De’Aaron Fox on why he deserves All-NBA over other guards: ‘I play both sides of the ball’

Sacramento Kings guard De’Aaron Fox’s knack for putting the ball through the bottom of the net is evident. He is averaging a career-high 28.8 points per game so far in the 2024-25 regular season, which also marks his fifth season in a row where he’s averaged 23-plus points.

Fox is also quite the capable facilitator, considering he has accumulated nearly 3,000 regular-season assists in his NBA career to this point.

But plenty of guards in today’s NBA can score and pass the ball at a high level. Fox believes that his ability to play both sides of the ball effectively is what separates him from the lion’s share of other players at his position.

“For me, it’s continuing to affect the game on both ends of the court,” Fox told HoopsHype on why he deserves an All-NBA spot over other guards. “You know, even if I’m not scoring, being able to be a guy who can make an All-Defensive Team and things like that. I think what’s big about me is I play both sides of the ball. I can average 25, but I could also lock somebody down if need be. So that’s a big thing for me. And I think it also helps having another guy like DeMar [DeRozan] who’s able to pretty much control the offense and guys like Domas (Domantas Sabonis) and Malik [Monk]. So I’m able to be able to be effective on both ends of the court. And I think that’s kind of what separates me from a lot of guys.”

It’s important to take defensive statistics with a grain of salt, as the numbers don’t necessarily paint a comprehensive picture as to a player’s defensive chops. However, Fox has racked up steals at an impressive rate of late. He’s averaging 1.7 steals this season and isn’t far removed from leading the NBA in steals per game.

Fox averaged a league-high 2.0 steals per contest during the 2023-24 regular season.

The 26-year-old claimed that he’s capable of making an All-Defensive team, but he has yet to achieve such a feat since he began his NBA career in the 2017-18 campaign.

Although, Fox did receive one first-place vote and one second-place vote for the All-Defensive teams a season ago. For comparison, elite defender Dillon Brooks did not land a single first-place vote.

It would seemingly help Fox’s argument for being worthy of a spot on an All-Defensive team if the Kings were to finish the season as one of the NBA’s top defenses. Unfortunately, Sacramento has been just a mediocre team on that end of the floor, as the squad’s defensive rating ranks 14th in the league.

While whether or not Fox is a legitimately great defender is up for debate, he isn’t a liability on that side of the ball at the very least, a sentiment that does not apply to plenty of the NBA’s star guards.