As a fifth overall pick of a talented draft, De’Aaron Fox was heavily overlooked by the talent of Donovan Mitchell, Kyle Kuzma, and Jayson Tatum from the 2017 draft. Although he produces fairly great stats in his rookie season with averages of 12 points, 3 rebounds, and 4 assists as well as making it to the All-Star Rookie and Sophomore game, he was not even close to conversation or contention for the Rookie of the Year award.
However, in his second year in the organization, Fox is surprising a lot of people, catching waves and shocking the league with his improvement over the summer. While Tatum and Mitchell has not been producing as well as people have expected of them based on their performance and leadership carrying their team throughout last postseason, Fox is making the most out of his sophomore campaign. Getting the nod to be the starting point guard for the Sacramento Kings, Fox is averaging 18 points, 4 rebounds, and 7 assists, all of which made leaps and bounds over last season’s averages. He is a strong favorite to win the Most Improved Player of the Year award, and even got praises from superstars in the game. Following the nailbiter loss against Golden State, Fox received huge praise from the opposing team superstar Kevin Durant, who claims that Fox can “change your franchise” if they decide to give the keys to lead the organization.
Fox has already recorded 5 double-doubles for the season, and even already accumulated his first triple-double against the Atlanta Hawks, scoring 31 points, dishing out 15 assists, and grabbing 10 rebounds. One of the biggest surprises of the season was the breakout of the Sacramento Kings, who, for the past decade, has just been a lottery team well below the 0.500 mark and not even close to smelling the playoff race, is right in the neck of woods to be competing for a playoff spot. With a better record than legitimate playoff teams such as New Orlean Pelicans, San Antonio Spurs, and Western Conference Finalists Houston Rocket, Sacramento Kings proved that they were not a fluke when they challenged the two-time reigning champion Golden State Warriors in a heated game, where the Warriors lucked out with a one-point victory. Much of the success of the Kings this season has been largely in favor of the emergence of De’Aaron Fox, who not only started in all 19 games of the Kings regular season so far, but is producing career averages in all of the categories, including three-point field goal percentage, free throws percentage, and overall field goal percentage.
There is a new sheriff in the Sacramento Kings, and his name is De’Aaron Fox. He is a major catalyst to giving rebirth and a new perspective in a young Sacramento Kings squad who is looking to be a dark horse in a competitive Western Conference.