Sacramento Kings guard De’Aaron Fox is one of the few remaining top picks from the 2017 NBA Draft who is still with his original team. But even that could be changing in a matter of weeks.
Yahoo! Sports’ Chris Haynes reported Friday that Fox’s name is circulating around the league as a big-name player who could potentially be moved before the Feb. 10 trade deadline.
Fox actually addressed the topic of a possible trade after a win over the Los Angeles Lakers on Wednesday.
“You definitely think about potentially being traded because we’re struggling,” said Fox, per Haynes. “If you do have a change of scenery, it changes everything. I’ve been here for five years. I’ve built a life here, a family here. But once I’m on the court, all that is out the window. You’re not thinking about anything else that can happen outside of your control.
“But I’ve been through some deadlines,” Fox added. “I’ve seen people get traded at the last second. You try not to think about it, but you know it’s a business and anything can happen. I’m not sure what’s going to happen. Obviously, you see reports on Twitter. Am I worried about it? No. Can it happen? Yeah, it can definitely happen.”
The 24-year-old Fox is a fine player. While he has regressed from last year, he is still averaging 20.9 points and 5.1 assists per game with a fairly weak supporting cast around him, thus making Fox the focal point of defenses. But it is clear that the Kings, who are 17-27 and have never had a winning season during the Fox era, are not going anywhere with the dynamic guard as their top option. Fox’s situation almost seems similar to that of DeMarcus Cousins, a homegrown Kings star who was among the best in the NBA at his position at one point but was still eventually traded after Sacramento consistently went nowhere with him.
Fox is in the first year of a five-year, $163 million contract, which makes him a bit hard to trade. But Fox is young and talented enough where the contract is far from an albatross. While the Kings have other potential trade targets on their roster as well, trading Fox would be by far the biggest earthquake that they could create at this year’s trade deadline.
Photo: Feb 8, 2020; Sacramento, California, USA; Sacramento Kings guard De’Aaron Fox (5) warms up before a game against the San Antonio Spurs at Golden 1 Center. Mandatory Credit: Kelley L Cox-USA TODAY Sports
