Sacramento Kings guard De’Aaron Fox is having a breakout season because of Dave Joerger’s decision to limit the exposure of his weaknesses and accentuate the strengths
There is a prevailing notion that De’Aaron Fox is having a breakout season because the Sacramento Kings are playing faster. Rob Mahoney of Sports Illustrated alluded to this last week:
"” The best thing Sacramento has done for Fox this season is to let his game breathe. Rather than burden him with scripted action, the Kings opt for a more intuitive offense—driven by the revolutionary thought that perhaps a fast player should play fast. What was one of the slowest teams in the league last season has gone full throttle, and all of a sudden we can see Fox’s game for its electricity”."
However, one can argue that De’Aaron Fox’s breakout season is directly linked to Dave Joerger’s decision to limit the exposure of his weaknesses and accentuate the strengths. Joerger relied on post-ups last season as the Sacramento Kings ranked fifth in the category averaging 15.7 per game.
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The post-ups would force De’Aaron Fox to spend a significant amount of time in the role of bystander/shooter. One example of this is when Fox would dribble the basketball up to the three-point line and passed it to Willie Cauley-Stein who was standing at the top of the key.
Once this happened, Fox would spend the rest of the possession as a bystander because Cauley-Stein would pass the ball to Zach Randolph in the low post. On the other hand, when Fox had the ball for most of the possession, he would call for a screen.
Once the screen was set, he would have to reset or shoot a mid-range jump shot as at least one teammate was clogging up the paint with a post up. Unfortunately, the role of bystander/ shooter wasn’t ideal for Fox as one of his biggest weaknesses coming up through the amateur ranks was shooting.
According to DraftExpress:
"As a high school player in Katy Texas, De’aaron struggled “to make shots consistently, especially with his feet set. Much better in mid-range spots than from three. Career 75/266 (28%) for 3 in 76 games in DX database”."
Therefore, NBA teams decided to leave him wide open when he does not have the ball to provide help defense elsewhere. The game plan would continue until De’Aaron Fox proved that he could make the wide-open 3-pointer on a regular basis.
Sadly, he was never able to make the wide-open 3-pointer on a consistent basis as Fox shot 30.7 percent from behind the arc.
Fortunately, Dave Joerger indicated that he wanted to go back to his roots to modernize the Kings offense before this season:
"“The minor leagues are a guard-driven league, a speed league,” Joerger said. “Your power forward sometimes could be a stretchable guy, so the court was always open. You didn’t have a lot of post-ups. With this group, playing four out and one in, that is the world we live in. Skilled, skilled, skilled. What we’re trying to do is open up those lanes.”"
Consequently, he has lowered the number of post-ups from 15.7 to 10.9 per game. The reduction of post ups was a welcome sight for De’Aaron Fox as an open court would play right into his strengths. One of Fox’s strong suits in the amateur ranks was his ability to distribute the basketball:
"Fox was an “excellent distributor. Willing to make the simple play. Moves the ball ahead in transition. Nice touch on lobs. Can make all the necessary passes out of pick and roll.”"
The open court has helped that aspect of De’Aaron Fox’s game come to life. For example, Fox brings the ball up to the 3-point line and call for a screen. Once the pick was set, Fox pays attention to his defender to determine the course of action. If the defender stays under the screen, he either shoots the ball immediately or goes over the screen to shoot a mid-range jumper.
On the other hand, if the defender fights over the screen, he goes over it as well and drives towards the basket to score or pass the basketball depending on whether a double team comes.
This type of play has contributed to Fox averaging 3.1 more assists going from 4.4 to 7.5 per game. Not only is Fox avenue more assists, but he is also seeing a career high in points, rebounds, and steals.
In conclusion, playing with speed is not the reason for the breakout season of De’Aaron Fox, it is just a symptom.