On Tuesday, the Sacramento Kings took the NBA world by storm when it was announced that they and their franchise starting point guard, De'Aaron Fox, would be open to the prospect of exploring a trade.
Along with that news, it was also reported that Fox had a preferred destination in mind for the team he wants to be traded to. Later on, it was revealed that the team Fox wants to go to is (probably) the San Antonio Spurs.
Given that Fox only has a year and a half left on his deal, he has a ton of leverage in this situation because he can just leave whatever team he is traded to after the conclusion of the 2025-26 season. So, the Kings kind of have to trade him to the Spurs, right? Not exactly...
Kings should trade Fox to the Los Angeles Lakers
As currently constructed, the Kings have a serious roster imbalance. They have too much on-ball creation and not enough size, shooting, and spacing. Ideally, to fix this issue, I envisioned the team trading one of DeMar DeRozan or Malik Monk. However, it can still work by trading Fox. If the Kings make the right deal.
Trading with the Spurs (unless a third team gets involved) won't net you enough win-now pieces to do a proper re-tool. That is why I am proposing that the team tries to negotiate a deal with the Los Angeles Lakers instead.
Yes, Fox wants to be with the Spurs. However, it is hard to say no to playing with Anthony Davis and LeBron James in Los Angeles, and Fox is a client of Rich Paul – an agent who is known for preferring his players to play in the City of Angels.
On top of that, the Lakers have arguably the best win-now package to offer the Kings. While I won't get into the specifics of the deal (a different conversation for a different article), the Lakers would likely give the Kings some package of Austin Reaves, Rui Hachimura, and Jarred Vanderbilt.
Hachimura gives the Kings the blend of size, defense, and spacing they are looking for, Vanderbilt will give the team some much-needed energy and defense off the bench, and Reaves can make up for some of the loss in ball-handling/creation suffered from the loss of Fox (while providing better spacing than his predecessor). On top of that, the Kings could probably get them to include a future first round pick (which will help their long-term future).
In theory, a trade with the Lakers would help the Kings acquire some draft capital while also re-shaping their roster in a way that makes them better in the short-term. For this reason, the Kings should try to trade Fox to Los Angeles instead of San Antonio.