De'Aaron Fox trade scenarios: Could Kings star team up with Victor Wembanyama?

The clock is ticking for Sacramento with De’Aaron Fox, and that has never been more apparent than it was on Tuesday.

The Kings are opening up trade talks on Fox, and The Athletic’s Sam Amick reported that Fox’s agent, Rich Paul, told the Kings that it would be wise for the team to move him now because Fox’s current contract is slated to run out in the summer of 2026. If the Kings want to maximize value on Fox, trading him one and a half years out from his free agency is the best time for the team to get what it needs in a deal.

As previously reported, Fox has declined an extension offer from the Kings that would make him among the highest-paid point guards in the league. If Fox can make All-NBA this season, he could qualify for a five-year supermax extension worth a projected $345 million. That is certainly a big part of the reason he has not agreed to an extension. And with that looking more unlikely as the season goes on, the clock continues to run on the Kings’ decision.

Fox is averaging 25.2 points, five rebounds and 6.2 assists per game, and he remains utterly dynamic with the ball in his hands as one of the fastest guards in the league. However, over the last three years, he’s taken an arguably bigger leap by showcasing the ability to slow down and play at pace.

He’s more efficient and economical with his decision-making. He continues to get to the free-throw line at a high level and makes his shots on the interior with a great floater game as well as the ability to turn the corner on rim protectors. He’s one of those players who doesn’t need a ball screen to get paint touches but is also elite with a ball screen because he possesses a three-level scoring arsenal. His 3-point shot comes and goes, and it’s what teams feel comfortable giving up when he’s on the attack. However, he has hit 35.4 percent of his seven 3-point attempts per game over the last year and a half.

Fox remains a borderline All-Star even in a loaded Western Conference. He’s a top-30 player in the league, and teams would love to acquire him. The Kings also would love to keep him. Will they be willing to trade him before the deadline and upend what has quickly been a turnaround season since they fired Mike Brown as coach and inserted Doug Christie into the role?

Sacramento is 24-22, firmly in the Play-In Tournament picture and just two games out of the No. 6 seed in the West. However, the Kings have a tough schedule the rest of the way. Their opponents’ winning percentage the rest of the year is 50.9 percent, which is eighth-highest in the league. Also, 20 of their remaining 36 games are on the road.

The Kings need to balance how much they’re winning, how much more positive things look under Christie and what they think their ceiling is this year with their future contract situation, Fox’s value in a trade, the fact that Fox’s trade value drops in the offseason (teams acquiring him now would get two postseason runs with Fox, not just one) and how much harder their schedule gets.

Who will offer a massive package of assets for Fox if he’s already indicating where he wants to end up long term, as has been noted throughout all of the reporting? The San Antonio Spurs have long been seen league-wide as the most likely destination, but what other teams could get involved?

If Fox gets dealt before the deadline, the Spurs seem like the most likely team, but if this gets to the offseason, you never know what could happen. With the help of Spotrac’s trade machine, I’ve dug into a few potential trade-deadline deals on Fox.

A Wemby team-up

• Spurs acquire De’Aaron Fox from Kings, Simone Fontecchio from Pistons
• Kings acquire Tre Jones, Blake Wesley, Sandro Mamukelashvili, two 2025 first-round picks (via SAS and ATL), a top-10 protected 2025 first-round pick (via CHI) and a 2027 first-round pick (via ATL)
Pistons acquire Harrison Barnes, Malaki Branham and a 2025 second-round pick (via SAS from SAC)


For months, the Spurs have been connected with Fox in league circles as a potential destination to pair him with Victor Wembanyama. The fit is obvious. The Spurs have been looking for a long-term answer at the point guard position since moving Dejounte Murray in the summer of 2022. Chris Paul has done a great job of organizing the team this season, but he’s limited as a scorer and turns 40 in May. Tre Jones looks like a good backup point guard, but he’s probably just that.

The Spurs drafted Stephon Castle this past year with designs on him potentially filling the point guard role down the road, but he’s been much better this season when he has played next to Paul in the starting lineup as opposed to when he is asked to create as more of a primary option.

With Paul and Castle together on the court, the Spurs have won their 550 minutes by 1.3 points per 100 possessions. With Castle on the court without Paul, they’ve lost those 514 minutes by 3.2 points per 100, and the offense has been the significant issue. With Paul and Castle on the court, the Spurs average 119.2 points per 100 possessions. With Castle on the court without Paul, they average 106.7. And if Castle is on the court without either Jones or Paul, the Spurs have lost those minutes by 12.7 points per 100 possessions with an offensive rating of 102.4.

