Next season, Los Angeles basketball will be the most exciting it’s ever been with Anthony Davis and LeBron James on the Lakers and Paul George and Kawhi Leonard across the hall with the Clippers. However, basketball will be exciting elsewhere in California, too, and not just because of the Golden State Warriors.
Last season, the Sacramento Kings improved by 12 wins and they have the potential to take another meaningful leap next season with the additions of Trevor Ariza and Dewayne Dedmon and the growth of their young talent, particularly De’Aaron Fox. The 21-year-old point guard withdrew from USA Basketball last month to get ready for next season, when he and the Kings will try to end their 14-season playoff drought. If Fox comes back from the summer looking even better than he did last season, when he averaged 17.3 points, 7.3 assists, and 1.6 steals per game, Kings general manager Vlade Divac believes he can be an NBA All-Star.
Divac appeared on ESPN’s The Jump, and when asked by Dave McMenamin what he believes Fox is capable of next season, heaped praise on the engine that makes the Kings go.
“He should be All-Star,” Divac said. “He’s a tremendous talent and player that is perfect fit for today’s game: Very athletic, his speed is unbelievable, a great leader and we are happy to have De’Aaron Fox on our team.”
The Western Conference is loaded with talent in the backcourt with names such as Russell Westbrook, James Harden, Stephen Curry, Damian Lillard, and C.J. McCollum, who hasn’t made an All-Star game yet despite averaging at least 20 points per game in each of the last four season. That’s not mention Mike Conley, D’Angelo Russell, and Donovan Mitchell, who could all feasibly be in the mix for a spot in Chicago’s All-Star game.
Even if Fox plays at an All-Star level next season — and there’s a chance he does — it’s going to be really, really hard for him him to make the All-Star Game if all of the aforementioned guards are healthy. Still, there’s no denying he has the talent to put his name in the conversation.
