The year before Mike Brown got here Fox was widely panned as an empty stats guy who could never lead a winning team, a terrible NBA defender (despite his reputation in college), and an abysmal shooter with no hope of ever being even average. Since Mike Brown got here the Kings have been a winning team with Fox as the head of the snake and last year he average 37% from three and led the entire NBA in steals. Even with his so-called mediocre play for part of the season Fox finished the year 8th in points per game and he was the only player in the top 10 who wasn't on an All-NBA team. He's also been second in the NBA in 4th quarter scoring both years under Brown.
Sabonis just led the league in triple doubles, set the franchise record for most double doubles in a season, and now has the longest consecutive double-double streak in the NBA since the mid 70s. He also led the league in rebounding, finished 6th in assists (which is practically unheard of for a center) and has missed only 3 games in the last two seasons including playing all 82 this season (for the first time in his career) and 79 out of 82 despite breaking his hand last season.
Where does this take come from? The team may not have taken a big leap forward in his second season as head coach but they already took a huge one in his first season and as for not getting the most out of Fox and Sabonis specifically... I think the numbers speak for themselves.
I'm in absolute agreement with respect to Mike Brown maximizing the talents of Fox and Sabonis. They've been largely
awesome under Brown. They went from fringe stars to All-NBAers in the span of one season. That's nuts.
However, I can see where one would be inclined to level criticism at this team's toughness. The tone should be set at the top of the roster, where Fox and Sabonis should be shouldering accountability for this team's lapses. The fact remains that the Western Conference is brutal, and the Kings' will not rise up the standings without the mental fortitude necessary to weather that brutality.
The issue, if there is one, could be that these guys just have really great life perspective- they love basketball and are competitive but they aren’t hoping to “kill everyone in front of them” e.g. Antman.
And this is probably where De'Aaron Fox, in particular, still needs to grow. Some guys just aren't wired with that "kill everyone in front of them" mentality, and Fox honestly may not be that kinda guy. But I still think there's another gear available to Fox that he needs to access with much more consistency. Every star player has the occasional week where things don't go his way. But for Fox, that week stretches into a month almost without fail every season. He has these prolonged slumps where his heart just doesn't appear to be in the game, and that
simply cannot happen. As Fox goes, so go the Kings.
I want to see greater accountability from both De'Aaron and Domas when the team hits those rough patches, particularly against the league's bottom-feeders. I really don't like hearing from a long-time veteran like Javale McGee that the team was awfully laissez-faire after close games against weak opponents, lacking the killer instinct necessary to be a true threat in a
very tough conference.
In the spirit of McGee's criticism, the following are, in my opinion, the four factors that made this season a disappointment:
01. The Kings lost several winnable games to teams under .500.
02. The Kings lost several winnable games where the opposition was missing their best player(s).
03. The Kings lost several winnable games where they had a large lead heading into the second half.
04. The Kings let interconference teams like New Orleans and Houston completely dominate them.
For me, those four factors represent serious deficiencies in the way the Kings approached this season. Every playoff-caliber team suffers the occasional loss to a team far below them in the standings, or to a team who is missing their best players. But the best teams don't make a habit out of it. Every playoff-caliber team suffers the occasional loss in which they give up a big lead. But the best teams don't make a habit out of it. Every playoff-caliber team has an opponent or two that they just don't match up well against. But the best teams don't let that get into their head.
In other words, the best teams are more mentally tough than the Kings were this season. If the Kings want to be firmly above the play-in line in the Western Conference playoff gauntlet, this must improve. I think elevating a guy like Keon Ellis is a great start, as we saw good things from the Kings' defense and the Kings' overall level of grit and toughness when he was given a starting role. Now Monte McNair has work to do to add more talent in that vein.