The NBA regular season schedule is nearing the halfway point, and there are quite a few struggling teams in both the East and West conferences. For example, the Pelicans at the bottom of the West were touted as having four giants at the start of the season, but Zion has been out for a long time, Ingram has severely sprained his ankle, and their record of 7 wins and 31 losses has led them to decide to open a supermarket and start tanking. Another example is the Suns, whose total expenditure exceeds $400 million, going from an 8-1 start to an 8-18 record afterward. The salaries of the three giants Durant, Booker, and Beal are almost on par with the entire Thunder team in the West, yet their performance is abysmal. The Suns want to get rid of the hot potato that is Beal, who also has a trade veto power. It's unclear why Durant and Booker chose Beel in the first place; now it's too late to regret it, as Beal is unwilling to leave even if it means coming off the bench!
Including the Eastern powerhouse 76ers, who started with a 15-20 record, making it difficult to even enter the top ten in the East. Embiid plays intermittently, George has become a blue-collar worker, and the team is left with Maxi, known for his stats-padding, leading Oubre, but without any guaranteed lower limit! Including the Warriors, who rebuilt after sending away Klay, starting with a 12-3 record to top the West, then falling back to reality with a 6-15 record afterward! There is another statistic that makes Warriors fans even more disheartened: this season, against weak teams (opponents with a net points per 100 possessions of -3.0 or less), the Warriors have a record of 7 wins and 1 loss, outscoring opponents by 19.1 points per 100 possessions, ranking first in the league! However, when facing mid-tier and strong teams, the Warriors' record is 11 wins and 18 losses. In other words, the highlights at the beginning were all deceiving, and the Warriors have become a team that only beats weaker opponents.
But there is another team whose performance has been somewhat surprising. They have a 3-3 record against strong teams (opponents with a net points per 100 possessions exceeding +3.0), an 8-13 record against mid-tier teams, and a 7-3 record against weak teams, with overall very average results. Recently, they have unexpectedly won five games in a row, quietly catching up. They are the Kings. With an 18-19 record, they are only half a game behind the Warriors! In the past two seasons, the Kings have been able to maintain a win rate of over 55%, and even entered the top three in the West in the 22-23 season! Last summer, they brought in DeRozan, forming a trio of Fox, DeRozan, and Sabonis. However, the Kings had been lingering outside the top 10 in the West for a long time, and their core player Fox became restless: he rejected the Kings' offer of a 3-year, $165 million max contract extension and decided to leave the team!
There are two reasons for this. First, Fox's team (Rich Paul) believes that Fox can get an even bigger contract. With an average of at least 25 points, 5 assists, and 4 rebounds per game over the past three seasons, Fox is worth a 5-year, 346millionsupermaxcontract!Whatdoes346 million mean? It's the same as the supermax contract locked in by Doncic, with salaries of 59.71million,64.49 million, 69.27million,74.04 million, and 78.82millionstartingfromthe26−27season.Foxisdefinitelynotworthit;hehasonlyplayedintheplayoffsonceinhiscareer,beingeliminatedinthefirstroundbytheWarriorsinthesummerof23.Moreover,Foxisjustastat−padder,withaneffectivefieldgoalpercentageof53.680 million over 4 years, Monk would be more efficient than him.
Secondly, Fox dislikes the poor record of the Kings and openly states that playing for a team that struggles on the edge of the playoffs every year seems hopeless. Who is responsible for the poor team record? Who is the team leader? The Kings initially gave up Haliburton for Fox, and Haliburton led the Pacers to the Eastern Conference Finals last season! During the Kings' recent five-game winning streak, while Fox was causing trouble about leaving the team and suffered a hip injury during a game against the Grizzlies, the Kings were still able to defeat the Warriors by 30 points and come back to crush the Heat in double overtime. The combination of Monk, DeRozan, and Sabonis is becoming increasingly默契! As DeRozan puts it, the team is becoming more united, which is the key to victory. Does the Kings still need Fox? Sorry, you've become an outsider!
According to American media reports, the Kings have become the biggest buyer for the Nets' Cameron Johnson, willing to offer a first-round pick. Moreover, the Kings have been in contact with LaVine, Ingram, the Nets' Cam Thomas, and the Wizards' Kuzma's team for potential trades. According to the team reporter, the Kings will not easily give up this season; they are still fully committed to making the playoffs and are prepared for any possible trades. To put it bluntly, teams like the Rockets and Spurs were interested in Fox before, but these two teams are unlikely to offer future assets for the 27-year-old Fox, who is already at the peak of his career. Additionally, Fox's salary this season is only $35 million, and the Kings could even send Fox to some tanking teams to help them free up salary space.
It is basically certain that Fox will not be able to get the 350millionsupermaxcontracthewants.IfheissenttosomeweakteamsbytheKings,evenifFoxoptsoutofhiscontract,hisattributesandpositioningareveryawkward:championship−levelstrongteamsdonotneedsuchastat−padder,rebuildingteamsdonotneedsuchaball−dominantcore,andthereisnoguaranteeofalowerlimitfoundation(suchasplayofftickets).WherecanFoxgo?Someonewilldefinitelypayanaveragesalaryof30 million, but he won't get a max contract, and his career will basically be over.
