Since the Domantas Sabonis acquisition, De’Aaron Fox, and anyone who has ever watched a single second of any level of basketball, has asked for one, simple thing: a rotation of quality, three-and-D wings to support the Fox-Sabonis pairing. Despite that very obvious, critical, roster-breaking need, Monte McNair has politely declined to take any significant action in that direction. Instead, he’s shopped the incredibly attractive pairing of Kevin Huerter and Trey Lyles for the past decade-and-a-half, with not a bite to show for it.
In lieu of an actual difference-making deal, he’s pretended to be in the running for Pascal Siakam. He made overtures in the OG Anunoby talks. He eavesdropped on the Mikal Bridges conversations, and more recently, he’s leaked the news of being close to John Collins and Cam Johnson. But those moves aren’t coming, and they never were. Harrison Barnes and DeMar DeRozan and Keegan Murray are good enough. They allow the Kings to maintain flexibility while also staying aggressive.
To further poison the relationship with the only true star Sacramento has seen since the glory days of two decades ago, the Kings also forced Fox to take the blame for the once-controversial Mike Brown firing, even though Fox never asked for that to be done. Monte McNair and Vivek Ranadive avoided the media like they were an impactful trade, and Fox was left in the dust, again.
Of course, that firing ended up being a shot of adrenaline into what once looked like a lost season, and in the past month, the Kings have played out of their minds. Their 11-3 record is the second-best in the league. They’ve posted the 9th best offense, the 8th-best defense, and have beaten good team after good team despite fighting through injuries. They just need a wing.
Instead, they’ve taken a sharp turn to the left and have begun the process of shopping De’Aaron Fox – not to maximize value, and certainly not to kickstart a rebuild, but because they are incapable of making B-level moves that every other competent GM makes on the regular in this league. They will dump De’Aaron Fox before he dumps them – the same reaction and maturity level one expects from a middle schooler, which is the exact level this organization operates.
And if Fox is traded, the Kings will not rebuild. They will not execute subsequent trades of Malik Monk and Domantas Sabonis and DeMar DeRozan. They will pursue whatever package offers them the best chance of making the playoffs, getting Vivek his playoff check, and allowing him to continue raising ticket prices. It won’t be a fun, sprint-around-the-court, young team. It’ll be a worse, less fun, less successful version of the current 10th place Kings.
Perhaps the saddest part of all of this is that a John Collins or Cam Johnson trade just isn’t that hard to pull off, or at least it wasn’t and shouldn’t be, and it likely would have satisfied Fox, at least in the short-term. But in the off chance that the Kings actually prove themselves capable of holding those sorts of conversations, they’ll now be wildly out leveraged. If Collins is the key, Danny Ainge will eviscerate Sacramento knowing that they have to make the deal, and the same can be said for Johnson and the Nets or Jerami Grant and the Blazers.
If the Kings ultimately move Fox, their market has been somewhat destroyed by waiting so long, by pissing off his camp enough to allow there to be rumors about “destinations”, and by pursuing their cheap, win-now, no matter what, approach. A premiere, young, picks-filed package isn’t walking through that door.
When all of this turns disastrous, and it will turn disastrous, the Kings will have no one to blame but themselves, although who between Vivek and Matina and Anjali and Wes and Monte will have made what decision will remain a mystery. Perhaps one or two are fired, but nothing will change long-term.
The Kings are going to pivot from not landing John Collins to trading their franchise point guard, and they are arrogant and incompetent enough to believe that is a reasonable, and perhaps even positive, result.
Couldn’t have written it better myself. This is exactly what we have to look forward to. And for those of us who have been around since the beginning of the Sacramento Kings, It is exactly what we’ve been living with. Meet the new boss same as the old boss.
Take it easy Fox isn’t all that let’s get a 4/3 and keep it moving.
I agree with this take. Fox is pretty good, but not a max contract like what he will demand. He isn’t the main star of this team – Sabonis is, but he acts like he is. I blame Brown for putting that mentality into Fox. Replace Fox with Ellis and you aren’t losing much in the starting lineup, imho. Fox can be traded for a 4 to pair optimally with Sabonis, but I don’t have faith this organization will execute such a trade.
I have Fox around the same tier as guys like Jamal Murray, Tyrese Maxey, and Tyler Herro. They are gonna get max deals but at some point it looks like an overpay.. I should also note, those type of guys are not the alphas on good teams. They are best at 2nd or even 3rd fiddles on very good teams.
