s appeared in 65 games just once in his previous six non-pandemic impacted seasons.
Sacramento’s roster issues persist — and might be worse
Even with Fox, the Kings’ roster deficiencies were easy to identify. They lacked perimeter and interior defense largely because of a lack of depth on the wings. Although LaVine appears to add to what the Kings can do offensively, no evidence shows he’ll provide an upgrade on the defensive end where Sacramento was already lacking.
The Kings through 48 games rank 17th in defensive efficiency while Fox tied for 12th among all starters with 66 steals, according to the NBA’s tracking. LaVine has 39 steals, 73rd, and has never posted a positive defensive box score plus/minus (a stat estimating a player’s impact on defensive efficiency) in his 11 seasons, according to Basketball Reference.
In fact, LaVine’s -1.31 DBPM ranks 98th of 100 active players listed. Fox is 83rd weighted heavily by his play prior to former head coach Mike Brown’s arrival. Perimeter defense for the Kings is particularly important given the team’s lack of rim protection with Domantas Sabonis at center. Sabonis’ 19 blocks on the season ranks 54th among all centers despite leading all centers in minutes played. The Kings would argue, of course, Sabonis makes up for his lack of shot blocking by leading all players in total and defensive rebounds.
Sacramento as a team ranks 13th in rebounds per game. LaVine could help there slightly. He averages 6.6 rebounds per game this season while Fox was averaging a career-best 5.0.
The Kings in the trade also shipped out Kevin Huerter to the Bulls and Jordan McLaughlin to the Spurs. Which means in addition to the lack of the depth on the wing, and at backup center behind Sabonis, the Kings suddenly lack depth at guard and don’t have a true point guard on the roster. They will give Malik Monk to those duties for the first time in his career.
Monk playing next to Fox has led to a career season after re-signing with Sacramento over the summer to a four-year, $78 million contract. He was moved into the starting lineup Dec. 1 and averaged 19.4 points and 6.9 assists per game since. But his 2.86 assist-to-turnover ratio ranks 40th among the NBA’s starting guards, which would need to improve if Monk were to become the team’s full-time point guard.
Are more moves coming for the Kings?
By getting three first-round picks and three second-round picks — although the 2025 first-round selection via Charlotte is likely to turn into a pair of second-round picks if the Hornets (12-34) miss the playoffs — the Kings’ have more assets to improve the roster than before the trade.
Does that mean they’ll finally land a power forward like Cam Johnson from the Nets or John Collins from the Jazz? The Kings have been reportedly interested in those players dating back to last year’s trade deadline and nothing materialized. And Johnson or Collins wouldn’t solve the Kings’ new need at point guard while either could potentially fit the bill at small-ball center behind Sabonis.
According to ESPN’s Bobby Marks, their front office guru and former assistant GM of the New Jersey Nets, Sacramento is $14.4 million below the first apron and $10.5 million below the luxury tax. Which indicates the Kings are positioned to take on more salary to fill out their remaining two open roster spots following the departures of Huerter and McLaughlin.
Long-term stability remains in question
The upshot of Brown helping the Kings out of their 16-season playoff drought was the team finally had stability. Brown became the first unanimous coach of the year while general manager Monte McNair was named executive of the year. Sacramento appeared to have a foundation to build on.
But then the team ran back largely the same roster in 2023-24 and failed to get out of the play-in tournament, losing a sixth consecutive game to the bigger, more physical New Orleans Pelicans despite Zion Williamson being out with a hamstring injury.
By not signing an extension with the Kings last summer Fox made clear he wanted to see the organization commit to improving the roster to become more of a threat in Western Conference. The team’s response was bringing in DeMar DeRozan, a veteran the Bulls were looking to pivot from to start a rebuilding process last offseason. Then the team fired Brown in December amid a five-game losing streak.
And in trading Fox, the Kings took Chicago’s other veteran they have been attempting to move away from since last summer. Only this time it cost Sacramento their franchise player.
The DeRozan-LaVine pairing could be lethal. That’s what the Bulls were hoping when they had that duo together for three seasons from 2021 to 2024. DeRozan has spoken candidly about how much he enjoyed being teammates with LaVine, which could get reprized in Sacramento.
But the Bulls led by DeRozan and LaVine were 125-121 during the regular season and never won a postseason series, making the playoffs just once in 2022 and falling to the Milwaukee Bucks in five games in the first round as the No. 6 seed. Chicago went 174-242 with LaVine in the lineup since he joined the team in 2017 as part of the Jimmy Butler trade from Minnesota.
But DeRozan and LaVine had a lackluster supporting cast around them, in part due to injuries, while the organization lacked stability. Those same things could be said about their new home in Sacramento.
This story was originally published February 4, 2025 at 5:00 AM.
