SACRAMENTO -- The Kings selected guard De’Aaron Fox with the No. 5 overall pick on June 22, 2017, in hopes he could reverse the franchise’s misfortunes.
The team’s playoff drought that ended up lasting 16 full seasons stood at 11 years on that 2017 draft night. Vlade Divac was the general manager. Dave Joerger just finished his first year on the Kings’ bench at head coach.
Six seasons, 395 games, nearly 13,000 minutes played, four head coaches, three general managers and 2,123 days later, Fox is preparing to suit up in his first career playoff contest Saturday evening at Golden 1 Center.
The first-round pick out of Kentucky who arrived in Sacramento with blinding speed and world-class athleticism is ready to make some noise in the 2023 NBA playoffs.
Fox might be a stranger to the playoff bracket, but his game is built for basketball’s biggest stage. Fox proved that this season by all but officially locking up the first annual NBA Clutch Player of the Year award by the All-Star break.
“It is,” Kings guard Kevin Huerter told Sactown Sports on Friday when asked if Fox’s skill set is built for the playoffs. “That was something I was excited about pretty early on in the season. His ability to simply just go get a bucket, it’s super important. It’s probably the most important thing in these playoffs.”
Fox led the NBA with 194 total points in clutch time -- defined by games with a five-point scoring margin in the final five minutes. That was 35 more clutch points than Chicago Bulls forward DeMar DeRozan, who finished in second place. Fox shot 52.9 percent from the field, which ranked first among the 21 players with at least 70 clutch field-goal attempts, and 86 percent from the free-throw line.
Sure, the 25-year-old guard doesn’t have any playoff experience. That’s a fact, and could be a factor in the Kings’ first-round series against the Golden State Warriors’ championship-tested core of Steph Curry, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green.
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But if anything proves Fox is ready for the bright lights, it’s his success -- nay, domination -- with the game on the line.
“A lot of these games come down to -- can your best player make plays at the end of a game, or go get you a bucket?” Huerter told Sactown Sports. “Time and time again over the course of the season, De’Aaron has been able to do that for us.
“In a lot of ways that’s what it comes down to: Is our best player better than your best player? For most of the season, our best player has been better.”
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Entering his second NBA season in the summer of 2018, Fox addressed the city of Sacramento with a video produced by The Players Tribune. It seems more relevant than ever now.
“Sacramento, you don’t ask for a lot. Just that we’re all in, like you are,” a 20-year-old Fox said in the video.
“I don’t want to make any promises I can’t keep, but I’ll promise this: You fought for us, this team, this franchise, this city -- and that’s why we’ll fight for you.”
Fox delivered on his promise, one that comes to fruition in Game 1 against the Warriors on Saturday night.
The fight continues.