Well stated and accurate. Max guys are not just the alphas or best players on their rosters. And by any reasonable measure, Fox is a top 20-40 player, and that is max territory.
To your point form yesterday’s discussion. It partly is about the money for me when it comes to Fox, but I realize that is what he’s gonna get paid no matter where he goes. My pause is giving him that money AND making him the alpha. Should you put a superstar, like a Durant or Luka next to Fox, then….you’re cooking with fish grease.
That’s also why I’m hesitant to sell off future assets for another role player like Collins or Cam to put around Fox. It’s just not going to make a big enough difference.
Max contract Fox always seemed questionable to me. He is good, but this team won’t ever go in to the luxury tax, so building a roster becomes even more challenging.
That is good context to add to your perspective, makes a lot more sense to me Adam.
What 4 would you trade Fox for(semi realistic)
Kuminga
Good points, this is a good opportunity to get a solid backup big, and tall/long 3 & D wing, maybe someone like CJ who can eventually replace Demar. Can maybe get CJ & Collins in a 3 team. This lineup needs more balance, plain & simple. Trey & Huerter won’t be getting us anything esp Huerter who looks like a G-leaguer these days. I think if anything Fox will be doing us a solid, let some other team pay him almost 60M with his new deal. I don’t think any team will be able to win with him eating almost 30% of your salary cap. Only one solid 3 pt shooting year in 8 seasons, and the assist-turnover ratio isn’t too great either…when we are talking about max players.
I think under this new iteration of the CBA, you’ll see max deals be handed out like candy less and less, now that there are very real draft pick consequences for teams that scoff at carrying “collect ’em all” massive payrolls.
Agreed. I think Fox is doing us a favor. Being cap strung with him as our max isn’t gonna elevate us to a higher plane no matter how much you shuffle the chairs on the titanic.
You keep building and competing..turn Fox into more depth and picks and see where that goes. To me DeMar has given us a lot of what Fox brings. If we can get a shooter at the 1 and a more competent 4/5 reserve and maybe a 3 and D wing. I think our team just got a whole lot better and Fox has the value that can command those things.
Many have complained of an unbalanced roster. They have too many guards. Fox is not happy and may not stay. Why not trade him and get those pieces that are needed? Hopefully that will happen!
If Fox is traded then why is the Collins or Johnson trade now a mute point. If Fox goes Huerter and Lyles probably won’t go with him so why can’t we have both?
You’re giving up a lot more than Huerter and Lyles in a Collins/Johnson trade, so should the Kings give up young players and picks for a team that’s probably not making the play-in?
I admit I do not know about the ability to trade first round picks, but if Fox is traded, we get some players back, plus draft capital, such as a 1st round pick or 2, can we now trade one of our firsts (with Huerter/Lyles) to also get Cam Johnson? So, in essence we get additional young players like Castle, Vassel, and then grab Cam Johnson with the 1st, all while getting rid of Huerter/Lyles. Sign me up!
Yup they could flip any picks acquired from trading Fox to use for another trade as long as it’s all done by the deadline. Or more likely, it would be a three-team deal at the deadline.
But if Cam is the target, they could also trade for him directly. Something like Fox for Cam, Clowney, Z Williams’ expiring, and two unprotected 1sts? No way they give up this year’s unprotected first in any deal, though.
That would still leave us with Huerter. But at this point, he’s probably best used as an expring contract/salary filler in a trade in the offseason or next deadline.
I don’t suppose they could trade Fox in a deal to get Lauri Markannen from Utah. But that would be a nice prize.
Lauri can’t be traded this season.
In a Loocked on Kings Matt George mentioned a possible trade with Huerter, Lyles and Carter plus an un protected first for Cam Johnson. If Monte would do this IMO then he should also include Sharpe. My thinking is if Fox goes to the Spurs which I think probably will happen if traded at all then one player I would definitely include is Castle which would replace Carter.
Maybe the front office knew that Fox wanted to leave, delaying any moves on Cam Johnson or John Collins? Hard to give them the benefit of the doubt based on their track record.
Who knows, maybe Fox being moved will end up being a good thing for the franchise. More Keon minutes, see what Carter and bring, get back some impact wing, and use whatever picks come in a Fox deal can be used to fill any more gaps in the roster.
No sense in me being upset, not going to make the situation any better.
