De’Aaron Fox Trade Analysis

Less than 24 hours after likely one of the craziest trades in NBA history, there’s yet another star guard on the move. De’Aaron Fox is now a San Antonio Spur in a 3-team trade that sent Zach LaVine back to the Kings. Here are the full details of the trade before we grade all sides:

San Antonio Spurs:
De’Aaron Fox
Jordan McLaughlin

Sacramento Kings:
Zach LaVine
Sidy Cissoko
Hornets 2025 1st Round Pick (Lottery protected)
Spurs 2027 1st Round Pick
Timberwolves 2031 1st Round Pick
3 2nd Round Picks

Chicago Bulls:
Kevin Huerter
Tre Jones
Zach Collins
Bulls 2025 1st Round Pick

Spurs: A

This is a massive win for the Spurs. The expectation around the league was that it would take one of San Antonio’s younger players in order to entice the Kings to give up their franchise player, particularly with all reports indicating that they coveted rookie Stephon Castle in this type of trade. As soon as the news broke that the Spurs didn’t have to give up him, Vassell, Sochan, or even Keldon Johnson, I was really excited for them, as now we have the opportunity to see how the whole core looks with a quick and dynamic PG like Fox. And while they did need to give up four 1st round picks, only one of them was their own, and another will likely just turn into a couple second rounders. Crazier still, they still have all of the Hawks picks from the Dejounte Murray trade.

This was just an amazing trade for the Spurs, addressing a clear issue in clutch scoring while still keeping all of their best trade assets for moves down the road. The only reason this isn’t an A+ is that I want to see the fit of Fox with Wembanyama, as well as see if Fox can get back to where he was last year in terms of 3-point shooting.

Kings: C+

The Kings are looking like the new Bulls, in more ways than one. The team that GM Monte McNair has constructed is nearly identical to the 2021-22 Bulls.

Lonzo Ball = Malik Monk
Alex Caruso = Keon Ellis
Ayo Dosunmu = Devin Carter
Demar DeRozan
Zach LaVine
Nikola Vucevic = Domantas Sabonis
Patrick Williams = Keegan Murray

And philosophy-wise, they’re seemingly okay with being a very middle-of-the-pack team in a stacked Western conference. Arguably the worst part of this is that they weren’t able to get very many future assets for the player who had been their franchise cornerstone for the past 7 years. Their return was basically just LaVine, an interesting young forward in Sidy Cissoko, and what is essentially two 1st round picks and five 2nds, the best of those being the Timberwolves’ 2031 pick. LaVine is having a phenomenal year, but this move doesn’t appear to be enough to move them higher than the 8 seed, nor push them much lower than they already are. They seem to be stuck in no man’s land, but if that’s what the goal was, they were entirely successful.

Bulls: C-

Quite simply, I thought that LaVine had a bit more trade value than just a decent young player in Tre Jones and the Bulls’ own pick back, especially when they currently stand as the 9th pick in the upcoming and would likely retain their pick if they continued losing (it was top 8 protected). Tre Jones is an upcoming free agent, and Collins and Huerter will be expiring contracts next year, so maybe they’re hoping to be a destination in 2026? Overall, I’m just a bit surprised that they weren’t able to get back more, not even a couple of 2nd rounders or a semi-intriguing young player. The grade might be a bit generous, but they do have more flexibility and absolute control over a pick in what is supposed to be an amazing draft class, so it’s a C-.

What comes next…

It’s not even deadline day yet, but players are beginning to be sent out left and right. Once again, I’ll be back whenever the next crazy star trade is made, and after the deadline, I’ll write about the winners and losers of the trade deadline. Hopefully your favorite team is not decimated by questionable trades or hurt by making no trades at all.

Happy deadline!