De'Aaron Fox's 3-point shooting is up dramatically in the 2023-24 NBA season.
It's early, but it's not an accident.
Kings assistant coach Luke Loucks, who spent just about everyday training with Fox this offseason, joined NBC Sports California's Kyle Draper on Sactown Sports 1140 and shared some of the things they did to help improve Fox's shooting from behind the arc.
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One of those things included working out with Warriors superstar Steph Curry, and Loucks shared an incredible story about one of the first times Fox completed a workout with the NBA's 3-point king.
"The first time he worked out with him, he was excited and ready to go," Loucks said. "And by the end of the workout, his forearms were cramping. His forearms were cramping from not only the volume but how intense everything was. And after the workout, Fox is looking at me and I'm like, 'Yeah. This isn't special, this is every day how he works out. That's who he is.'
"So I think once you see that with your own eyes and you feel it, automatically his level of work is like, 'Oh that's what it takes? All right, here we go.' For Fox to transform our team and himself into that player, that's the work that goes into it. I think he's doing that at a top-tier level right now."
NBA
In his first six NBA seasons, Fox averaged 32.1 percent from 3-point range. But he has increased that number more than five percent this season, averaging 37.2 percent from deep in 10 games so far. Sure, it's a small sample size, but even the confidence in his shot is becoming more and more evident.
Loucks credited that to the workouts with Curry, too, as it has helped Fox both physically and mentally.
"We were fortunate enough to go work out with Steph quite a bit this summer," Loucks said. "We would go to San Francisco and Palo Alto and work out with them. It's easy for a coach to tell guys we've been around [Kevin Durant] and Steph and Klay [Thompson] and Chris Paul and [Devin Booker] and these are the way these guys work. It's easy for me to say that. It's a different thing for Fox to feel that. It was great."
Fox's wife Recee also recently shared how Loucks has been on the point guard with his shooting.
We've heard countless stories about different NBA players and their mind-boggling experiences working out with Curry. But the summer meetings were more than just workouts to Fox.
And as Fox is making a huge jump from an All-Star to an MVP-caliber player, his 3-point shooting will be a key piece along the way.