It could be that these wheels started in motion back when Rich Paul sat court side in the final days of Mike Brown. If Fox’s camp let his intentions be know back then and Monte has continued to dog paddle through the season, then we are in trouble.
This just further proves that Monte isn’t the one steering the ship, Vivek is.
I think it’s actually a bunch of people grabbing the wheel all the time and jerking the ship in all different directions, with no clear delineations of power or position.
I mean, it really could be either.
Vivek is the ceiling for this franchise, and unfortunately he is a very short man.
I mean, how many times does Sam Amick have to tell us explicitly that Vivek is steering the ship before we believe it? He’s said it on the radio twice in the last month!
It’s what I’ve been yelling and seeing too. Fox is not the problem here. Monte is not the problem here. Brown was not the problem.
That stupid piece of shit owner is the problem. I really dislike him. The way he treats fans and people that deal with him is gross. But I think we’re screwed. How are we ever going to get rid of him
Assume there are 10 million hardcore Kings fans. $100 one-time donation each, buy out vivek’s portion and become the Packers of the NBA as a “publicly owned” team. And maybe we won’t shaft ourselves when re-negotiating parking terms.
This. The problem is not that the owner is running the ship. Owners/governors will always have a say one way or the other. The problem is that Vivek is a buffoon when it comes to sports that somehow thinks he’s a genius. The problem is he zigs when he should be zagging. He interferes when he shouldn’t, then he let’s his GMs make dumb decisions (or no decisions) when he should be stepping in.
He is prone to mistakes because he doesn’t really know basketball, nor does he know enough (or has too big of an ego) to hire someone competent that can put in an organizational structure. So, he instead listens to his trusted circle of sycophants with no real basketball direction or vision.
He also picks the wrong people to listen too. See Mullin, Dumars, Divac…
Honestly, I don’t think he listens to anybody. He thinks he knows everything. Fuck him.
He also treats employees and those dealing w kings like shit.
He does everything wrong
There are probably lots of things happening behind the scenes that none of us will know. Fox definitely doesn’t look excited most of the time, even when the team is playing well.
I’ve noticed this too. I love Fox but I’ve just felt in the last couple months or so he has seemed apathetic. Not sure if it’s injury or not or morale, but it’s pretty obvious on the court
He and his agent (along with everyone else in the freaking community) have wanted the front office to improve the roster, and nothing has happened. I get the frustration for Fox.
Agree, this seems to come from that same discussion. And if they don’t think they can make a trade to keep Fox happy then why not trade him when his value is higher, rather than waiting for it to tank?
As long as I’ve been following this team, this has always been the story.
Fanboys on Twitter seem completely unaware that competent teams flip assets before they leave. It’s like a completely foreign idea here in Sacramento. I can’t blame the fans for never being exposed to competency.
Join us, and together we can escort your fandom from childhood to adulthood.
Trading a guy with 1.5 seasons left on the contract is nowhere near too late and destroyed his market.
I remember many of us pining to flip a very productive Rudy Gay before his contract expired in 2016, only to have the Kings sit on him until he got injured in late January for the reminder of the season and he then walked in free agency.
I remember the Gay injury situation like it was yesterday. That was classic Kangz.
Remember when Harrison Barnes was worth at least one first, every deadline he was here?
Hey now. We traded HB for DeMar DeRozan! We fleeced those teams!
Look out for that chasm.
Many of us that posited trading Fox for a long time were ridiculed by other commenters including some who write for this site. But that’s just how fan boys are, they get connected to players over what is best for the team.
So your point is that because the kings are doing what you’ve been saying you want them to do it’s a good move? I think you’re setting a pretty low bar. But hey I’m sure it will work out for the best. Kings moves always do.
And the names of these writers that ridiculed the idea of trading Fox are:
I don’t miss much on this site, and I have never seen “ridicule” from writers on this site for wanting to trade Fox. I have sure seen disdain for trading him for a handful of magic beans, so it is really more about the return for Fox than the actual trading of Fox.
But sure, fanboys! That’s productive.
I have suggested trading Fox for a very long time. I don’t know about ridiculing but I have got my share of critical responses which I am fine with.
My point was to avoid this situation by staying ahead of it, trade him at peak value for a good to very good return. It was never personal, just my assessment that peak Fox was not going to advance this team very far.
Now, they waited too long and might have to settle for your magic beans. Hopefully not
I hope they realize they don’t actually have to trade him now if there is not a satisfactory offer. They can trade in the offseason or next year’s deadline. Monte needs to Danny Ainge this shit, but knowing the Kings history, I also unfortunatly think we’ll be eating those beans for dinner.
