The Sacramento Kings organization is not accustomed to being in the position that they’re in right now. Consider, before the 2023 NBA Playoffs, it had been 16 years since the Kings last made an appearance in the postseason. Sure, in that time, there have been players who possessed All-Star or even All-NBA potential — think DeMarcus Cousins, Isaiah Thomas, or shoot, even Kevin Martin had a cup of coffee as a 24-point-per-game scorer — but never had it felt like the Kings were actually on the right track.
This time it’s different, and that is in large part due to the longest-tenured member of the Sacramento Kings, De’Aaron Fox. Fox was the 5th pick in the 2017 NBA Draft, joining a directionless franchise that was home to stopgap veterans like Vince Carter, Zach Randolph, and George Hill, as well as a hodgepodge of youngsters… none of whom would be in Sacramento for too long.
That is, except for De’Aaron Fox, who hopes to remain in Sacramento for the long haul.
“I would love to be here for my entire career, to be on one team, to be in one city, for my entire career,” Fox told Sam Amick and Anthony Slater of The Athletic. “It’s not unheard of, but it doesn’t happen a lot, so to be in that category would definitely be great. That’s something that’s amazing. You’re able to obviously build your life, your family, your entire career, in one place. That’s everybody’s dream. No one wants to just be bouncing around teams.”
However, there is one slight caveat with Fox’s plan:
“I want to make sure that we’re in that position to be competing and competing at a high level for a long time, not just fighting for a playoff spot,” Fox said, seemingly casting just a tiny sliver of little doubt on his Kings future. “I mean, I’m not saying I’m not staying or that I am staying. But I would love to be here, and I want to make sure that we’re competing at a high level.”
Expectations in Sacramento and around the rest of the league are that Kings will indeed be competing at a high level in 2025.
Continuity is key as Kings continue championship chase
After seven NBA seasons, De’Aaron Fox has officially become the guy that Kings fans envisioned he would be back in 2017 after a spectacular freshman campaign at Kentucky. Over the last two seasons, Fox has played in 147 regular season games and has averaged 25.8 points, 4.4 rebounds, 5.9 assists, and 1.6 steals per on 49/35/76 shooting splits. He even won the NBA’s inaugural Clutch Player of the Year award in 2023.
But by no means has Fox had to carry the burden of this rebuild on his own.
Arriving in 2022 by way of a controversial trade that included All Star point guard Tyrese Haliburton, Domantas Sabonis has proven to be the ideal sidekick to De’Aaron Fox. Sabonis has back-to-back seasons finishing in the top ten in MVP voting, and last year, he led the league in both double-doubles (77) and triple-doubles (26). Most importantly to the Kings’ success, he’s helped to unlock the best version of De’Aaron Fox… someone who could play more off the ball while Sabonis facilitates the offense.
The Kings come into the 2024-25 season boasting more continuity than many teams around the league, but they also have a new face who is expected to help the franchise take the next big step forward. After flirtations with the Lakers, Clippers, 76ers and Heat in the offseason, DeMar DeRozan arrived in Sacramento via a sign-and-trade in early July, giving the Kings a formidable Big Three in an era where that is becoming increasingly rare.
Even rarer is a player of DeRozan’s caliber choosing to play in Sacramento.
“That’s the most high-profile free agent that’s ever come to Sacramento,” Fox said of DeRozan. “Those things don’t happen with a really bad team. Guys aren’t just gonna go there for the money. So, I mean, it kind of shows the direction that we’re moving in.”
There’s no doubt the Kings are moving in the right direction… toward the kind of success that they had in the early 2000s, when they came oh-so-close to making the NBA Finals and were routinely among the best teams in the Western Conference. But De’Aaron Fox knows they aren’t there yet, and that this season will go a long way in showing just how close this franchise is.
“We don’t want to have our peak season being two years ago and just making the playoffs,” Fox said. “We want to continue to build on that and just continue to try to change this culture. I think it’s changed already, but you want to build a championship culture, and you have to be able to do those things before you even get to the top. … I definitely feel like we have the talent to (contend). But now, it’s, ‘Can we execute that plan?’”
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