Fox lands with Spurs, LaVine to Kings: Fantasy Reaction

Not even 24 hours after the Doncic-Davis trade caused an uproar around the NBA on Saturday night, another three-team deal sent an aftershock through the league on Sunday evening. 

By acquiring De'Aaron Fox, the Spurs have sped up their timeline. With that comes the weight of increased expectations. At 21-25, San Antonio is just one win away from matching last year’s dismal pace and two games back of the play-in tournament. After this deal, being unable to make up the necessary ground to jump into a top-10 spot in the Western Conference would surely be considered a letdown in Texas. There’s plenty to be encouraged by for Spurs fans in the near term. Fox is one of the top pick-and-roll players in the game. If he and Victor Wembanyama can gel quickly on the offensive end, San Antonio could transform into a real threat to emerge from the Western Conference play-in. Wembanyama has made it known in the past that he wants to win a championship as soon as possible. In turn, the Spurs are setting their sights on Wembanyama’s first playoff appearance.

General Manager Brian Wright was able to bring in the 27-year-old point guard without sending out any of his young tradeable contracts or highly valued draft assets. While the Kings will receive three first-round picks, the 2025 Charlotte pick is lottery protected and not going to convey and will become 2026 and 2027 second-round picks. So the Spurs were able to hold onto players like Jeremy Sochan, Devin Vassell and Keldon Johnson, while only giving up their own 2027 first and what could end up being a highly coveted unprotected 2031 first from Minnesota from their war chest of draft assets. They also dumped the Bulls their 2025 first-round pick back to them, which was top-10 protected and unlikely to convey anyways.

How the speedy Fox ages over the length of his presumed max contract extension remains to be seen, but San Antonio has retained its young core and all three unprotected Hawks picks along with three other unprotected or lightly protected swaps between 2028 and 2031. They’ve got plenty of flexibility to continue shopping for another star-caliber player over the next couple of seasons. 

When it comes to Sacramento, I have to keep in mind that Fox requested a trade. So, while the Kings reuniting the former Bulls pairing of Zach LaVine and DeMar DeRozan is underwhelming in the context of contending for the Western Conference crown, I am interested to see how he integrates into a team that has been playing very well over the last few weeks. It remains hard for me to see them making real noise in a playoff series, but our power rankings here at FTN have been high on the Kings all season. Moving Malik Monk to the point and adding LaVine’s high-powered offensive game could make for some fun League Pass nights in Sactown over the second half of the season.

I continue to be unimpressed by Chicago. The Bulls continue to strip parts from their latest core group with little assets of high value to show for their trouble. At least they’re finally committing to a direction and now have no fear of their first-round pick conveying to San Antonio this summer. They’ll look to land the top overall pick in the lottery, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see them ship off another player or two before Thursday’s deadline.