Kings star De’Aaron Fox sidelined indefinitely with severely sprained ankle
Kings star De’Aaron Fox will be sidelined for the foreseeable future after severely spraining his ankle at practice Monday.
The team announced the third-year point guard sprained his left ankle at the end of practice and will be reevaluated in three to four weeks. ESPN’s Zach Lowe reported that Fox was injured when a teammate stepped on his ankle.
Fox underwent an MRI on Monday afternoon. A league source told The Sacramento Bee that Fox suffered a grade-3 sprain, a full tear or rupture of the ankle ligament, according to webmd.com. These injuries normally cause severe pain, swelling and bruising.
The Kings will play the Portland Trail Blazers on Tuesday at Golden 1 Center. They face the Los Angeles Lakers on the road on Friday before coming home to play the Boston Celtics on Sunday.
Fox is expected to miss 10 to 15 games before he is even reevaluated, but the injury could take six to 12 weeks to heal. His injury is a devastating blow to a team that is trying to establish chemistry and continuity under coach Luke Walton.
Fox is averaging 18.2 points, 7.0 assists and 3.4 rebounds for the Kings (3-6), who have won three of their last four games after going 0-5 to start the season. During that stretch, the Kings were first in the NBA with an offensive rating of 118.4, 19th with a defensive rating of 109.8 and second with a net rating of plus-8.6, despite ranking 30th in pace (99.6).
The Kings selected Fox with the fifth pick in the 2017 NBA Draft. He enjoyed a breakout sophomore season in 2018-19, averaging 17.3 points, 7.3 assists and 3.8 rebounds. He finished third in NBA Most Improved Player voting.
With Fox out of the lineup, the Kings will turn to backup point guards Cory Joseph and Yogi Ferrell. Bogdan Bogdanovic could also see increased ball-handling duties.
The Kings are already missing second-year forward Marvin Bagley III, who suffered a broken thumb in the season opener Oct. 23. The team initially said Bagley would be out four to six weeks. There has been no update on his status since then, but he could be ready to return in as little as two weeks under the original timeline provided by the team.
Sacramento Kings upcoming schedule
Nov. 12 vs. Portland Trail Blazers
Nov. 15 at Los Angeles Lakers
Nov. 17 vs. Boston Celtics
Nov. 19 vs. Phoenix Suns
Nov. 22 at Brooklyn Nets
This story was originally published November 11, 2019 at 3:51 PM.