I love Castle as a player, but I’ve never seen him as a primary lead guard. He’s always been better to me as a terrific connective player on the wing who passes well, defends well and makes a ton of terrific decisions on the court while acting as a secondary ballhandler.

That’s a perfect role to play next to Fox, whose quickness would give the Spurs the kind of significant athletic boost that they’ve lacked at times in the past two years with Wembanyama. Think about how synergistic this pairing could be: Fox speeding down the court in transition, collapsing the defense and forcing it into the paint in help before Wembanyama trails the play from behind and gets a wide-open catch-and-shoot 3. Or, in ball-screen actions, Fox’s ability to consistently get paint touches would make Wembanyama’s pick-and-pop game that much harder to deal with. The way teams tend to guard the Spurs now is simply by switching a lot of those actions. But with Fox, it’s much harder to switch and put a big on him because of his blow-by speed mixed with his ability to decelerate into a floater.

The Spurs are currently 25th in the league in drives, 22nd in the league in field goal percentage on drives and 27th in points per game off drives. This is even though they have arguably the league’s best weapon ever at spacing the floor from the center position in Wembanyama. No 6-foot-11 or taller center has ever taken more than 7.1 3s per game over a full season. Wembanyama is taking over nine 3s per game and making them at a 35 percent clip. He gets guarded when he’s away from the rim already at just 21 years old. The synergy between Fox and longtime Kings center Domantas Sabonis has been great, but with Wembanyama, it has a chance to be even better if the Spurs build this roster correctly around this duo because Fox will have genuine space in the lane.

The Kings get a ton of value here on top of setting themselves up for the future financially. They take four first-round picks from the Spurs, who have an immense amount of draft capital to trade. Two of those first-round picks are likely to convey this year (the Spurs’ own pick and Atlanta’s first-rounder). One pick, a Chicago Bulls’ first-rounder, could convey in 2025 but is more likely to convey in 2026 or 2027 when it becomes only top-eight protected. Then, they also get a future first-round pick from Atlanta in 2027.

The Kings also get an immense amount of financial savings here, only having to take back about $14 million in salary. That gets them far away from the luxury tax moving forward and sets them up to be players in the trade market if owner Vivek Ranadivé does not want to rebuild with all of the incoming pick capital.

The team also would only be taking on $4.7 million in future salary, and this deal also allows them to open up a massive trade exception for the full amount of Fox’s $34.8 million salary, as they’d be taking back Jones into their nontaxpayer midlevel exception, Wesley into a small trade exception and Sandro Mamukelashvili into a minimum exception.

The Pistons are the interlocutor here. The Kings and Spurs can do a trade by themselves with ease structurally (the Spurs have both the Keldon Johnson and Zach Collins deals that combined make a Fox deal almost cash-neutral this year). However, it’s more beneficial for the Kings to not take on all of Collins’ and Johnson’s future money.

Barnes also has a nice mid-sized $18 million salary, but he cannot be traded back to the Kings midseason after the Spurs acquired him as part of the DeMar DeRozan sign-and-trade this past summer, so let’s send him to Detroit, which has about $14 million in cap space and can take on his deal.

Why would they take this on? First, he’s an upgrade on Fontecchio. After a strong start to his Pistons career last year, he’s been disappointing this year under new coach J.B. Bickerstaff. Fontecchio heads to San Antonio, where he can at least be a rotational player off the bench even if he won’t be a starter like Barnes. To take the extra year and $18 million on Barnes’ deal after this season, the Pistons get two second-round picks, plus a flier on Malaki Branham, a first-round pick who has shown some offensive flashes as a scorer but hasn’t been able to stick in the rotation. Given that the Pistons are in the middle of a playoff race, a chance to upgrade at the power forward slot for at least 20 minutes per night plus some future potential value seems like a good bet.

Houston, we have a problem

Proposal No. 1: 

• Rockets acquire Fox and Kevin Huerter
Kings acquire Fred VanVleet, Reed Sheppard, a 2025 first-round pick and a 2026 first-round pick

Proposal No. 2: 

• Rockets acquire Fox, Alex Len and Jordan McLaughlin
• Kings acquire Steven Adams, Jeff Green, Aaron Holiday, Cam Whitmore, three first-round picks

I am skeptical the Rockets will want to get involved in a Fox deal given how successful they’ve been so far this year. My colleague Kelly Iko reported that the Rockets “intend to ride the team’s current momentum into the postseason.”

