On the heels of the team’s 90-81 win over Spain on Friday night in Los Angeles, USA Basketball has lost yet another potential contributor for the 2019 World Cup squad. Sacramento Kings point guard De’Aaron Fox has decided to remove his name from the pool of players looking to make the roster, according to Chris Haynes of Yahoo Sports.
Sacramento Kings guard De’Aaron Fox will withdraw from Team USA to focus on upcoming season with goal of making playoffs, league sources tell Yahoo Sports.
— Chris Haynes (@ChrisBHaynes) August 17, 2019
Fox saw just over six minutes of action on Friday night, recording two points and an assist in his time on the floor. Still, losing Fox is pretty big for the squad, as the reports out of training camp indicated that the third-year pro was close to unguardable, blowing past opposing players with ease. Fox’s withdrawal also comes on the heels of Houston Rockets forward P.J. Tucker pulling out of camp to nurse an ankle injury and focus on the 2019-20 campaign. Plus, in an interview earlier this week, Fox revealed that new Kings coach Luke Walton encouraged him to suit up for the squad.
With Fox’s decision to pass on the national team, 13 players are competing for one of the 12 roster spots for the World Cup. There is a bit of a question mark at point guard, because outside of Kemba Walker and Derrick White, there isn’t really a natural initiator of the offense, even if both Donovan Mitchell and Marcus Smart are capable of filling this role. Fox is the kind of player who could have thrived in an international setting, which tends to be more wide open and would give a player with his speed room to operate, but we’ll have to wait for another tournament somewhere down the line to potentially see what he can do.
