J.Ross: Kings Rookie Has A Knack For Delivering in Big Moments
Mar 6, 2018, 12:00 AM | Updated: Jan 4, 2019, 11:24 am
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This NBA season is close to wrapping up for the Sacramento Kings. What do they have to show for it? Clearly there haven’t been enough wins to satisfy even the most positive Kings fan. As of now the Sacramento Kings only have 20 wins on the season and are flirting with the league’s worst record. Throughout the 82 game grind we are trying to find things to build upon. Some of the young players have shown flashes of what they could become in the near future. Skal has improved here as of late, Harry Giles has a lot of hype surrounding his future and Bogi has really settled into the most consistent of the young players on the roster.
Last June the Kings selected De’Aaron Fox with hopes of the top 5 big exploding onto the scene to help lead this team to where it wants to go. While that hasn’t happened, Fox has done some other things in his way that give all Kings fans hope. Fox is incredibly fast and has improved his jump shot. There is still a ton of development that needs to happen with his game but one of the nuances he has seemed to take hold of is usually one that develops much later in careers. Fox has been clutch. De’Aaron hasn’t been afraid to take big shots and make those big shots too.
De’Aaron hit the game winning basket early in the season against the Philadlephia 76ers at Golden 1 Center. On the road in Miami, Fox crashed the boards with an incredibly athletic leap to slam home the game winning dunk. This last Thursday Fox hit a game tying jumper that sent a game into overtime in which the Kings ultimately won. So three of the twenty wins have ended with Fox making the games biggest play. He has proven to be his best when the moment was the biggest. Not all players have this, but Fox seems to already.
So hopefully this team will get better soon and if they do they know they have a guy they can go to when the game is on the line. Fox won’t be the rookie of the year this year but he has had several big time moments in his first campaign. I hope he still has even another one or two left in the final 20 games. If he grows, if the team grows, then the wins will grow too and Fox may just be there to be clutch in the end.