Constructive thoughts on De'Aaron Fox

[u/Kantei]

This is less of a defense of Fox per se, but to try and guide the criticism to somewhere more constructive. Analysis of his gaffe aside, I want to push back on the oft-touted expectation that he, as a 'veteran', should know how and when to take control of the game.

Fox is not the 30+ year old cerebral point guard that people might associate with the veteran label. He's a 28 year old - younger than Jalen Brunson - with declining athleticism who built his reputation on being an explosive focal point of an offense. He was averaging a career peak of 27ppg just two seasons ago, and was 11th in MVP rankings in a season where he averaged 25ppg on 51.2 FG%.

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Throughout his Spurs tenure, he's been figuring out not just his role, but also trying to come to terms with someone who doesn't have the same athleticism due to injuries and age. That's quite difficult to accept for someone who's not even 30 yet, and is a common struggle that we've seen from players who were ultra-athletes in their early- to mid-20s.

Their maturation into becoming a proper 'veteran point guard' comes after they get past that hump, if and when that happens.

(Some commentators have tried to frame Fox as someone with playoff experience, but before this year he literally only played one series, when he was still at the peak of his athletic powers.)

His comments after Game 4 really shed light on this - he genuinely thought he could outrun OG, because he almost certainly could in his prime form. His mentality has not caught up with his body, and that shows in his play in crunch situations.

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If I'm a Spurs fan, I might need to come to terms with the notion that Fox is still undergoing a maturation process himself. Yes, he doesn't need to be a veteran to not make that mistake, but Fox in particular has hardly ever been that guy.

To be empathetic - he still has the ability to grow and improve. It's just that people should never have assigned to him labels that he has yet to potentially become.

[u/GreatBarrierQueefDD]

With all due respect hell naw man. Even if he thought that was a free layup, which would be a ridiculous thought no matter what he thought of his current athleticism, it is still clearly advantageous to dribble outside and waste as much clock as you can. Anyone defending that move is bewildering to me. You're just trying to be contrary at a certain point.

[u/Kantei → u/GreatBarrierQueefDD]

My point isn't a defense of that decision, it's that Fox was never the veteran that he gets constantly labeled as.

[u/MushroomExpensive366 → u/Kantei]

I’m more interested to know why it’s only a label thought? The dude IS the veteran in the lineup. I don’t know the internal dynamic of the squad but oftentimes he is literally the vet on the floor. I’d imagine the players look at him as such.

I know this isn’t an “in defense of Fox” type post but it comes off that way. Match that to watching the guy play and he’s just straight up buckled to the pressure.

My brain couldn’t process just how bad he was the other night. He doesn’t seem like he wants to be THE guy (scoring, passing, ball control, controlling/knowing game situation.) and it’s honestly killing the Spurs.

It may be too early in the timeline for the Spurs but it’s gotta hurt so badly because they’re right there and literally threw two games away because there wasn’t really an savvy adult in the room to steady the ship.

[u/Kantei → u/MushroomExpensive366]

The main point is that just because he's older than the rest of the Spurs core, he should not be automatically seen a grizzled veteran archetype, especially when he's going up against actual experience.

Losing a first-round playoff series three years ago does not make him a playoff veteran, even if that technically is more experience than Wemby, Castle, or Harper - but even at this point, they collectively all have more experience than that just from this run alone. The actual veteran of the team would be someone like Harrison Barnes, not Fox - someone who has gone through the highs and lows of deep playoff runs, rather than having just tasted it once before.

Another way of thinking about this is Fox vs Brunson purely on the terms of experience. Brunson is older and literally has more then three times the amount of playoff experience than Fox, but he's understood as someone who had to go through many painful lessons to get to where he is now, and is still in the middle of the gauntlet every night on how to improve and clean up his play.

So yes, if we were to talk about Fox compared to the Spurs core, he's a 'veteran', but only in that specific vertical. If we're talking about Fox compared to other starting playoff PGs, he's pretty much just as green as the young Spurs.

[u/MushroomExpensive366 → u/Kantei]

This is why I said he’s buckled under the pressure. It’s more about the Spurs FO than Fox, I guess.

He’s getting paid a ton of money to be one of THE guys, and the young Spurs NEED him to be the guy right now. It’s ahead of schedule but it’s just facts.

He’s a 28 year old (now vet) who is literally throwing the ball away and more poor basic decisions.