So, why would Houston at least consider it? Jalen Green could charitably be described as streaky throughout his career, as his first 20 games this season were quite poor, with the following 20 games being terrific. He’s looked good recently, but I don’t know that Houston can reliably count on him to end games.

Enter Fox, one of the league’s best players in clutch time, a legitimate shot creator both as a scorer and passer. His synergy in ball screens with Sabonis should give the Rockets positive indications that he could play well with center Alperen Şengün. This would be an immediate all-in move that could propel the Rockets to real postseason success.

However, I’m a bit skeptical about Fox’s fit with the roster as a whole. Fox and Sabonis, in their most successful moments, have always been surrounded by an immense amount of shooting and floor-spacing. This Rockets situation wouldn’t really provide that if only for the presence of Amen Thompson.

Thompson looks like the Rockets’ best player at this point, a dominant athlete whose ability to play in transition, defend anyone on the court, finish at the rim, rebound and pass has pushed the Rockets to even further heights since he entered the starting lineup. He’s averaging 19.2 points, 11.5 rebounds, 4.4 assists, 2.2 steals, 1.2 blocks and shooting 57 percent from the field while drawing six free-throw attempts per game in his last 10, which coincides with when Jabari Smith Jr. got injured. In those last 10 games, Thompson has played more minutes than anyone on the Rockets, and they’ve gone 8-2 with wins over the Los Angeles Lakers, Cleveland Cavaliers (twice) and Boston Celtics (twice) among others.

go-deeper

GO DEEPER

With game-winner over Celtics, Amen Thompson announces himself as a star

Undeniably, with Fox replacing VanVleet in the starting lineup paired with Green, Thompson, Dillon Brooks and Şengün, the Rockets would be the most athletic team we’ve seen in quite a while. They’d be a terror to play, and that doesn’t even account for Tari Eason, Smith and potentially Cam Whitmore coming off the bench. They would be able to overwhelm teams with speed and power. But would teams take Fox seriously when he plays off the ball next to Thompson and Green? Or would those two be resigned to more of an off-ball role?

The Rockets can be patient here in a way few other teams can. They don’t have to go all-in when any star lead guard becomes available. They can wait for the right one. I think there’s a real case that Fox might not be the right one given his lack of shooting ability. Regardless, I created two trade structures to peruse.

The first one is a simple swap. The Rockets get Fox and take on the Kevin Huerter deal from the Kings as a value-add for Sacramento. They send out VanVleet, the No. 3 pick in the 2024 NBA Draft in Sheppard and a couple of picks.

Why would the Kings do this? It just depends on their priorities. If they want to contend with this core even while trading Fox, VanVleet is still an excellent player and has a favorable contract that has a team option for next season at $44.9 million. They could either see this as an expiring deal, or they keep building with this core. They also get their potential point guard of the future in Sheppard, a player I remain very high on even though the Rockets haven’t been able to find time for him because of their success. The Kings are known to be a very analytically inclined organization, led by general manager Monte McNair. They likely had a very high grade on Sheppard entering last year’s draft.

The second deal is more of a typical structure for a star trade. The Kings get $35 million in expiring salary in Adams, Green and Holiday. They take Whitmore, a very productive scorer on the wing for the Rockets who has the athletic traits and touch to develop into a 20-point scorer before his rookie-scale contract runs out. Then, they also get three first-round picks.

Again, though, all of this would depend on whether the Rockets even wanted to take this shot.

Orlando takes its swing on a guard

• Magic acquire Fox
Kings acquire Anthony Black, two 2025 first-round picks (via ORL and DEN), one 2027 first-round pick from Magic; Malcolm Brogdon and Johnny Davis from Wizards
Wizards acquire Jonathan Isaac, Jett Howard, two second-round picks from Magic

The Magic are another team I’m highly skeptical would actually get into the mix for a Fox trade midseason. It’s simply not what president of basketball operations Jeff Weltman does. He rarely does significant midseason deals. Since the 2021-22 season, the Magic have only made deals involving marginal players and second-round picks. The last significant move was the Nikola Vučević trade with Chicago. That situation was markedly different from this one, as the Magic were trying to sell assets to cash in. This is Weltman’s eighth season in charge of the Magic, and he’s only made one other midseason trade that could be described as semi-substantial, and that was taking a flier on Markelle Fultz  in 2019. This Magic roster is also about to get quite expensive, with Franz Wagner and Jalen Suggs already locked into five-year deals that start next season and Paolo Banchero becoming extension-eligible for a max deal this offseason.