My worry with this is the longer it goes the value and options are going down.
If Fox could go on a tear the rest of the season maybe not.
That’s certainly possible, but at least acting like 1) he’s not desperate b) won’t take pennies on the dollar and c) will take offers from ANY interested team will maximize whatever return Monte gets, even if the plan is to trade him now.
In other words, act like a real GM. He’s been cautious and prudent to this point, the worst thing would be to suddenly act desparate and panic. Fox having 1.5 years left is a huge advantage.
Yeah, we are not near Defcon Jimmy Butler
I agree with this. And one advantage to trading him now is the team receiving Fox could in theory have enough time to trade him again if they decide that. If they wait that option (and value) is gone.
Good point.
Reporting seems to be that Fox has a preference but is open to be traded elsewhere.
I’d call it passive or fearful, but potato/potatoe. 🙂
This. You have to deal him now or in the offseason. The Kings leverage will be greatly reduced in a year. Not to mention that the rest of this season will effectively be lost, since the only conversation will be around when Fox is leaving and for who.
Yeah, I’m specifically looking for the names of the site WRITERS that have ridiculed folks here for suggesting that Fox be traded.
Never felt ridiculed. Just critical opinions which is what this is for, right?
He seemed to be more focused on commentators..
There was a time when criticizing Fox’s play and suggesting a trade, as a number of us did, was dismissed, as people still believed that Fox could elevate his game.
Now, apparently, fewer have that expectation.
Consider the other side of the coin. Hell, I would want to watch San Antonio with Wemby and Fox. That sounds like fricken amazing basketball. This opportunity for San Antonio doesn’t come by every day. They will want fox (for basketball reasons, AND financial reasons). Hell, TV markets will be all over that. I dont believe, at all, that the market has been destroyed. You only get one WEMBY, and you only get one opportunity for someone like FOX to pair with him. If they really want him, they will pay for him (and assets are something they are not short on)
If only someone could have seen this coming. Who could have predicted. I for one am stunned to see the Sacramento Kings, of all franchises, acting this way. We should figure out the people responsible for this shocking turn of events.
Good to see you nbrans
I’m so confused. Tim, haven’t you and other commenters been advocating that the best course for this franchise is to trade Fox and get assets back? Didn’t you suggest a Fox to San Antonio trade a couple of weeks ago?
So why is it incompetent now for the Kings to look at their options?
Maybe they’ve realized a Cam Johnson or Collins aren’t going to move the needle with this roster. Maybe they are worried about Klutch forcing a trade.
Great question.
Two massive differences for me:
To summarize, the Kings are taking a not-terrible idea and executing it in a terrible way.
Some of us have been advocating for them to blow it up from the second Vivek bought the team but he clearly has no intention of doing that. Which is dumb and short-sighted but he’s dumb and short-sighted so we’ll muddle along in the middle as always.
The time of purchase was THE time to do it. He had two years of goodwill built in for saving the team, and another two for the new arena. This team could have been OKC before OKC. What a missed opportunity.
Draft Giannis and rebuild around him.
“Even better. We got his dad.” – Vivek
100%. It would have been so easy to do and everyone would have been totally fired up to root for a bunch of young guys. But Vivek pulled what I’ll call the “cheap Ishbia” it’s where you go all in on the present while also being cheap so you aren’t really going all in, just being marginally bad instead of horrible. Or maybe Ishbia is running an expensive Vivek?
Ishbia is running an expensive Balmer, which is really saying something!
Interesting logic: They were terrible a few weeks ago, and made a big move we all hated. But it worked, and now they want to make another big move. And we hate it. There’s no way we’re wrong this time, those guys have no idea what they’re doing.
“Most thought the team was better than their terrible record?” I read a lot of comments about “terrible roster construction”, so this claim is dubious. No one knew what to think.
But the FO made a tough decision, and it worked. Give the team some credit. They have another tough choice here, and at least they’re being proactive.
Personally, I’d rather see Monk continue to be the main creator, Ellis do amazing things on D and hit 3s, and bring back a 4 to help Domas, along with other assets. The gaurd depth will suffer, but you have to break a few eggs…
Well, our front office Foxed around and found out
I wish this wasn’t such a great comment Kfan.
De’Errant Fux.
Fox gets to go from playing with a stud like Domas to a stud like Wemby. Must be nice.
