Sacramento Kings: The Year Of The Fox

This has been one of the more disheartening seasons of Sacramento Kings’ basketball in recent memory. Thank goodness for De’Aaron Fox.

There have not been very many reasons to be excited for Sacramento Kings basketball this season, but De’Aaron Fox has been the lone bright spot so far in 2020.

The Kings are 3-4 in the new calendar year, but lost their last eight games of 2019. This has dropped them all the way down to 14th place in the West, above only the Golden State Warriors. Their roster has been ravaged by injuries, the team has lost its cohesiveness, and there are off-court issues that surround them as well.

But the one thing that the Kings have to be optimistic about amidst this difficult stretch is the stellar play of their third-year point guard.

Fox has been on a tear since the calendar flipped, averaging 24.1 points, 8.4 assists, and 5.6 rebounds over that span. He has been the team’s leading scorer in 5 of their last 7 games, and has played especially well over the last week. In last Friday’s game against Milwaukee, Fox was one rebound away from his second career triple-double.

Monday against Orlando, he was 2 away but scored 31 points. On Wednesday, he was three rebounds away from matching Luka Doncic with a triple-double.

There was a point in Wednesday’s game against the Mavericks when Fox essentially took over for the Kings. He was visibly irritated with non-calls from the officials and was using that aggression to get himself to the hoop repeatedly. While Fox seemed to be a bit out of control during the “outburst”, it seemed to help him realize one very important thing:

He finished with 27 points, 12 assists, and 7 rebounds in the Kings loss.

If Fox can harness that aggressive energy into the game plan and use it for the betterment of his teammates as well as himself, then the Kings might be able to turn a corner regarding their offensive style and production. Unfortunately, it might be too little too late.

But the uptick in production and the extra step taken towards NBA stardom are both good signs for Sacramento. It was has been a disappointing season for nearly everyone in the entire organization, and the team is a few losses away from looking towards the future and switching in to development (tank?) mode.

Whatever the case, the further evolution of De’Aaron Fox should be one of the key goals for the team as they head towards the final stretch of the season.