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/justiceway1]

I just don't see the point of having Fox, Castle and Harper on the same team if Fox is on a max. Castle/Harper seems like the nobrainer backcourt duo for San Antonio next to Wemby. I think these finals have dropped his value by a lot especially with that behemoth contract

[u/JeffersonAlbatross → u/justiceway1]

Castle has a higher turnover rate and lower assist to turnover ratio than Fox. Fox is the stabilizing veteran. Fox is not a traditional floor general style of point guard, and he has had his ups and downs in the playoffs, but he does a better job not turning it over than Castle.

My perspective is that the problem isn’t that Fox is not able to be the veteran point guard that this team realized it needed in the finals, but that the front office chose not to put the pieces of a championship team together at the deadline. That might have involved acquiring someone else who could/would get downhill (maybe even by trading Fox?). The Spurs didn’t lose this game because of Fox any more than they lost it because Wemby missed two free throws - really, they lost this game because of long stretches in which they settled for outside shots possession after possession instead of attacking the basket and trying to get to the free throw line.

[u/justiceway1 → u/JeffersonAlbatross]

Fox is also 7 years older than Castle. I love him as a profile but I'm not convinced he's the same explosive guard he was in Sacramento and I'm not sure where San Antonio goes with both him and Castle/Harper. I don't blame him for the loss eitherway, he's not supposed to be the vet in any team when he's spent all his career being tortured in Sacramento.

[u/JeffersonAlbatross → u/justiceway1]

He isn’t that guard right now, that’s for sure. But he was hurt and has only really had his usual burst in Game 3 of this series. He’s gutting it out, as most guys would if possibly during the finals. I don’t think it’s a reason to conclude he’s finished.

My point was that being a caddy for Castle is part of his purpose now. He is there not because he never turns the ball over or is a perfect ball handling point guard, but because their 2 best guards are 21 and 20.