De'Aaron Fox's Midrange Magic
Sacramento's star point guard is thriving in basketball's liminal scoring space.
The Sacramento Kings handled their business at home in their first round matchup with the Golden State Warriors. They’re headed to the Bay with a 2-0 series lead, thanks in large part to All-Star point guard, De’Aaron Fox.
The spindly fifth-year player is arguably the fastest man in the NBA and an absolute blur with the ball in his hands. Early in his career Fox struggled to leverage his athletic gifts to their fullest potential. He’s always finished well at the basket, but a shaky jump shot provided opponents with too many opportunities to simply lay off of him and focus on contesting at the rim.
Fox has such a special blend of explosiveness and touch that he still scored efficiently at the basket, but he wasn’t able to punish teams for totally selling out. That’s changed over the course of the past couple of years, as Fox has added a devastating midrange game to his bag.
Throughout the course of the regular season he shot 77% at the rim and 51% from midrange, ranking in the 100th and 93rd percentile as compared to his positional peers, per Cleaning the Glass.
The reliability of Fox’s jumper when navigating the in-between spaces of opposing defenses he can access off the dribble has made defending him a nightmare. The Warriors are getting a firsthand experience.
Keeping Fox in front of you one-on-one is almost an impossibility. He’s just too damn fast. Sell out to recover and contest him at the rim and Fox will slam on the brakes and splash home a silky smooth jumper.
Plan for him to stop in the midrange and fail to stay attached and he’s on top of the hoop in a nanosecond. Even trusting your help can go terribly wrong if Fox has enough of a head of steam when he’s attacking the basket.
The Warriors don’t have any particularly palatable solutions. Fox’s blend of speed, explosiveness near the basket, and midrange shooting work in isolation or as the ball handler in pick-and-roll. Golden State can send two bodies at him in either context, but the Kings have tons of secondary creators, shooters, and willing ball movers.
Intentionally surrendering an advantage situation to Sacramento on a consistent basis by throwing multiple defenders at Fox would seem to be a recipe for disaster. The better option for the Warriors is likely to keep forcing Fox to make midrangers and hope that he either has an off night (seeming more and more unlikely) or that they can turn the math equation in their favor by hitting a boatload of threes (entirely plausible).
The theory of Golden State’s defense is sound. Fox is just ripping it to shreds regardless. Things won’t get any easier with the Warriors best defensive player - Draymond Green - suspended for game three. The Kings have a golden opportunity to take a strangle hold on the series. If they do, Fox will almost certainly be a primary reason why.