De'Aaron Fox:

There are some good videos of Fox here--> http://www.draftexpress.com/profile/De-Aaron-Fox-72510/videos/

Well, if you look at Philly's roster, they don't really have a legit PG other than McConnell, and he's a backup PG in my opinion. I know they've talked about Simmons playing the pt, but he'll be more of a point forward. Make no mistake, Philly needs someone that can shoot the ball, and Tatum might look more attractive than Jackson or Fox. Who knows? But if Fox works out for them and shows them he can shoot the ball, I fear they may decide to grab him. I certainly hope I'm wrong.

That brings us to the Sun's. Toward the end of the season, Ulis was getting a lot of minutes. Knight was demoted to third string, and the best PG on the team, Bledsoe, has spent more time on the injured list than he has on the floor. In the past six years Bledsoe has played in 337 games out of a possible 492, missing almost two seasons worth of games. The Sun's are looking for a young talented PG to pair with Booker. Fox certainly fills that need. Like I said, I hope I'm wrong.

I've seen the video, and have been trying to remember where.

"Ball dominant" is a bell curve term. Guys like Steph/Westy/Harden/LeBron are all ball dominant, but in virtually every case, its the right way to play with them because defenses have to account for so many different scenarios when they have the ball. Why would you want the ball in anyone elses hands? A guy like Rondo (and Rubio to some extent) is defenses basically know they're trying to make the pass and can force them to have to score, which is a far lower percentage play.

Fox is the "right" kind of ball-dominant because he's unselfish and more often than not he's going to be make the right play.

Just my opinion, but if any team decides that a player can shoot the ball because he does so in a workout, everybody with that opinion should be fired forthwith. It's the most ridiculous thing imaginable to pick a guy who can shoot in practice, but who has not demonstrated he can do it in the game. I have to assume that Philly has some brains. Therefore, I have to assume they will not pick Fox if their #1 need is shooting. That said, if they want shooting they could certainly trade down a few slots and still get Monk. Maybe that's what they do, and, who knows, maybe it's with the Kings.

Regarding the Suns, FWIW I just heard Ham say their #1 need is SF. We'll see how it goes. As we all know, we can be Sherlock Holmes in these deductions and prognostications and still get blown out of the water because of a trade.

Fox seems like the type of player Philly usually picks, though they have a different GM now so maybe things have changed. I'm particularly worried about the Suns though. They pretty much showed their hand by benching Bledsoe after the All Star break. I don't think that was just a tank job, I think they're ready to move on with Booker as the focal point of the offense and they're just looking for the right trade. Knight is trade fodder too. That means they need a PG as badly as we do and lucking into another Kentucky guy to put next to Booker (a great scorer with suspect defense) who compliments his strengths/weaknesses may be too good for them to pass up. The good news for us sitting at #5 now is that Philadelphia or Phoenix picking Fox still leaves us with options. Tatum and Jackson both look really good defensively to me. Jackson is particularly good at making smart rotations off the ball and Tatum is good at moving his feet and staying in front of people. I like Jackson more -- mostly because I think he's really underrated as a playmaker and fits our new look offense better -- but both are solid options for us at SF. Then we either hope for Ntilikina falling to 10 or work out a trade-down scenario where we can acquire Jawun Evans in the mid to late first round. I wouldn't count out Dennis Smith Jr. at #5 either. He's not the caliber of defender I usually covet but he's got the skillset to be an All Star PG and you don't get a chance to draft somebody like that every year.

Fox while still on top of my wish list creates a small back court between himself and Buddy. I keep going back to Hields best role being a sixth man 3pt specialist. Just because he was traded for DMC does not mean he's the center piece.

I certainly hope your right, and that James Ham is right. I simply gave my reasons why both those teams might choose Fox. To be honest, I'm more worried about Philly than I'am the Suns.

I can't see Philly taking Fox. Brett Brown said he's going to play Simmons at PG. Not point forward or as the primary option or main playmaker but as the actual point guard. Getting the ball on the inbounds, dribbling it up the court and running the offense. He also said he's committed to that idea. If that's the case then along with Embiid's crazy usage rate I can't see Fox having value to them as a primarily off the ball player.

The Suns are the team I worry about but then they'd likely have to trade Bledsoe. I think it's more likely they take Jackson or Tatum.

I'd love it if Fox is there at 5. I think he'd be fantastic for the Kings.

If they are really playing Simmons at 1, they almost have to go with Tatum. He can spread the floor, but also rebound and manufacture buckets when the offense breaks down late in the clock. I don't think Jackson does much for the Sixers. They might struggle against smaller, quicker guards but so does everybody else, and they would have a lot of length/weakside shotblocking to hinder those guards from getting easy looks. And they would just smoke those kind of teams on the other end.

It would be ideal for us, of course, if they did take Tatum.

Yep. Because I think the Suns absolutely take Jackson and Fox ends up a King.

http://twitter.com/SHowardCooper/status/865323123079397376

Nice to actually see a target with positive feelings towards SAC.

If true, bonus points

Times are changing around the Kings and it is nice to witness it. We can be pretty excited for the future.

Fox - Hield - Bogdanovic - #10 pick - Skal - PapaG - Wcs is really nice core to build around.
Couple that with an experienced and respected FO in Perry and Catanella, lots of cap space and an unprotected 2018 draft pick and it seems like the rebuild could be over before we even have to worry about losing the 2019 pick

If the Kings draft Fox at #5, I think the kings would probably try to re-sign Darren collison instead of ty Lawson, to make sure we have a good shooter at the point guard position.