Still, Fox has a potential fit with the Magic, who need more offensive firepower. They’ve dealt with a ton of injuries this year, but they’re in the bottom five offensively right now. As much as I love Suggs as a player, he profiles best as an off-ball player who can hit catch-and-shoot 3s, act as a secondary playmaker and defend at an elite level. However, given the Magic’s roster build so far, he might be able to do that from the nominal “one” position if Wagner and Banchero continue to show the growth that has turned the Magic into a playoff-caliber team the last two years. I’d guess that they keep building down that road as opposed to going smaller across the backcourt with Fox. Wagner and Banchero both have All-NBA ceilings they’re already starting to reach. There are also shooting questions here with Fox, which could cause issues during the possessions when Banchero and Wagner have the ball in their hands.

In this idea, the Magic trade their former top-six pick Black to give Sacramento a potential point guard of the future as well as three first-round picks. They also trade Isaac to Washington, with Sacramento getting back the expiring deals of Brogdon and Davis. Isaac’s deal is guaranteed for $15 million next season before becoming cleverly structured without any guaranteed money beyond the 2025-26 season and three non-guaranteed seasons for what will be around the midlevel exception during those years. The Wizards are involved to take on Isaac’s long-term money. Washington could also use a defensive upgrade, and Isaac certainly would at least provide that. They also get a couple of second-rounders for doing so.

It’s a simple concept, but one I’m skeptical would get done midseason.

The “Let’s just finish the deadline all at once” deal

• Kings acquire Jimmy Butler from the Heat, Tre Jones, Blake Wesley and two first-round picks from Spurs
Heat acquire Bruce Brown from Raptors, DeMar DeRozan from Kings and a first-round pick from Spurs
Spurs acquire Fox from Kings and Davion Mitchell from Raptors
Raptors acquire Harrison Barnes, Malaki Branham and two second-round picks from Spurs

We’ve officially hit the “Go to bed, Sam” zone, which is how one NBA executive phrased it when I sent him this proposed deal. This one solves a ton of trade deadline issues while also being nonsensical.

Logically, getting Butler after you’ve decided to move Fox is not something that seems all that smart. But if you’re Ranadivé and you’ve enjoyed having a competent team over the last few years, maybe it’s a route you consider. Butler can be your primary playmaker with Sabonis over the next couple of years if you’re willing to extend him. Then you’re looking at a core of Butler, Sabonis, Malik Monk, Keegan Murray, Devin Carter, Keon Ellis and several draft picks. I’ve sent two first-rounders here for next year to Sacramento, along with returning the swap rights that Sacramento traded to San Antonio in the DeRozan sign-and-trade this past summer. You could try to forward along the couple of picks that you’ve received here for more win-now players, or you could try to use those picks to draft mid-first-round talent. This is not the road I would go down if I were Sacramento, but I’m not the owner of the team that went nearly two decades without making the playoffs before 2023.

Here, the Spurs get Fox again. The Heat get DeRozan, along with Bruce Brown and a first-round pick, which is not a particularly bad return for Butler. DeRozan is doing in Sacramento what he always does, which is get buckets. The defense is bad, but Miami has the infrastructure defensively to try to make up for some of these issues. He has two years remaining on his contract beyond this one, but the final one only becomes guaranteed for $10 million if he makes the All-Star Game. In all likelihood, this would be an expiring deal in 2026, when Miami is thought to be targeting the free-agency market. Brown would also help the team immediately with his switchable defense, toughness and ball movement. The Heat also get a first-round pick for taking on DeRozan’s deal for next year and for moving Butler. The Raptors take on Barnes; they’re quite young, and Barnes’ ability to be large and shoot would be nice. They also get to take a flier on Branham and get a couple of second-rounders.

Do I think any part of this trade works? No. But if the Kings and Heat want to stay relatively competitive, you can at least make a case for total madness enveloping the trade deadline.

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(Photo: Ezra Shaw / Getty Images)

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