No players are more closely identified with the recent era of the Sacramento Kings than De'Aaron Fox and Domantas Sabonis. The duo proved to be quite impactful, constantly on the verge of breaking into the upper echelons of NBA success.
Unfortunately, things didn't play out that way. After the firing of head coach Mike Brown, Fox requested a trade which ended with him on the San Antonio Spurs alongside Wemby.
Fox only ended up playing 45 games with the Kings in the 2024-2025 season, putting him on the team for roughly 54.9% of the season. That was still enough for him to outscore everyone else.
De'Aaron Fox's impact
When Fox left the franchise, he was averaging 25 points per game on 37 minutes. That puts him well ahead of Zach LaVine, DeMar DeRozan, and Domantas Sabonis.
Despite being outscored by LaVine and Fox, DeRozan was ultimately the scoring champ for the Kings. He was technically the only one who was on the team for the full season.
On top of that, Fox remained top five among Kings players in defensive rebounds, assists, and steals. Despite only playing 45 games, Fox was number one on the Kings for assists last season, averaging 6.1 per game.
The Sacramento Kings' loss
Those numbers put into perspective what the Kings actually lost when Fox moved to the Spurs. He was their top scorer while still generating offense through elite passing and solid defensive work.
While DeRozan and LaVine have picked up the slack in scoring to an extent, they haven't really made up for the loss of Fox's other on-court contributions.
Had Fox remained with the Kings, these numbers might not have held up, particularly if his season ended by injury the way it did with the Spurs. Regardless, it's hard to ignore how important he was to the Kings on both ends of the court.