A sly fox by way of Kentucky, De’Aaron Fox has proven himself to be one of the premiere point guards in the 2017 NBA Draft class. A fun and lovable goofball off the court, this kid is a different beast on the court. Flourishing from the NBA prospect development guru known as John Calipari, who has produced the likes of Derrick Rose, John Wall, Eric Bledsoe, Brandon Knight, Jamal Murray, and Tyler Ulis, Fox looks to be the next great point guard to arrive from the aristocratic program that is Kentucky.
Everyone who knows about De’Aaron Fox knows that the kid is fast, that isn’t a mystery to anyone, or what makes him special. It’s his speed with the ball in his hands that is so marveling. Fox not only has the ball speed but the quickness and body control that makes for an absolute nightmare of a matchup. He would be a perfect fit for any team wanting to run a fast-paced up-tempo offense.
Physique:
Fox has a fairly skinny frame, but do not let that fool you. When it comes to physical traits, he is as gifted as any prospect in this class. He measures in at about 6’3.5″ with a 6’6″ wingspan and weighs about 185 lbs. His athleticism is solid and allows him to jump passing lanes defensively, and finish above the rim offensively. He can also be an ally-oop recipient if given space.
Speed on a prospect is one thing, but the ability to control that speed is another. This is something that De’Aaron Fox really excels at. He can go from a slower pace bringing the ball up court to bursting speed in a split second. That change of pace makes him nearly impossible to guard at times. If Fox could develop that first step a bit quicker in ISO situations, watch out.
Statistics:
De’Aaron Fox’s statistics varied a good bit throughout the course of the season. Through the first three months of the season, Fox had been averaging 15.9 points and 5.7 assists in 21 games played. Then over the final two months, Fox was putting up 17.8 points per game. With the increase in scoring came a drastic drop in assists to 3 per game. For the season, Fox averaged 4.6 assists per game which still led the SEC along with 16.7 points per.
Fox shot the ball at 47.8% from the field at Kentucky with a True Shooting Percentage of 54.8%. Fox also assisted on 28.6% of his team’s field goals while he was on the floor, and pace was a big part of that. According to Draft Express, 30.7% of De’Aaron Fox’s offense came in up-tempo fast break situations. His most reliable offensive weapons outside of the paint were the pull-up mid range jumper and teardrop floater. Fox converted 20 of 42 attempts on the season.
Eye Test:
As previously mentioned, his change of pace dribbling is phenomenal. As John Calipari always seems to teach his point guards, Fox can utilize the dribble drive along with in-and-out dribbling well. When you watch film of De’Aaron Fox, the speed at which he moves is the first thing that will catch your eye. He utilizes this tool extremely well and can really put on a show with his ball handling
He has a rather quick crossover and a good hesitation dribble which, when utilized correctly, can freeze the defender enough to blow right past him. As a transition-oriented guard, you obviously need some moves going to the rim and Fox certainly has that. When a defender is in front of him, Fox often uses a euro step or hop step to maneuver around potential charge-takers similar to Dwayne Wade and Derrick Rose.
What a lot of people don’t seem to notice about Fox is his defensive play making capability. While Fox has the potential to be a superb perimeter defender, that’s not necessarily the area he excels at the most. Even so, Fox has some of the best defensive awareness if not the best out of this class. Blended with quick reaction timing and solid hand-eye coordination, Fox is adequate in intercepting passing lanes and poking the ball loose from ball handlers.
Weaknesses:
There’s one elephant in the room when it comes to De’Aaron Fox, and that is his jump shot. He shoots well on mid range shots when he does decide to take them, but Fox only shot 24.6% on threes this season. However, over the final ten games of the season, Fox did connect on 9-19 (47.3%). The mechanics of Fox’s jumper are there, but first and foremost he needs to have the confidence to take more threes when he gets to the NBA. Whether or not Fox develops said confidence is entirely on him.
Another concerning thing about Fox is the inability to keep the ball protected when going up for layups. Numerous times throughout the season when on the way up for layups, a defender would easily strip the ball loose. It continually happened enough times to be an obvious concern, especially considering Fox’s primary offense is driving to the rim.
A minor concern with Fox is his assist to turnover ratio which for the season was at 1.9:1. While some of the better guards in today’s NBA ironically tend to turn the ball over more, anything under a 2 to 1 ratio can be a cause for concern. Fox’s average of 2.4 turnovers per game can be concerning as well, but assuming the amount of assists Fox gets in the NBA goes up, it’s nothing to worry about for now.
Notable Notes:
De’Aaron Fox faced off against arguably the best point guard in this class, Lonzo Ball, twice this year. Lonzo will always be the face of this draft for several reasons, but Fox got the better of him both times they faced off.
In their first matchup, Fox put up 20 points and 9 assists while holding Lonzo to 14-7 despite a losing effort. Fox would get his revenge in the Sweet Sixteen while making sure his name was known in what was a historically great performance. Putting up an NCAA Tournament Freshman record 39 points in a resounding victory, Fox permanently put his stamp on this draft in proving his legitimacy.
Fox also accomplished something that hadn’t been accomplished by a Kentucky player in 28 years. On November 28th, against Arizona State, Fox put up a triple-double with a 14 point, 11 rebound, 10 assist performance. This marked the first triple-double for a Kentucky player since Chris Mills in 1988.
NBA Comparison: Tony Parker
Everyone likes to make the Kentucky comparison between De’Aaron Fox and John Wall, but asides from being ridiculously fast the two don’t share much in common at all. More realistically Fox shapes up a lot like San Antonio Spurs’ great Tony Parker.
Obviously, the near-35 year old version of Tony Parker doesn’t match up as well. In his glory days though Parker had astonishing ball speed. The way Parker used to facilitate, defend, and have an overall impact on the floor aside from simply scoring matches up a lot from what we’ve seen a lot of in De’Aaron Fox.
