Kings 2024-25 Season Preview: De’Aaron Fox

Sacramento Kings star point guard De'Aaron Fox is poised for another high-caliber season.

Dec 29, 2023; Atlanta, Georgia, USA; Sacramento Kings guard De'Aaron Fox (5) reacts after the Kings defeated the Atlanta Hawks at State Farm Arena. Mandatory Credit: Dale Zanine-Imagn Images / Dale Zanine-Imagn Images

The Sacramento Kings play basketball in 19 days. After what’s felt like months of waiting, the 2024-25 season is right around the corner, which gives us just a few more weeks to speculate before seeing the new roster on the court.

That’s just enough time for a player preview series for the Kings roster, starting with none other than De’Aaron Fox.

While DeMar DeRozan is the flashy new name, this team still feels like it starts with Fox. Entering his eighth season, the 26-year-old guard has led the Kings in scoring each of the last five years. DeRozan may take that spot, but Fox’s 26.6 and 25.0 points per game the last two seasons beat out DeRozan’s 24.0 and 24.5.

The main takeaway from Fox’s numbers last year was his jump in three-point shooting. He shot a career-high 7.8 3’s per game at a 36.9 percent clip. Those numbers jumped up from 32.4 percent on 5.0 attempts per game the year prior.

The exciting prospect of adding DeMar DeRozan is that it should not only take pressure off of Fox to score but should help Fox get better attempts, including his looks beyond the arc. Last season, Fox shot 39.1 percent on his catch and shoot 3’s, compared to 35.6 percent on his pull-up looks.

That split shows a trend that Fox has had for his career:

• 2023-24: Catch and Shoot 3’s – 39.1% | Pull-Up 3’s – 35.6%
• 2022-23: Catch and Shoot 3’s –34.3% | Pull-Up 3’s –30.1%
• 2021-22: Catch and Shoot 3’s – 35.2% | Pull-Up 3’s – 27.1%
• 2020-21: Catch and Shoot 3’s – 39.3% | Pull-Up 3’s – 30.0%
• 2019-20: Catch and Shoot 3’s – 33.3% | Pull-Up 3’s – 26.7%
• 2018-19: Catch and Shoot 3’s – 40.4% | Pull-Up 3’s – 35.2%
• 2017-18: Catch and Shoot 3’s – 30.9% | Pull-Up 3’s – 31.9%

With DeRozan joining the roster Fox’s looks should theoretically get easier and could result in another jump in Fox’s 3P%.

While Fox’s main talking point has become his three-point shooting, his main superpower is still his ability to score on all three levels. While his long-distance shooting went up last season, his efficiency inside the arc took a small dip.

In 2022-23, Fox shot 76.5 percent (t-15th in the NBA) in the restricted area and 47.0 percent in the mid-range. Those numbers dropped to 66.8 and 37.1 percent last season. Not terrible, but a significant drop to take note of. 

If he combines his efficiency from inside the arc of two years ago with his efficiency beyond the arc last season, he could be in for a monster year offensively. 

On the defensive side of the ball, Fox led the league in steals per game last season with 2.1 and was second with 3.6 deflections per contest.

With Keon Ellis likely taking the main defensive assignment it leaves Fox to get in the passing lanes, which he’s always been excellent at. With his improved on-ball defense and classic poke-away steal, Fox is rounding out his skill set on defense just like he is rounding out his scoring abilities.

He’s becoming one of the best two-way guards in the league, and this could be the year he firmly plants himself in that conversation nationally.

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