What is up with De'Aaron Fox?

#61
Man. The guy has a a couple frustrated interviews and now we are speculating that he has mental health problems. Geeez. Guys. Let’s get a grip.
I just brought it up cause I remember the guy when he was drafted and who he was the ensuing couple of years. No where near what he is today. I mean, to me it’s a drastic change. Maybe this is what years of losing does to a charismatic kid who is being considered the teams best player and leader.
 
#68
Maybe Walton should put the ball in his hands more instead of having him off the ball spotted up. In the last 5 games or so, I think he’s holding up his end of the bargain while Hali, HB, Holmes and Buddy are tanking.
Max players usually take it upon themselves to make things happen. He seems complacent. His recent actions have shown this. His nonchalant attitude had added to this. The lack of emotion says a bit.
 
#69
The other big difference with Fox is who he is on the court with. Up until this year Fox has always been the primary ball handler. This year he splits that duty with Haliburton. It follows that Fox's numbers will go down.
 
#71
Max players usually take it upon themselves to make things happen. He seems complacent. His recent actions have shown this. His nonchalant attitude had added to this. The lack of emotion says a bit.
I'd say that could be the truth, if not for last year. Walton at the start of the year reverted to playing Fox at SG and off the ball more than last year and more like the year before. He's never been an emotional player outside of a dunk once and awhile. I don't know what's up, but something definitely is. Possibly beyond Luke at this point. Either way, this is when a GM needs to realize he's on the ropes and he's already missed his window to make a shock move with 100% potential effectiveness. Every day he waits now the potential payoff decreases.
 
#74
Only if you don't understand some of the possible long-term COVID effects. And we aren't going to go there in this thread (fair warning). But Long COVID is a reality for some. Not saying it is for Fox, but it isn't out of the question, either.

But that's the problem for us here - we don't have enough info to go off of with Fox this season so we are always just guessing....
Since no one really knows the long term effects (beyond 1-2 years) of "Covid" and he did get and it's affecting him (it's not he's just not as good as people think) than that's even more reason to trade him. This reminds me of the excuses Kings fans were making a season or two back when they went to India at the start of the season and they needed "time". It's a never ending stream of excuses for certain players.

When the Kings get a new coach they will again need more "time" to get the same results since the player they are building around is the clear issue. Than the coach will be blamed again for not building around SuperNova Fox correctly and rinse and repeat. We will hear the mythical tales of how once Fox goes to another team he will win championships as the #1 guy and that we don't deserve to have him on our team to make sure no one ever thinks of doing such a thing.
 
Last edited:
#75
Max players usually take it upon themselves to make things happen. He seems complacent. His recent actions have shown this. His nonchalant attitude had added to this. The lack of emotion says a bit.
Max players (especially point guards) can usually handle the ball, pass well, make wide open shots, penetrate and score consistently, have a decent 3 point percentage, can make their free throws at a decent clip, and play a lick of defense, since we're discussing max players. lol
 
#76
I’m going to defend Fox here. I don’t see a player that is being dismissive or that doesn’t care. I see frustration. There has been plenty of things to criticize Fox over. Not this.
In the clip, he comes across with his body language and tone of voice as something more than frustrated to me - he appears quietly angry and passively adversarial in response to the questioning. Demeanor aside, I think his answer about Luke was fine (although hardly a strong endorsement) but when asked about feeling pressure, his comments seem coldly dismissive. I’m sure that all the losing and the negative buzz around the team are taking their toll, but he did not represent himself very well in those moments.
 
#77
Man. The guy has a a couple frustrated interviews and now we are speculating that he has mental health problems. Geeez. Guys. Let’s get a grip.
Not from a couple of frustrated interviews, but from body language, interactions, and overall effort over the course of several games. Could be a variety of things, nothing but speculation here, but its clear that something is up.
 
#79
Maybe Walton should put the ball in his hands more instead of having him off the ball spotted up. In the last 5 games or so, I think he’s holding up his end of the bargain while Hali, HB, Holmes and Buddy are tanking.
Lol. He can really do no wrong in your eyes eh?
 
#80
I hate to bring up Kobe but he would have walked over and taken the ball off his team mate if he didn't think he has the ball in his hands enough.
 
