The Sacramento Kings are listening to trade offers for former All-Star De’Aaron Fox. Dave DuFour and Zena Keita discuss to the Kings decision and Fox’s preferred destination, react to another wild finish for the Houston Rockets, and praise the Portland Trail Blazers for their recent stretch. Then, the Athletic’s Anthony Slater stops by to talk about the Warriors options at the trade deadline, the De’Aaron Fox timeline, and why the Western Conference isn’t very good.Host: Dave DuFourWith: Zena Keita & Anthony SlaterExecutive Producer: Andrew SchlechtAudio Producer: Grayson MoodyCheckout the Athletic Women’s Basketball Show: https://podfollow.com/the-athletic-womens-basketball-show Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Chapter 1: What does De'Aaron Fox's trade situation look like?
Good morning and welcome to the NBA Daily for January 29th, 2025. Coming up, De'Aaron Fox is on the trade block. The Rockets survive yet another crazy fourth quarter. And we got Anthony Slater to break down the latest on De'Aaron Fox and talk about the Warriors options at the trade deadline. Good morning, everybody. Good morning, Zena.
Before we get started, I heard, Zena, that you guys have something kind of amazing happening over on the Athletic Women's Basketball Show, which, of course, you're one of the hosts of, which I don't think we say enough. What is actually going on on the show this week?
Yeah, we're doing something a little different. I mean, typically I go on with our writers. We talk about what's going on in college, what's going on in WNBA, whatever's going on around the world of women's basketball. But we like to have these kind of athlete all access type of additions that we're doing something really new and different.
We have actually a narrative story coming out about a pivotal player. Notre Dame being one of the top college women's basketball teams in the country. And right now in the center of their whole thing is a freshman post player named Kate Koval. And she's a top prospect going in and already making her mark, but she's got a crazy story.
She's actually pursuing a pro career after leaving her home country of Ukraine as it's in the middle of a war, obviously with Russia, many of you know. And we spoke to her exclusively about what her experience has been, what her family struggle has been like. And it's a really touching story and a really special story. And I'm excited for you guys to listen to it.
Yeah, we're excited here. We actually have included an excerpt of the episode at the end of this one. If you guys like it, go and check out the Athletic Women's Basketball Show, wherever you listen to podcasts. Give the full episode a listen. You know, it's not very often that we get a chance to do this sort of narrative stuff on a podcast. And, you know, the athletic is built on narrative.
So please go and check that out over at the Athletic Women's Basketball Show. Zena, we've got some... New trade deadline news. It's not even slop because it's coming from Sam Amick, guys. Sam Amick is reporting that the Sacramento Kings have opened up trade talks for De'Aaron Fox.
Sam is also reporting that De'Aaron Fox's preferred destination would be the San Antonio Spurs to pair up with Victor Wimminyaba. And I also, I mean, listen, I would like to hang out with Megan Thee Stallion. I have dreams too. De'Aaron Fox would probably have a great career if he got to play with Victor Wiminyama for the next 10 years. I love it for him.
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Chapter 2: What are the implications of De'Aaron Fox joining the Spurs?
Zena, what do you think about De'Aaron Fox?
I mean, just imagine what that pick and roll would look like. Someone with the first step of De'Aaron Fox having the opportunity to go off of a big screener like a Wemby and then have Wemby popping out to the three or the short roll as an option. I mean, it's dangerous what could happen for the Spurs offense specifically.
And then on top of that, I mean, we can't act as if there's not all these other pieces around Wemby that could also spur something. Pun intended. Spurs have been going for the Spurs. Stephon Castle is so exciting to play with right now. Imagine De'Aaron and him in the backcourt. There's a lot of good that can happen from him particularly going to the Spurs.
But right now, Dave, my thoughts are with Sacramento. Because when you think about what De'Aaron Fox has meant to the Sacramento fan base, what he's meant to that team since he was drafted in 2017, right now, DeMontis Sabonis would not be with the Kings if had not been for Fox. DeMar DeRozan wouldn't have signed in the offseason if it wasn't for Fox.
Malik Monk, his Kentucky teammate, signed for less money to stay with Fox. That's right. And now they've been 10-4 since Doug Christie took over at the helm and De'Aaron wants out. That's demoralizing for Sacramento overall. Yeah.
Yeah, I mean, it's more about, I would say, with De'Aaron Fox, he just doesn't want to be in Sacramento. And if you're the Sacramento Kings, you're looking at that and you're saying, okay, well, we could hang on to him. Maybe we make a trade in the offseason. But you can maximize the value by moving now because he gets to make a playoff push with whatever team picks him up.