The Constant

Viwreck Ruindiva
My only pause with this is that it isn’t true. DMC was a bigger star who put up bigger numbers, albeit while being a bigger asshole. This also overlooks the impact that Sabonis has on this team. The Kings aren’t even sniffing the playoffs without him.
I get that many of us love Fox and consider him a “star,” but in terms of the NBA is he really that big of a star, or is he just the longest running star that Sacramento has endeared to their hearts?
Cousins and Sabonis have more accolades than Fox.
That’s also a positional thing though. There are a lot more ‘star’ guards in the leage than centers.
But Centers usually have less spots for All-NBA, depending on how they determine positions. Usually 3 Centers make All-NBA, while 6 guards do.
I guess we’ll find out. Going to be interesting to hear a lot of people explain themselves if Fox wins a ring before the Kings do.
if he goes to the Spurs what explaining would be needed? They have a better everything than us
No but here’s the thing. Fox isn’t good enough to be the PG on a championship team. I guess if he did win a ring it will be in spite of him
Winning a ship within the next five years with a player in Wemby that’s likely at that point the clear best player in the game probably has something to do with it.
Who has ever said that? He isn’t good enough to be the BEST player on a championship team. If he wins a ring with Wemby, is it going to be because of Fox or Wemby? Come on. Ty Lue was a championship point guard. So was Rafer Alston. Fox can be a good player who isn’t good enough to be the best player on a championship team. He’s always been a second or third guy. There’s nothing wrong with that but when team’s build try to build around guy’s who aren’t THE guy, they end up right where the Kings are: stuck in the middle with no ceiling.
If you’ve read my posts in the past, you’ll see that I don’t think that Fox is the guy to build around. Just like I don’t think Sabonis is a player to build around. The thing is, there are very very few teams that actually have a player who is so good that all you have to do is build around them. And the kings aren’t the type of team that gets those players. Instead what we appeared to be doing was getting a bunch of players that playing together could take a team to a championship.
So you either say let’s just keep trading and tearing things down until we get a player to build around, or you get enough really good players playing together that you make a great team.
Trading Fox is much more likely to have the team that he goes to win a championship than it is to get us a ring anytime in the near future. Or probably even the far future.
Yeah I guess I’m perfectly happy to just keep tearing things down until you find the player or players to build around. Fox could have been part of the solution but poor decision making (passing on Luka, lack of impact trades etc.) dashed the hopes. Now he’s about to get very expensive and ultimately you end paying top tier money to a guy who isn’t getting you out of the first round of the playoffs. In this new salary cap environment, if that happens you’re dead.
And yes if Fox goes to San Antonio with Wemby and they win a ring it will be because of Fox. Not that Fox will be the best player on the team. But it will be a team that could not have won the ring without Fox.
Curious (no snark), what is the current complete list of BEST players that could lead their team to a championship? And give it some thought. Is Jimmy Butler still on that list moving forward? Steph? LeBron?
I think the list that most folks would produce is probably no longer than a dozen to fifteen players. So if you don’t possess one of those 12-15 players, do you just keep blowing it up over and over and over again until you finally get that brass ring? And if you had that chance and pulled Marvin Bagley, how long until you get that level of luck again?
This is just me personally, but yes, I would just keep blowing it up until I either got one guy (The Spurs with Wemby) or hit on so many high upside young players (The Rockets or Thunder with all their young pieces) that there is a clearly viable path toward championship contention. I want to compete for top-4 seeds and titles. Play-in births are just not interesting to me. This current core lacks to the upside to truly compete and if that’s the case, I would have everything on the table. Personally, I would have preferred they pass on DDR and do everything possible to get another wing and another big.
Now, we stuck in the middle and the only way out is to take a big swing on changing the makeup of the team. Did they back themselves into this corner? Absolutely! You’ll never find me accusing this organization of competence. But this is where they are now so a larger move probably needs to happen.
Plus, I’ve always thought Fox is a little overrated. He’s really good and he’s fun to watch. He’s a good guy. But I also don’t think moving him breaks the franchise or immediately relegates them to the lottery.
Agree with this perspective
In that vein, Cousins brought a package of Buddy Hield and a pick that was parlayed into Justin Jackson and Harry Giles. It could have been so much more, but Kangz gonna Kangz.
I look forward to the middling point guards that Monte selects with the impending draft picks.