#81
I hate to bring up Kobe but he would have walked over and taken the ball off his team mate if he didn't think he has the ball in his hands enough.
The guy is averaging 18 shot attempts a game I don't think the problem is him not getting the ball in his hands enough lol
 
#86
Nice job trying to troll my take. I’m just pointing on things like when you were defending Buddy Hield for awhile. Not really different is it?
Hmm, I would say it's different in that I never/rarely excused his bad play. I defend his value, and argue for an accurate depiction of his production. For example, I would argue that we don't lose games because of his turnovers when he's averaging less turnovers than Fox. Or question if his defensive stats could be skewed because he was the only one back on a opponent fast break after someone else turned the ball over. But if he made a dumb turnover dribbling it off his foot, or shot terribly on normal shots (as opposed to getting bad %s from late game and EOQ chucks when we were down big) I don't think I would say that's on the coaching staff and not him.

I found your post calling out the 5 games particularly funny because: 1) he had a key turnover against OKC, 2) while on average his shooting was not that bad (still not great, but not as bad as it's been), it was a mix of very good nights with some very bad ones (i.e. a high deviation), 3) his body language was terrible in post-game conferences, 4) he had key defensive lapses in multiple games, 5) the glaring issue that when he dominated the ball more and played better, the rest of the team was crap.

Your post came across as basically saying that Fox was fine and it was the other players that caused the bad streak. I find that rather disingenuous when Fox is supposed to be the leader and best player of the team, yet has struggled in most games and only done well in those when the rest of the team didn't play well.
 

hrdboild

Hall of Famer
#90
Nothing that we don't already know, but a pretty good analysis of the current situation.

https://www.theringer.com/nba/2021/11/22/22796148/luke-walton-sacramento-kings-deaaron-fox
I can excuse lazy analysis considering nobody outside of Sacramento really cares about the Kings even though national writers may have to chime in occasionally in the course of doing their jobs. Lazy analysis using numbers to pretend it's more than a knee jerk reaction to 17 games I cannot excuse. This kind of content is insufferable to me. Also, implying that Harrison Barnes is now a high-usage player because he's shooting better percentages is laughable. He's the same guy we've had the last few years and him knocking down more shots doesn't limit anyone else from taking them.

The problem isn't that Fox doesn't know how to play without the ball in his hands. Certainly his poor shooting is a problem which limits other aspects of his offensive game but that's not a new problem and doesn't explain the drop-off from last season. Is this the Tyreke Evans problem all over again? I don't think so. Tyreke was a drive and kick player who had no role when he wasn't attacking the basket. Fox's best shot is a pull up in the lane and he's quite capable of cutting back door and elevating to finish at the basket or creating his midrange off of secondary action. He's a better player when he can make spot-up threes but it wouldn't be a fatal flaw on most rosters and really shouldn't be on ours if the shots were distributed more sensibly...

I think the real issue here is the same issue we've had since day one with Luke Walton... the offense lacks any kind of nuance. It's always been an issue and that's why we look like chumps against any team with a decent scouting department. Most coaches would distribute shots not based on offensive schemes and some ideal concept of spatial positioning but based on actually having players take shots from areas of the floor where they typically make them. What a crazy idea. Moving Haliburton into the starting lineup and Hield out of it just exaggerates the problem because Buddy's shooting helps to opens up the floor for everybody. There is some hope that Davion Mitchell can eventually fill that role though.

We also need to find a way to grab more rebounds. I don't think the roster is as guard heavy as most seem to think it is. We have 4 guards in the regular rotation which is pretty normal and less than a lot of teams are going with right now. The bigger issue is that Holmes is the only big who's actually being productive and he's not even consistently productive. Barnes has been filling in admirably but when he comes out of the game, we have Metu, Len, Thompson, and Bagley and I think those minutes should go to whoever wants to man up and control the glass. Rebounds should be Bagley's bread and butter and maybe with Luke gone he'll finally get a chance to fill that role?

I realize that nobody really cares what I think so this is just words in the wind but there's a lot more wrong with this team than Fox being in a shooting slump. I don't expect firing Luke Walton to fix things but it was at least a step in the right direction. It's worrying that Fox seems to be distancing himself from the team in interviews. I think the players knew Luke was as good as gone weeks ago and our front office continues to have a real problem with dragging their feet instead of taking immediate action. Now that the shoes has finally dropped will that lift some of the weight or just put more pressure on them to perform or get shipped out too? Based on fan reaction it seems to be the later and ya'll will probably get your wish if this attitude continues much longer. We'll be back to the bottom wishing for lottery balls again. Blech.