And he's currently, in my estimation, the most valuable player available on the trade market that anyone can get because this guy is ready to compete now. If the Spurs get him, you've got great prospects.
point of attack defense with him uh you mentioned steven castle if he you know depending on who they have to send out in a trade but with wendy and darren fox you've got two pieces of what i think is a playoff team next year instantly whether they make a march this year or not but i think that's a playoff team next year for sure and then you start saying well depending on what the pieces they keep around them and with the growth that they've had i don't know it's gonna get really exciting really fast in san antonio if they pull this off we're gonna talk to anthony slater
After the break, because, of course, he covers the Sacramento Kings along with the Warriors and the rest of the league. And he's got more info on De'Aaron Fox. So we're going to save it for after the break. Zeno, we got to talk about our Rockets because back to back and it didn't matter. We watched this game together and we were talking.
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Chapter 3: How did the Rockets perform in their latest games?
Yes.
It was like, if you want to showcase who's the most athletic on this team, is it Ahmed? Is it Jalen Green? The way that he was getting to the paint, finishing above defenders, above the rim. I mean, it was fun to watch him. Now, Houston does have an issue of blowing leads. Right. They blew a 16-point lead, and it came down to the fourth quarter.
But luckily for them, I mean, Atlanta went on a four-minute drought. Then Houston went on a four-minute drought. But again, luckily for them, they had Jalen Green to kind of pull them out of it. Dave, I... I don't know. I'm looking at the fact that Houston took care of business against the Celtics. They took care of business against the Cavs twice.
And now, you know, yes, this is now six games in a row for Atlanta that they've lost. But Atlanta is a good team. Yeah, they're tough. They're tough. And I'm looking at Houston like they're pretty formidable second seed in the West.
Houston's good. That game that they're going to play on Thursday night against the Grizzlies. And we're going to have Kelly Eco after that game. We have to. That game is crucial. They're about to maybe sweep the Grizzlies. Now, I think that they could have Memphis's number. I mean, when you think about, again, it's another team.
They've got a lot of size and length on the wings that they can throw at John Morant and Desmond Bain. It really bothers those guys. And so. You know, this matchup on Thursday, I think, is fascinating. But the Rockets have really, like you said, they've submitted themselves as the second best team.
And we've got news from our own Kelly Eco that they are not going to be involved in the De'Aaron Fox sweepstakes at all. They like this team. They want to see where it can go on its own. And don't forget, they got Reed Shepard, you know, not playing on this team. In the G League.
Right. Right. Playing in the G League. Yeah. You know, they've got pieces. Yeah. Yeah. I think Imei Odoka like proved how much he's rocking with his team by the fact that they just played a crazy game against the Celtics and were clearly tired tonight. And Imei Odoka was like, play through it. They were still having to play through in the first half. But I think there's something that's.
going to be apparent against the Memphis Grizzlies. And that's going to be Houston's ability to disrupt. We've been talking about Memphis's offense being a lot more read oriented this year than ever before. And when you look at what they did against Atlanta, they kept Atlanta to just 19 assists last night. Atlanta averages 29 assists.
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Chapter 4: What issues are the Lakers facing after their loss?
It's been fun to watch that entire team. We also haven't even talked about Toumani Kamara. And that is my Malian West African brother showing up. OK, putting all of his athletic ability on display. He's one of the best defenders in the league that no one's talking about. That's right.
He's constantly disrupting things, hands in passing lanes, making things difficult for the best opponents across from him. I mean, he is so much fun to watch. And that's the entire team. Shaden Sharp, Tumani Kama, DeAndre Ayton, Donovan Klingin coming off the bench. I mean, I'm having a lot of fun watching the little hidden gem up in the Northwest. That is Portland.
They got a lot of guys.
Pay attention to them on League Pass, y'all. Y'all have fun.
They got a lot of guys and they're doing some stuff. Guys, stick around after the break. We got Anthony Slater to talk about the latest on DRM Fox. And what are the Warriors going to do with the deadline, Zena? Great question. We're just over a week away from the NBA trade deadline, and the Warriors win a game last night to bring themselves to 500 without Steph Curry and Draymond Green.
So we needed to get Anthony Slater in here to kind of give us a preview of what the Warriors may or may not do at the deadline. Anthony, I hope you're doing well. What can you give us, man? The Warriors clearly need help. They need some more good players, preferably one really good one. They need a number two.
