Fox and the Ox: Sacramento Kings’ duo of De’Aaron Fox, Domantas Sabonis growing closer
De’Aaron Fox and Domantas Sabonis seemed to hit it off immediately when the Kings acquired the All-Star big man in a blockbuster trade with the Indiana Pacers last season.
In their first game together, the Kings beat the Minnesota Timberwolves 132-119 after losing by 20 to the same team 24 hours earlier. Fox had 27 points and eight rebounds. Sabonis had 22 points, 14 rebounds and five assists. In the waning moments, they shared a memorable embrace with Fox flashing a wider smile than Sacramento had seen in quite a while.
After the game, Fox said of Sabonis: “He’s a monster. He’s like an ox.”
The two were immediately linked by the nickname “Fox and the Ox,” and their relationship has only grown closer since then.
“It’s definitely grown,” Fox said Thursday following the third day of training camp at the team’s Golden 1 Center practice facility. “Obviously, he’s been here for maybe eight months, but he’s someone who is easy to get along with, easy to get to know on and off the court. He’s a willing passer. He wants to get you open, so it’s easy to play with someone like that.”
The Kings are counting on Fox and Sabonis to serve as pillars for an organization that has been buried beneath the rubble of an NBA-record 16-year playoff drought. They played only 13 games together with both players missing time at the end of the season due to injuries, but the early returns were encouraging.
Fox averaged 27.8 points, 6.2 assists and 4.2 rebounds in those games. Sabonis averaged 18.1 points, 11.8 rebounds and 5.8 assists, a statline only MVPs Nikola Jokic and Giannis Antetokounmpo have achieved sine the 2019-20 season. According to Cleaning the Glass, Sabonis posted a 27.1% assist rate that ranked in the 98th percentile among NBA big men.
Fox and Sabonis were a lethal combination in the pick and roll, but now they are expanding their repertoire with new coach Mike Brown encouraging them to work on their off-ball game.
“Coach really wants us to play off the ball in general,” Sabonis said. “If Fox and I can develop our two-man game doing that, it’s going to be even harder to stop, because when it’s just pick and roll, eventually it gets easier to guard after a period of time, but if we can develop an off-ball game, it’s going to be really tough.”
Fox has worked on that aspect of his game with assistant coach Luke Loucks, who accompanied Fox on his honeymoon following his marriage to former Cal point guard Reece Caldwell.
“I think I’ve grown tremendously,” Fox said. “Since we hired Luke, that was one of the things. He came to me like, obviously, you’re going to have the ball in your hands a lot, but to truly be a better player, you have to be able to shoot the ball and work off the ball, and those are things that we hit the ground running, starting in like June.”
Fox has never been paired with an All-Star big man who can score, rebound and pass like Sabonis. Together they present all kinds of possibilities in the pick-and-roll, pick-and-pop, dribble-handoff and transition game, but they’re still learning how to maximize each other’s abilities.
“It is definitely different,” Fox said. “We all know that he can pass the ball, but we all know he can score the ball as well. I had never played with a big that you can just play through like that, so it’s definitely an adjustment period, but he makes the game easier for everybody.”
