De’Aaron Fox is close to returning from a Grade 3 ankle sprain he suffered on November 11th. Fox told local media that he is aiming to return for Tuesday’s game against the Charlotte Hornets. This would be a huge boost for the Kings, who have relied heavily on Cory Joseph in Fox’s absence. While CoJo is a capable backup and a strong defender, he’s difficult to watch on the offensive end.

This return is much earlier than we originally feared. The average games missed for this type of injury in other NBA players was around 33 games. If Fox comes back tomorrow, he will have missed just 17 games.

The biggest concern is the risk of re-injury. This isn’t to say it’s too early for Fox to come back, because there’s no set time frame for an ankle to heal. But there will naturally be concern when a player is returning from injury earlier than expected. We just have to hope that Fox and the team’s medical staff are making the right call.

Here’s hoping Fox and the Kings can remain healthy for the rest of the year. It feels like the Kings had a run of unfortunate injuries to start the year and it would be nice to see what this team can do at full strength.