Sacramento Kings All-Star point guard De’Aaron Fox earned the Western Conference Player of the Week award on the back of his 60-point outburst last week against the Minnesota Timberwolves. Fox leads an 8-6 Kings team looking to make it 9-6 Monday night at home hosting the Atlanta Hawks. Riding an excellent season statistically, Fox more than deserved this weekly NBA honor. Now, collectively, the Kings need to win some more games.
A Kings Record Scoring Outburst Earns De’Aaron Fox West Honors
Kings De’Aaron Fox Earns Western Conference Player of the Week
It’s always an incredible thing to watch when a player goes for 50 or 60 points in 48 minutes. Last week alone, the league saw Giannis Antetokounmpo go for 59 and Victor Wembanyama hit 50. Two days later, Fox’s 60 points were not only his career high but a Sacramento Kings franchise record as well. The amazing thing about this is that the very next night, in the second half of a back-to-back, Fox poured in one point shy of 50 against the Utah Jazz. In two consecutive nights, Fox scored a ridiculous 109 points. In the four games the Kings played last week, Fox averaged 40.5 points, 7.3 assists, 4.5 rebounds, and 2.0 steals.
Last week’s results only further highlight the career year Fox is having in his eighth season in Sacramento. His career-best 28.9 PPG places him seventh in the league in scoring, trailing Paolo Banchero with 29.0 PPG. Given Fox’s numbers and the fact that both DeMar DeRozan and Domantas Sabonis are averaging 20.2 and 22.9 PPG, respectively, the Kings are surprisingly just two games above .500. So, despite the three superstars coming together this season, the Kings have obviously started off slow.
Just a Slow Start or Something More?
Last week’s results only further highlight the career-year Fox is having in his eighth season in Sacramento. His career-best 28.9 PPG places him seventh in the league in scoring, trailing Paolo Banchero with 29.0 PPG. Given Fox’s numbers and the fact that both DeRozan and Sabonis are averaging 20.2 and 22.9 PPG, respectively, the Kings are just two games above .500. Despite the three superstars coming together this season, the Kings have started off slow.
So, is it simply a slow start? Does the Fox-Sabonis-DeRozan trio need some more time to acclimate fully to one another? Or is there a cause for concern in Sacramento? They’re currently in ninth place in the West. Granted, they’re just a game back of the fourth seed, where the Los Angeles Lakers sit at 9-4. It’s early, but apart from Fox’s outstanding numbers, the Kings have looked overall sluggish. And the West will likely not open up any time soon and poses to remain bunched up as the season progresses. There will undoubtedly be a couple of 50-win teams who survive by making the play-in. Will Sacramento end up as one of them? On paper, their talent suggests otherwise. On the floor, they need to start racking up wins more consistently to move higher in the West and not lower.
