The case for keeping De’Aaron: How the Kings can build around their budding star
Since the start of this NBA season, De’Aaron Fox has supplied his doubters with an exceptional reminder of why the Sacramento Kings signed him to a five-year max contract extension.
His takeover moments have been frustratingly uncommon this season, but Fox’s talent remains clear. There’s plenty of reasons to keep Fox in Sacramento for the long haul, rather than deal him away before the Feb. 10 trade deadline.
The Kings found themselves in yet another tight battle with the Atlanta Hawks last Thursday. And, again, Fox carried the offense as time wound down – he scored or assisted on all but one of Sacramento’s field goals in the final six minutes.
“He’s just making a lot of plays down the stretch. That’s what he does,” Tyrese Haliburton said. “He’s our guy. He’s a great basketball player. So, we trust him to make plays down the stretch.”
The flip side came Sunday night, when the Kings got tossed aside in a 103-88 loss to the Portland Trail Blazers. Fox had just 14 points and two assists as the Sacramento offense sputtered throughout. Sure, he wasn’t very good; neither was anybody else.
He can’t do it alone. Against the Hawks on Thursday, Fox’s fourth-quarter heroics were not enough to counteract the lack of stops on the other end. While his defensive effort has been understandably questioned throughout this season, he was locked in on both ends of the floor.
“I think that he’s playing at the level he left off with at the end of last year. He’s doing everything that we ask him to do,” coach Alvin Gentry said. “He was the guy that was guarding (Kevin) Huerter and did a great job on him until it ended up being in a switching situation, which we tried to avoid but we couldn’t quite avoid it. We would have like to have had him (Fox) on (Huerter) him.”
Fox contributed 30 points and six assists, along with the defense Gentry mentioned. Yet, Sacramento added one to the loss column after the buzzer, because basketball is a team game – not because Fox wasn’t good enough.
Tyrese Haliburton, who had 24 points, five rebounds, and two assists in the loss to Atlanta, is Sacramento’s lone trajectory-altering addition since De’Aaron Fox was drafted. No single NBA player is going to lead the Kings into the postseason. That includes Haliburton, who could quickly face similar circumstances if Fox were to be traded in a deal.
Good players have to learn how to be impactful alongside other good players to win games.
Last season, Golden State’s Stephen Curry, who may go down as the best point guard in NBA history, averaged 32.0 points and 5.8 assists while shooting 48.2 percent from the field and 42.1 percent from 3-point range. Teammate Draymond Green finished third in Defensive Player of the Year voting, but the Warriors still didn’t make the playoffs. Now, those same two players lead what might be the best team in the league.
Curry and Green haven’t changed their styles or significantly improved from the year prior. Their front office signed ideal complementary players in free agency, who highly-regarded head coach Steve Kerr then optimized around the aforementioned stars.
Fox doesn’t have those wing men. The front office isn’t putting complimentary players around him. Any veteran leaders proved to be temporary and unhelpful on the court. Moments of seemingly positive momentum were derailed by a coaching change, front office swap, not-ideal free-agent acquisitions, or failing to retain a rare starter-caliber player.
As if that wasn’t enough, since arriving in Sacramento, Fox has played for three head coaches and two general managers. Attempting to list Fox’s teammates that were not typically liabilities on either side of the floor is a saddening task. The defensive woes from recent seasons have been well-documented, with the most notable being the league-worst defensive rating the team posted last season. No substantial changes were made this offseason to add defenders with size; the Kings rank worst in the league in points allowed in the paint this season.
The path forward with Fox
Moving forward with two top-20 passers, Fox and Haliburton, allows the Kings an opportunity to finally cement a sliver of consistency. Embrace the strengths and plan the roster to limit expected defensive shortcomings, we’ve seen it done with two guards before. The full extent of that duo’s pros-and-cons list, which is what should impact the proper surrounding talent to acquire, will take time to create. That process is partially done with trial and error, but there are comparable examples from around the league Sacramento could model.
A team with Damian Lillard and C.J. McCollum as the primary options works defensively when surrounded by, ironically, Maurice Harkless (now with Sacramento) and Al-Farouq Aminu. The Jamal Murray and Will Barton backcourt in Denver survived in the postseason thanks to the defensive abilities of Aaron Gordon and Paul Milsap.
The Kings have potentially accomplished one of the more difficult aspects of team-building: acquiring much-needed top-end talent with significant potential.
Fox has already proven himself in ridiculously bad circumstances. He is one of only seven players to average at least 25 points and seven assists while 23 years old or younger. Rubbing shoulders with the likes of Oscar Robinson, Tiny Archibald, LeBron James, Derrick Rose, Luka Doncic, and Trae Young is certainly nothing to scoff at.
Fox has led the Sacramento Kings to a win percentage of at least 40 percent for three straight seasons. That may not sound too impressive, but remember the context. The 47.6 win percentage that was achieved in coach Dave Joeger’s final year is the Kings best since 2008.
Trading away Fox, who is still under contract for four more seasons and just getting the best teammate of his career, is counter intuitive if the goal is to win games in the present.
Haliburton has continued to progress his game in ways nobody expected to the point where he can also be labeled a potential star. Now, for the Kings to consistently make the postseason, the surrounding roster and staff need to improve with those two at the front of their minds.
The Kings have not traded a single first-rounder since they drafted De’Aaron Fox. If they want to win games now, it’s time to thoughtfully compliment and optimize not rationalize and deflect.
It’s impossible to predict if the pairing of Fox and Haliburton can work well together, but it will forever go unknown without an attempt to accentuate their strength and diminish their weaknesses by constructing an ideal roster around them.
Brendan Nunes is a regular contributor to The Kings Herald.
This story was originally published January 11, 2022 at 5:00 AM.