Darren would serve as a mentor at point guard until fox is ready to run the show.

Or Milos Teodosic.

Yes, maybe Milos.

How is his 3 point shot percentage?

Not bad. Around 38% if I remember correctly. But the bigger gain would be having a guy with years of professional experience showing Fox how to run a team. How to get his teammates involved and also recognize when to become a scorer.

Except Collison has a pretty good outside shot that Fox lacks - a glaring hole. I don't know about "way" more explosive, but yes more explosive. I'm playing devils advocate, I like Fox and hope the Kings draft him. Fox looks like a better defender to Collison coming into the league a bit plus. When I think about it, I like the combo of Fox and Markannen draft too. Markennan gives Fox a pick and pop guy or a drive and kick.

This is where my Conley comparison falls apart. Conley is a reliable 3pt shooter. Parker is a top of the league half-court guard (even now) who is very clever at reading what the defense allows. Spurs are sorely missing him right now.

Conley sucked as a shooter coming into the league too. The comparison doesn't fall apart because of that.

Yes but I'm talking about currently. We don't know if Fox becomes the kind of shooter Conley is....that's what I'm hoping though if the Kings land him. You can see how important shooting is with Rondo last, last year for the Kings. That's why I made the comment if possible to draft Markannen with Fox. Give the ball to Fox and have him break down the defense and kick to Hield or *Markannen* or float a shot at the basket, or alley-oop to Cauley-Stein. Fox was blasting away in transition, but would be interested in seeing him train for the Half Court too.

Yeah! Trying to sell myself more on his jumpshot. I think he's at #5 if we want him

This years batch of prospects are so good. Im torn between 8 differwnt guys who might be there at 5

Let me help you

1. The correlation between college 3pt% and nba 3pt% is about the same as college ft% and nba 3pt%. Taking this even further, for last season, apparently the correlation between rookie's college 3pt% and nba 3pt% was essentially zero, but college ft% and nba 3pt% was quite high (You can look at @T1m_NBA 's timeline on Twitter for details).
-> Fox's ft at Kentucky: 74%. Fultz: 65%. Ball: 67%. Smith Jr: .72%.

2. One reason for 1. is likely because of small sample size for 3pt shots. Fox for example only took 69 threes in college. Of course you can interprete this as him nor being comfortable with it. But even Fultz took only 126. As a result, randomness in hitting or missing heavily influences college 3pt%. Imagine this: If by chance 5 more of Fox's 3pt shots had went in, his 3pt% would be about 32% instead of 24.6%.

3. To further account for 2. and trying to get randomness out of it we can look at his highschool shooting. Maxreps.com tells us that he took 504 3s over his high school career while making 34% of them. He also shot 968 fts at the same 74% clip as in college.

4. Looking at his mechanis, his shot is not broken. He just needs more repetition and more strength to get more consistent.

All in all it seems like his shooting at Kentucky was an bad outlier year. This also gets supported if you look at his splits. He couldnt buy a 3pt shot in november and december (2/15 and 2/13) but finished way too strong in April (7/16, so 43% )
With more time for practice at the pro level and added strength I think it's quite reasonable to assume he will shoot 34-36% on threes and 75%+ on fts.

I like Jackson actually as the best fit player for the Kings in a position they need most as they can resign Lawson/Collison at least as a stopgap at PG.
If the upper-PGs are gone though , I too like the idea of going after Juwan Evans with a trade-down. He's crafty with the ball and a smart player - he's no uber-athlete and possibly a defensive liability, but he could surprise. From last year, who knows what happens - a trade down is easily 50/50 and probable if certain players the Kings want are taken earlier.

Passion for the game. Fox to Kings pleaseee.

A year ago the Sacramento Kings couldn’t convince any top-10 picks to visit Sacramento for a workout. The highest pick to visit the Kings last year was Wade Baldwin IV, who ended up going 17th. So it’s with a bit of shock that not only will agents encourage their players to work out for Sacramento, but De’Aaron Fox apparently would be very happy to end up with the Kings, according to NBA.com’s Scott Howard-Cooper.

It’s easy to see the appeal for Fox. The Kings absolutely need a point guard of the future, and if the Kings drafted him Fox would have every opportunity to earn that role. If he has a relationship with Willie Cauley-Stein, we’d assume that Willie has told De’Aaron all about Sacramento’s fans and how the city itself is a great place to live.

But still, it’s hard not to be surprised by the report. It’s such a stark contrast to last year. It certainly speaks to the changing perception of Sacramento as a franchise. Chalk it up to the front office gaining legitimacy, or credit the departure of DeMarcus Cousins. Whatever the reason, it’s a welcome change.

http://www.sactownroyalty.com/2017/...wants-to-land-with-sacramento-kings-nba-draft

Markkanen was an absolute terrible defender at Arizona. He's a one trick pony. His rebounding was OK, but not exceptional. He has no post game, He's shown no ability to pass the ball. His ballhandling is average to below average. He's a terrific shooter, period! I saw players 6'6" shove him around in the post and score. Not saying he can't become better in those areas. But he's not a player I'm lusting after.

It happens to be that his 1-Trick is the most important trick in the NBA - high FG% I like him as an assassin. Quick release for his size. I'm not hung up on getting him, but I would not be unhappy if they did at 10 - especially with Fox. Same goes for Collins. Collins is the other side of the coin - getting probably the best shot blocker in the draft, and Collins looks to be a more complete player.