My memorabilia had a brief stint as cool. It is now heading back to somewhere between ironic and sad. And the prime of Domantas Sabonis will be wasted.
I reference two games, the most recent Houston and Golden State games, in which those teams focused their best defenders on Fox all game long. And this unleashed the other players, notably DDR and Monk, while also negating double teams on Sabonis. That will be gone once Fox is gone.
Front offices should not be dumber than their fan base. Why does this keep happening here? What has the constant been since 2013? Searching…searching…searching…

Fools to the left of me, jokers to my right.
I think your point about Fox being the King who is game planned against the most does not get discussed fully enough. It is likely fans will be wondering “what happened to Monk/DDR” after Fox leaves and those two have better defenders assigned to them.
I think there will be games like that, where Fox is missed if Monk and DDR are off. But I think it will even out by not having the Fox 1 for 8 three point shooting type of games. I think they happen just as often.
And my bigger point is I don’t worry about scoring, there are lots of ways to generate points.
Defending, getting stops and rebounding is the hard part. And having a more balanced, less redundant roster will improve those things. And all of that is more sustainable than relying on shooting.
The only caveat I have with that is if the Kings move Fox it’s not like 100% of his skill, gravity, scoring, etc going with him. Talent will come back in return (hopefully) that can pick up the slack. What percentage of talent that comes back is up to Monte.
I feel the return on Fox will give us insight to Monte’s plan. Should it be picks with a bunch of unproven prospects, then burn the whole thing down already. However, should it be quality talent that makes the sum greater than the parts, then maybe the end game is to compete for a deep playoff run.
Just a spitballed comparison:
Fox to Houston for picks and rookie scale deals….blow it up.
Fox to Orlando for Franz and Suggs…go all in.
But to my point, Suggs and Franz will not command the defensive attention that Fox does. It will still be to DDR’s detriment, if not DDR’s and Monk’s.
I think there are just too many unknowns, but I’m hoping Monte is taking everything into consideration. It could be that moving Fox unlocks Keegan, allows Carter to grow, gives Keon 30+ minutes a night and all those results make the team better.
I’m hoping and trust that Monte, Wes, and Co. have better basketball minds and analytics then we can muster on these threads and then make the right decision.
I’m hoping for a front office that does not come close to meriting comparison to a thread on a Kings website. And with this organization, hope is often all we have.
I have given up hope with V running the show. I was hoping he had backed off a little bit, but he hasn’t.
There’s just no way they’re gonna get anywhere with him meddling all the time.
Vivek backing off a bit doesn’t help in the long-run. The notion of owners not “meddling” is a bit of a red herring. He’s still the governor and will need to make decisions no matter what. The problem is that he’s consistently shown himself to be a nincompoop when it comes to basketball and that’s never going to change.
Yeah if he was involved but listened and took the advice of his basketball people (or hired competent basketball people), this wouldn’t be such a big problem. As Sam Amick has reported, that isn’t the case. He always thinks he’s the smartest guy in the room even when he has no idea what he’s doing.
I think it helps Keegan
I think Keegan might be beyond help.
I disagree with this pretty strongly. I don’t think Fox being gone would hurt DDR or Monk at all mainly because they play differently. Why is Fox not being out there going to hurt the Monk/Sabonis pick and roll (our most effective play BY FAR by the way)? Fox doesn’t command any attention as a shooter, nor is he much of an off ball cutting threat. Fox doesn’t space the floor for DDR when he isolates on the wing.
All of the lineups data bares this out by the way. The Kings best lineups all feature one of Fox or DDR and more shooting and defense, typically in the form of Keon Ellis. It’s why the Fox/DDR pairing never made any sense.
It’s why I don’t understand why Monk hasn’t gone back to the bench. The starting lineup is getting killed early in games every night because the pieces make no sense. There’s more talent on the floor but none of it is optimized.
In the GS game, Fox had Wiggins on him for much of the game. He was shadowed by their lead defender almost the entire time that he was out there. In the Houston game it was Amen Thompson, and Dillon Brooks when Thompson was out. These guys would/will now target DDR and/or Monk instead. It is the simplest of math.
Not in the road GSW win or the BOS win or the MIA win. No Fox in those games
And let’s take a look at those games.
The Kings shot under 42% in their win against Mia. DDR and Monk were a combined 18-50 in the Boston win.