Yeah, that's great for them.
are you breaking that right here they're sure they're interested if yannis were to become available sources tell me they would be interested yes all right so who i mean who is on their radar that that you know of that that actually makes sense i mean yannis of course makes sense but i don't think it's realistic so is it just jimmy butler or bust for them no um and you know they've been like
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Chapter 5: What recent successes have the Portland Trail Blazers had?
pretty actively uninterested in jimmy butler early on in this process especially when the price tag seemed higher i think with the desperation of their of this moment and the thought looking across the country and seeing you know how how devolved that situation has turned into like how low will that price tag go you hear varying things when you talk across the league right now about the warriors kind of nudging themselves back in the mix wondering like you know again how low
What price are we talking here? But even if the price is, you know, we're talking no picks, none of their young players, you still got to give up a lot of, you know, your rotation guys. So it's not nothing, right? It's Wiggins plus, you know, name your expiring salaries. It's something they certainly would bounce around in-house and I expect them to over the next week to at least think about it.
But again, it's I don't. depending on who you talk to like you know inside wise they're kind of downplaying this idea that that they're you know you know beaten down miami store and are suddenly have become the front runner we'll see again this is smoke screen season uh but to your earlier question uh you know what You know what players potentially could they look at?
I mean, Vucevic is a name we've all been talking about for a couple of weeks. I mean, I've been hearing this really back since December because stretch five is such an obvious need. Now you've seen Quentin Post kind of semi step into that role in some ways. Might have people go, hey, look, you don't need to go get Vucevic. You kind of got a younger version.
But the reality is all he posted showing you is what a stretch five can do. for this offense can do for Steph Curry. Price tag will be the big thing there. Warriors don't really want to use a first on that. Chicago might want one. Where does that come up in the deadline? I think me and Marcus Thompson are likely going to have a story in the morning breaking some of this down.
And essentially, from what I've heard from the Warriors front is I do believe that their pick this year is somewhat on the table, 2025 protected version of that pick.
And as far as Vucevic goes, I do think he's going to be kind of down the pecking order, you know, where something that might get done closer to the deadline rather than currently, because I do think there's a lot of stuff league wide, these dominoes that are playing out that I think they want to check in on for maybe hitting full throttle on a move like that.
Well, I'm happy you mentioned the league-wide aspect because, of course, Steph Curry's protege, Darren Fox, has been a new name thrown around. Not necessarily someone I would think of as a number two in Golden State, but particularly someone that definitely shakes up the market overall for a lot of folks. I know you've got that news and Sam Amick's been talking about it.
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Chapter 6: What are the Warriors' options at the trade deadline?
What's going on with the Darren Fox situation and the destination we're hearing that he might want to go to?
Yeah, it's been trending this way for a while. Really back to the summer, which we reported in the summer, he turned down an extension, which signals something to a franchise when he said, hey, let's take two steps back. Let's not take this massive money offer you're giving me because I want to see where this is going long term. It was a wobbly start to the season.
Sure, they fired Mike Brown, but they did it in kind of a sloppy way that didn't necessarily please De'Aaron Fox, it doesn't seem. Yeah. You know, they've been they've had an 11 and three stretch. They've kind of turned their season around to at least be somewhat of a legitimate playoff threat.
But that doesn't seem to have solved the bigger, bigger picture issue of where this is all going and where Darren Fox seems to be directing it to go. And you mentioned it. All signs point to San Antonio as his preferred destination for one 7'4", 7'5", very obvious reason. He would seem to profile as a very nice complementary number two pick and roll partner into the future.
It's clear De'Ara Fox's intent on getting to a place where he believes he can build with a core into a regular contender. But there's a lot of boxes to check along the way, and he has one and a half years left on his contract. So there's a level of leverage that the Kings have. And today seemed like a little bit of a speed-up process, potentially, even from the Fox side. And we'll see.
If anything happens in the next week, because, again, I said it, despite De'Aaron Fox's clear desires at this point, the Kings do hold a level of leverage.
Well, let me ask you about that. What what caused it? What caused the speed up? I mean, you know, we probably started talking about De'Aaron Fox as a potential, you know, hey, please trade me guy in the preseason because it just you know, we know how these contracts work. But what sped it up to get it done before the deadline instead of kicking the can to the summer?
Well, I mean, there's a week to the deadline. I think there's financial aspects of this involved with as far as like, you know, renegotiate and extend potentially in San Antonio. And, you know, the Kings can get a better package if it happens in the next week. You know, I mean, they said this is I feel like this is commonly a baseball thing.
But, you know, one and a half seasons trading out with one and a half seasons compared to a full season compared to a half season. Like, you know, you want to strike while. basically, I mean, you can have, to me, it's about, it's about what, what does San Antonio want?
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