Anxious to see Fox play
- Thread starter Vladizzle
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I saw every single game he played last season, and my only concern is his strength. Not just for aiding his game, but for his health. He's not only fast, he's quick. By that I mean he has a very quick first step off the dribble. Deadly combination! I think his three point shot will improve with time and if he can shoot something like 33% this year from there, I'm happy. He plays both ends of the floor, and I can see where both Hill and Fox might be on the floor together at the end of games in order to get a stop.
Make no mistake though, Hill is probably the best player on the team right now. So barring injuries, he's going to get his minutes. Fox's job is to get experience, get stronger, and improve his jumpshot consistency. He's an underrated passer in my opinion. The only reliable player he had to pass to last season was Monk, so it became mostly a two man show for Kentucky. He'll have more options on the Kings, so I expect his assist numbers to eventually improve. One thing is for sure, he's a lot of fun to watch.
Make no mistake though, Hill is probably the best player on the team right now. So barring injuries, he's going to get his minutes. Fox's job is to get experience, get stronger, and improve his jumpshot consistency. He's an underrated passer in my opinion. The only reliable player he had to pass to last season was Monk, so it became mostly a two man show for Kentucky. He'll have more options on the Kings, so I expect his assist numbers to eventually improve. One thing is for sure, he's a lot of fun to watch.
I'm looking forward to seeing all the young guys even Hill. And I think Mason might surprise us if he gets much chance to play. There are so many interest spots on this team. Bogdanovic is a a great potential. Who is going to play how much? Who will shine first. It is literally a crap shoot. So many possibilities that they all can't fail. Today is the 9th and the first preseason is the 2nd of next month. Exciting times.
My only concern is his shot really. Looks good from mid range but a few steps back and it's another story. Needs some arc to it. I just hope he can get it up to somewhere around the 35% range to keep defenses from sagging off of him. His strength is a work in progress but that could be said for many guards coming out of college. Love his defense and his penchant for steals. He should be a true two way player for us and that has me excited.
I think getting stronger, and improving his shot, is all that separates him from being a good PG, to being an all star PG. And the two are related in my opinion. As I said, I saw every single game he played last season, and most of his misses from the three came up a little short. Particularly toward the end of games. He did have the occasional off line shot, which I think came from having his guide hand a little too involved, but for the most part, I think added strength will improve his 3 pt percentage.
With his quickness, he becomes almost unguardable if he can hit the three.
With his quickness, he becomes almost unguardable if he can hit the three.
A lot of us are holding out hope that he turns into one of our cornerstone players and not just a role playing PG. He has all the tools and he will only put on so much weight before it hurts his speed so I'm not overly concerned about that aspect. He is a teenager and he needs to grow within himself to have that grown man strength/body. I have faith that within time and lots of repetition, he will add a respectable jumper to his arsenal. He seems like a hard working kid.
Yeah, you never know. There have been plenty of players that are slight of build that had very nice healthy careers. They all got stronger, but none of them ever looked like Hercules. Sort of an individual thing. There have been plenty of players that did look like Hercules, that were constantly injured. I saw Fox take some bumps and falls at Kentucky and he jumped right back up, for what that's worth. A sprained ankle kept him out of a few games, but he seemed to heal fairly quickly.
I do think improving his lower body strength will help his outside shot. When your legs get tired, your shot tends to come up short, and that was one of his problems last season. I also tend to agree with Kingsboi that putting in the work will go a long way toward improvement. I think Fox is a better shooter when totally set, and a lot, if not most of his shots last season came off the dribble. He's very good in mid-range off the dribble, but not so much from the three. Once again, I think it's partially a strength issue.
I do think improving his lower body strength will help his outside shot. When your legs get tired, your shot tends to come up short, and that was one of his problems last season. I also tend to agree with Kingsboi that putting in the work will go a long way toward improvement. I think Fox is a better shooter when totally set, and a lot, if not most of his shots last season came off the dribble. He's very good in mid-range off the dribble, but not so much from the three. Once again, I think it's partially a strength issue.
I wish the Kings would just give Fox the keys to our offense, and sees how it plays out. We desperately need to see if Fox is our franchise player. If he is, then we need to build around him. If he's not, then we need to look for a franchise player in the 2018 draft. This is the major problem I had with the George Hill signing. How can we possibly tell if Fox can be our franchise player if he's playing backup PG? Are we going to rely on 20mpg flashes of Fox to determine that he's our franchise player? I'm not going to be comfortable with that... "flashes" aren't enough for me.
The situation is even more urgent with Fox due to his playstyle. He plays at the most important position in the NBA. However, he can't shoot 3s. 90% of the entire NBA revolves around 3pt shooting now. If we find out that he is our franchise player, then we need to immediately build a roster around him that can shoot. On top of that, if we find out that he's best as a ball dominant player, then we need to find players that can play alongside his ball dominancy. How will we able to determine if he's THE guy if he's playing backup? You can't.
