Sacramento Kings: 3 candidates for a breakout season in 2019-20
By Nick Crain
1. De’Aaron Fox
After a mediocre rookie season, De’Aaron Fox took the league by storm last season. His 17.3 points per game were the second most on the entire league. On top of that, he produced 7.3 assists and 1.6 steals per game which both led the team.
With his generational speed and quickness, Fox is hard for defenders to stay in front of. While he struggled from deep in his first NBA season, he thrived from the 3-point line in the 2018-19 season, shooting 37.1 percent.
Still just 21 years old, the jump Fox made from year one to year two was massive. He increased his points by 5.7, assists by 2.9, rebounds by 0.9 and steals by 0.6 per game. As mentioned earlier, he also improved on his 3-point shooting by 6.4 percent.
What might be the most impressive of these improvements is that he made these jumps while only playing 3.6 more minutes per game than the season before.
De’Aaron Fox is one more large jump away from being an NBA All-Star level point guard. In year three, however, it appears he is more interested in helping the team win than he is on his personal accolades.
After being one of the best players on this summer’s United States FIBA World Cup team, Fox dropped from the team to focus on the upcoming season with the Sacramento Kings in effort to make the playoffs.
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The No. 5 pick in the 2017 NBA Draft, De’Aaron Fox, is perhaps the most important player on this young Kings team. If he is indeed able to have a breakout season, Sacramento might find itself in the playoffs in the 2019-20 season.