NBA trade deadline rescue candidate No. 3: De’Aaron Fox
De’Aaron Fox is only in his fourth year, but he needs to get on a new team as soon as possible. The Sacramento Kings haven’t been title contenders in 20 years, and they haven’t been a playoff team in 15 years. Despite being a lottery team for 13 of the past 14 seasons and owning a top-10 pick in 10 of those drafts, the Kings are still mired in mediocrity.
Since selecting Fox with the fifth overall pick in the 2017 NBA Draft, the Sacramento Kings have yet to place higher than third in their own division and no higher than ninth place in the Western Conference. Yes, they drafted Tyrese Haliburton in this year’s draft, looking like a steal, but this is also the same franchise that took Marvin Bagley over Luka Doncic and selected Thomas Robinson over Damian Lillard in 2012.
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Meanwhile, Fox continues to get better and has quietly improved upon his breakout year a season ago; he’s currently averaging career-highs in points (23.8) and assists (7.4). Though he’s failed to improve his shooting thus far, he still ranks third in his draft class in points per game and first in assists per game.
The Kings and Fox are committed to each other, as evidenced by the max contract extension he signed this past offseason that has him stuck with the franchise through his age-28 season. The franchise is obviously trying to build a winner around him and Haliburton and maybe even Buddy Hield, but odds are this current experiment will fail as with most things the Kings try to do.
Unless he wants to play for a laughing stock for his entire career, Fox may want to consider requesting a trade if things don’t start moving in the opposite direction.