But they won because the defense was excellent down the stretch and other guys made shots. It hasn’t gotten as much play around here but Fox has been a pretty poor defender this year. Which is sort of the point! I think empowering guys like Keegan and Keon to take and make big shots can help the team in the long run.
We’ll see how this small sample size works out. The Mia game was a double OT game that could have easily gone the other way. The other two were blowouts.
Logic tells me that better players win more games than lesser players. And I absolutely reject the premise that the roster is being held back by Fox. It will be interesting to see whether the efficiency of Murray and Keon goes up or down if they are forced to take more shots.
I have consistently thought that Fox’s shot creation would be the skillset the Kings missed the most if they moved off of him. Monk and DDR are very capable, but as we keep mentioning, they also benefit from Fox’s gravity.
A weakness of Domas is that he will sometimes hold on to the ball too long, and end up forcing passes that end us as turnovers. Fox is a huge relief valve for him to turn to when he does that.
This is a genuine concern for me.
My concern has been Fox’s declining efficiency. This season might be an anomaly because of the injury, but the numbers have been declining.
That is a huge concern for me as well. And I have serious doubts Fox’s game is going to age well, the more he slows down the less effective he will be.
I don’t think the roster is being held back by Fox. I think the roster is being held back by poor construction. They set Fox and/or DDR up to fail IMO. I’d be just as happy if they moved DDR but he makes far less money than Fox is about to make and would fetch far less in a trade.
I don’t think this is Fox’s fault, I just think that the roster was built in a way where this was probably always the logical end point.
You are referencing a two game sample size, as Fox’s gravity importance but a three game sample size is too small. OK
Fox’s shooting has been so bad lately. He’s hurting the team more than helping, especially as he drives to the hoop without creating separation, missing badly on contested shots, and not getting calls.
Is it injury affecting his performance? Or early signs of loss of an elite skill?
Sure but are those guys stopping a Monk/Sabonis pick and roll? All available evidence suggests that they aren’t. Is there more space and more problems created for the defense if there’s a shooter in the corner instead of Fox? Again, all the lineup data supports the idea that the Kings offense as a whole is better when there’s more shooting on the floor (usually Keon Ellis). I just think that by removing OR DDR, the floor opens up and the offense has more options thus improving the offense overall even if there’s less individual play making talent.
And I will point out, that Fox has really struggled against those players you note which has led to stagnate offense and poor shots. In general, I just prefer a more egalitarian offense system and right now that’s not what we have with our current starting lineup.
This is an important point – there will be a ton of pressure on the perimeter players to make shots, working off Domas and Demar instead of Fox. If you replace Fox with a lower-usage, decent facilitating PG who can shoot the three a little, it could work. But you need the right guys, certainly.
One thing to note – the Kings are 20th in the league in 3p% this season. They shoot 38% from the arc when Fox is off the floor, which would be 5th in the NBA. But the offense overall has been slightly better when Fox is on the floor. Very odd.
I think the potential is there to have a better-balanced offense, but it’s nice to have Fox go supernova from time to time.
I think the biggest loss if you trade Fox would come in the play-in/playoffs where you seem to need more one on one shot creation late in games because the defenses are so dialed in.
But, can they even get to the playoffs? I think they can but the ceiling just isn’t that high if Fox and Sabonis are your best players IMO.
Monk and DDR have seemed to do pretty well in late game ISO situations.
But Fox is also ball dominant. Perhaps, the better ball movement helps DDR, Sabonis and Monk?
I’ll reference the previous, Golden State road win, the Celtics road win and the Miami 2OT win. All without Fox
And let’s take a look at those games.
The Kings shot under 42% in their win against Mia. DDR and Monk were a combined 18-50 in the Boston win.
And they won
Yes. And if you go back and re-read what I wrote, I clearly stated that things would get a lot tougher for DDR and Monk on the offensive end of the court.
If the premise is that this roster can win more games with Fox than without, this is my stop.
If they get nothing in return sure, stop there.
If they make the right move I think the team can be more balanced and better. I’m just worried they are now trading from a point of weakness.
Yeah, should have moved him 2 days ago
I first suggested this two years ago (maybe more), not sure without looking thru old posts
I know. Was just making a joke along with my agreement.
And the Kings beat Boston by 17 even with the bad shooting by DDR and Monk.
In that Boston game, Keegan Murray had 19 points and played great defense. One of his best games of the season. Is it possible that by Keegan getting more consistent looks and moving up the shot pecking order, he plays a little better? There’s seems to be some evidence that’s the case.