De'Aaron Fox’s Off-Ball Potential
There seemed to be a palpable buzz at the Kings’ Media Day, with excitement around the new players Kevin Huerter, Malik Monk, and Keegan Murray, young wing prospects KZ Okpala and Chima Moneke, and the other members of the 2022-23 Sacramento Kings. One of the players who stood out yet again was De’Aaron Fox, the straw that stirs the drink for the Kings. Fox spoke encouragingly about his and the team’s improved defense in some intense pickup games. A key aspect that Fox himself brought up was his work this offseason on his off-ball play. In his interview with Fox 40’s Sean Cunningham, Fox said that in his time with Luke [Loucks] over the offseason, Luke has ”taught me how to actually play without the ball, so it’s been a great summer.” If Fox can tap into that potential, he may very well take another proverbial ‘step’ and have an All-Star year.
As one of the fastest, if not the fastest, players in the league, Fox is exceptional at getting to the rim and finishing through contact in traffic. Due to the Kings general lack of talent and fit around their star over the years, Fox has had to rely heavily on his ability to self-create for himself. Fox has led the Kings in Usage Rate each of the last three seasons, peaking in the 2020-21 season at 30.4% (12th in the NBA, minimum 20 games played) and 28.4% last year (24th in the NBA). His high usage has not been a detriment to the team, as Fox does a fantastic job of getting his teammates involved, proven by his 6.2 career assists per game. What we haven’t seen is Fox benefiting from his teammates creating for him. De’Aaron Fox has made 2,269 field goals in his five-year career so far. Of those 2,269, only 547 (24%) have been assisted. The other 1,721 (76%) FG’s have been unassisted. This is a five-year trend, as shown
Where we see the trend differ is when it gets broken down to the two-point field goals and three-point field goals. Of Fox’s 1,905 two-point field goals, 1,560 (82%) have been unassisted. Conversely, only 162 (44.5%) of his 364 three-point field goals have been unassisted.
None of this is meant to discredit Fox or what he’s done in his career to this point, but to show how he can add a new skillset to his game, especially with a new running mate in Domantas Sabonis. Until the Kings traded for Sabonis, Fox had never played with a passing big in his career. The most assists he’s received from a big was from Willie Cauley-Stein in 2018-19. Willie assisted Fox 27 times in the 80 games they played together. Contrarily, in the 13 games that Fox and Sabonis played with each other at the end of last season, Sabonis assisted Fox 18 times. There is no doubt that that number will pass the 27 assists from Cauley-Stein next season.
Fox has shown the ability to be an elite off ball player in spurts. Last season, he was in the 99.5th percentile in the ‘Cut’ playtype, ranking him 3rd out of 368 players who cut enough to qualify for the stat. Fox’s FG% on his cut plays was a scalding 85.7%, and he scored 1.75 Points per Possession. The unfortunate aspect is the frequency in which Fox cut. Only 1.1% of his plays on offense were him cutting to get a field goal. That 1.1% frequency ranked 365th out of the 368 players. The Kings will need to capitalize on all of the strengths on their roster if they hope to break their playoff drought.
The shooting that the Kings have added during the offseason should open up the floor not only for Fox driving to the rim, but hopefully cutting to the rim as well. Pairing Fox’s elite speed with Sabonis passing skills in a Mike Brown movement offense could result in a huge year for all involved.