I don't understand the purpose of the George Hill signing. Starting PGs in the NBA don't have a learning curve. Look at how dominant Rose, Westbrook, Curry, Wall, Lillard, etc. were in their rookie years. Fox is all around their ages. Historically, good NBA PGs don't need an extra year of sitting on the bench and learning. They just don't. The only recent player I remember who "sat" and learned behind a PG was Dennis Schoreder, but Atlanta never drafted him to be a starting PG, let alone franchise player. They drafted him to be a backup to their 24yearsold franchise PG Jeff Teague.
The situation is even more urgent with Fox due to his playstyle. He plays at the most important position in the NBA. However, he can't shoot 3s. 90% of the entire NBA revolves around 3pt shooting now. If we find out that he is our franchise player, then we need to immediately build a roster around him that can shoot. On top of that, if we find out that he's best as a ball dominant player, then we need to find players that can play alongside his ball dominancy. How will we able to determine if he's THE guy if he's playing backup? You can't.
I don't understand the purpose of the George Hill signing. Starting PGs in the NBA don't have a learning curve. Look at how dominant Rose, Westbrook, Curry, Wall, Lillard, etc. were in their rookie years. Fox is all around their ages. Historically, good NBA PGs don't need an extra year of sitting on the bench and learning. They just don't. The only recent player I remember who "sat" and learned behind a PG was Dennis Schoreder, but Atlanta never drafted him to be a starting PG, let alone franchise player. They drafted him to be a backup to their 24yearsold franchise PG Jeff Teague.
His ankle tweaks in the SL scared the hell out of me. I remember the sideline reporter saying he had ankle issues throughout the entirety of SL practices, leading to SL games. He needs to add a lot more weight to his frame, but I hope he can do it slowly while staying healthy. Steph Curry had a ton of ankle problems early in his career due to his lack of overall strength.
Not suggesting we should make a decision on his future after 1 year, but we'd need to find out if he's a franchise player or not. His archetype is extremely hard to build around. All NBA teams have 3pt shooting at PG, SG, and SF. Some even have 3pt shooting at PF.
If we find out that Fox is our franchise player, then we'd need to surround him with another shooter at PF or C. In general, we'd need to actually build around him and find players that fit him.
This is even more urgent because our 2018 1st round pick is our last one until 2020. We have to absolutely nail this 2018 1st round pick.
Like I said, star PGs show their worth in their rookie year. If Fox can't do that due to his own shortcomings, then I'd be ready to move on to find someone who can. I'm tired of the "he's only a rookie!" arguments.. we said the same things for Jimmer Fredette, Thomas Robinson, Ben McLemore, and Nik Stauskas.
I just think it'll be hard for Fox to show his entire worth playing behind Hill.
If we find out that Fox is our franchise player, then we'd need to surround him with another shooter at PF or C. In general, we'd need to actually build around him and find players that fit him.
This is even more urgent because our 2018 1st round pick is our last one until 2020. We have to absolutely nail this 2018 1st round pick.
Like I said, star PGs show their worth in their rookie year. If Fox can't do that due to his own shortcomings, then I'd be ready to move on to find someone who can. I'm tired of the "he's only a rookie!" arguments.. we said the same things for Jimmer Fredette, Thomas Robinson, Ben McLemore, and Nik Stauskas.
I just think it'll be hard for Fox to show his entire worth playing behind Hill.
You seem to talking out of both sides of your mouth. You want to start him so we can find out if he's our franchise player or not, and if not, then we can look for said player in the 2018 draft. But you also say we don't have to decide his future in one year, just whether he's out franchise player or not. Just how do you decide something like that in one year? It took four years before Steve Nash became a franchise player. It took John Stockton two years to resemble the player he became. The problem with the Kings for the last 7 or 8 years is that they've been in an instant gratification mode. We have to win now!!!!!! Constant changing of players and coaches. Enough is enough!
In general, it would seem that a guard whose game is much more dependent on driving the ball to the basket than taking outside shots is probably more likely to get injured. I think of Tyreke. If Fox can develop a nice mid-range game early in his career, it's not only going to help his stats, and help the Kings win, it also will probably assist him in staying healthy.
For the most part, yeah. Much more chance of getting injured on takes to the hoop. Especially ankle injuries. Then again, Westbrook attacks the rim like no one I've ever seen and he's surprisingly durable while early on Steph Curry looked like his whole career was going to be derailed by ankle injuries despite being largely a perimeter threat. It's hard to say. One thing about Fox is that he doesn't seem to absorb a lot of contact on his drives. He also doesn't land awkwardly. It makes me wince watching Dennis Smith Jr at the end of most of his drives.
So, yeah, in general it seems like Fox would be more of an injury risk given his frame and style of play, but whether he'll really end up missing a lot of games or not is impossible to predict.
So, yeah, in general it seems like Fox would be more of an injury risk given his frame and style of play, but whether he'll really end up missing a lot of games or not is impossible to predict.
I'd like to add that Fox already has a decent mid-range game. He was good from 17 or so feet in all year at Kentucky. There were times when I thought he should have pulled up and shot instead of taking it to the rim because it was there almost every time. But, on the other hand, he was a good finisher at the basket.
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