De’Aaron Fox Rumors | Hoops Rumors

Kings’ Gentry: “We’ve Got To Find A Way To Right The Ship”

December 14th, 2021 at 1:16pm CST by Arthur Hill

Interim head coach Alvin Gentry indicated that changes are coming after the Kings wrapped up a winless road trip Tuesday night in Toronto, writes Jason Anderson of The Sacramento Bee.

Gentry briefly brought stability to Sacramento after taking over when Luke Walton was fired last month, leading the team to a 5-3 record in his first eight games. But the Kings have dropped three in a row since then and Gentry called Tuesday’s effort, in which his team trailed by as many as 31 points, “embarrassing.”

“I’m not real sure what the answer is right now,” Gentry told reporters after the game. “I’ve got a long flight that I can really think about it and look at it and try to figure out what we can do, because obviously what’s going on right now is not the answer, so we’ve got to find a way to right the ship.”

With center Richaun Holmes sidelined by an eye injury, Gentry tried three different starting lineups during the three-game trip, Anderson notes. Gentry said his priority will be “to get a group of guys who are going to compete.”

The Kings held a players-only meeting following the game to discuss issues that have been building up during the losing streak. Players declined to reveal any specifics of the meeting, but Harrison Barnes hinted that it involved unity.

“Right now, we’re not playing together,” he said. “That’s really what it boils down to and, as a group, we’ve discussed it, and that’s really all I’m going to say on that at this point.”

Sacramento is still in decent position in the race for a play-in spot, trailing ninth-place Minnesota by one game and 10th-place Portland by a half-game. However, Anderson points out that the team’s defense has fallen apart, surrendering 10 30-point quarters in the last four games.

De’Aaron Fox, who is one of the franchise cornerstones and is in the first season of a five-year, $163MM max extension, said the Kings need better communication on the court. Critics have started questioning Fox’s ability as a team leader, Anderson adds, but Fox emphasized Tuesday that he’s committed to turning Sacramento into a playoff team.

“I haven’t lost until I got here, so for the first 18 years of life, 19 years of life, every step that I played basketball, I was winning something,” Fox said. “So, I don’t know how you do that, make it to the NBA and now you just don’t care about winning. Everybody talks about, ‘If you get paid, blah, blah, blah, blah.’ Nobody likes to lose regardless of what level you’re on. Whether you’re getting paid or you’re playing for free, nobody likes to lose. … Everybody wants to win.”

Pacific Notes: Vogel, Lakers, Fox, Kings, Wiseman, Klay

December 7th, 2021 at 11:03am CST by Luke Adams

Asked on Monday about the criticism Lakers coach Frank Vogel has received this season and the job he has done, LeBron James didn’t exactly provide a full-throated endorsement for Vogel, but suggested that he and his teammates – not the head coach – bear responsibility for the team’s up-and-down start, as Bill Oram of The Athletic and Dave McMenamin of ESPN relay.

“I think criticism comes with the job, you know?” James said. “Frank is a strong-minded guy. He has a great coaching staff. And we as his players have to do a better job of going out and producing on the floor.”

Vogel is less than two years removed from taking the Lakers to a title in his first season on the job, but the club had a disappointing first-round exit last season and is just 12-12 so far this year. Although Vogel signed a contract extension during the offseason, that deal tacked just one year onto his current contract, so he’s only locked up through 2022/23. Still, he said he’s not concerned about facing increased scrutiny.

“There’s going to be criticism with this job,” Vogel said, per McMenamin. “It’s something we’re all accustomed to. And I’ve been a coach for 10 years, I’ve seen it all. Is it more national? Yes, it’s more national. Is there a bigger fanbase in this market in L.A.? Yes, there is. But it’s been there for every head coach, and it’s something I’m not unfamiliar with. So it just comes with the job.”

Here’s more from around the Pacific:

Executives around the league think that if the Kings make a big move to shake up their roster, De’Aaron Fox might be at the center of it, writes Kevin O’Connor of The Ringer. General manager Monte McNair has drafted Tyrese Haliburton and Davion Mitchell since taking the reins of the front office in 2020, while Fox was selected by the previous regime.
The Warriors‘ public messaging about James Wiseman‘s recovery timeline following meniscus surgery has been a little inconsistent, but it has become increasingly clear that he won’t return until sometime in the new year, according to Anthony Slater of The Athletic, who notes that Wiseman’s timeline has been similar to that of Jaren Jackson Jr. last year — the Grizzlies’ big man missed about eight-and-a-half months after undergoing meniscus surgery.
Klay Thompson won’t accompany the Warriors on the team’s five-game road trip that begins on Saturday in Philadelphia, head coach Steve Kerr said on Monday (Twitter link via Slater). Golden State’s home games on Dec. 20 and Dec. 23 have been cited as possible return dates for Thompson.

Pacific Notes: Suns, Ayton, Fox, Haliburton, Lakers

November 26th, 2021 at 9:55am CST by Luke Adams

Suns players met with head coach Monty Williams and general manager James Jones when the allegations against team owner Robert Sarver broke early in November, writes Joe Vardon of The Athletic. Although the players haven’t said much publicly about those allegations, they got information about the situation and discussed it internally during those meetings.

“We have a communicative group,” Suns star Devin Booker said. “We talk to each other a lot. We keep everything in house. It’s a tight-knit group. We speak on everything, and we share with each other how we feel about it, and nobody else finds out how we feel about things.”

The Sarver allegations could’ve become a distraction for a franchise that exceeded expectations in 2020/21 and got off to a 1-3 start this season, but the Suns have avoided letting that happen. They’ve won 12 consecutive games since the story broke, extending their overall winning streak to 14 games. They’ll be looking to push that number to 15 on Friday in New York.

Here’s more from around the Pacific:

After not signing a contract extension in the offseason, Suns center Deandre Ayton is focused on continuing to improve and expand his game as he nears restricted free agency. “I saw the flaws and the mistakes and stuff that I should’ve done in the playoffs and Finals, especially the Finals,” Ayton said this week, per Duane Rankin of The Arizona Republic. “I didn’t like the way I performed in the Finals. … Like I said from the beginning of the season, I’m trying to be more of a threat. … I’m trying to make a mark and trying to get used to certain things I wasn’t used to doing.”
The Kings made a head coaching change on Sunday, but there’s no indication that a major roster shakeup is around the corner, according to Jake Fischer of Bleacher Report, who hears that guards De’Aaron Fox and Tyrese Haliburton remain off-limits in trade talks.
Lakers head coach Frank Vogel figures to face scrutiny if the team continues to struggle this season, but Dylan Hernandez of The Los Angeles Times preaches patience and thinks general manager Rob Pelinka should be careful about how he handles the situation. If Vogel were to be let go, there would be “no one left standing between Pelinka and the firing squad,” Hernandez writes, adding that Vogel is a defensive-minded coach who lost many of his best defenders in the offseason.

Kings Notes: Gentry, Christie, Fox, Ranadive, Thompson

November 23rd, 2021 at 1:35pm CST by Arthur Hill

Alvin Gentry wanted to avoid the “interim” tag after taking over head coaching duties when the Kings fired Luke Walton on Sunday, according to Sam Amick of The Athletic.

Sources tell Amick that Gentry was unsuccessful because the front office believed it had another viable candidate in first-year assistant coach Doug Christie. Even though general manager Monte McNair, assistant GM Wes Wilcox and chief strategy officer Joe Dumars all supported Gentry, having Christie as an option gave the organization leverage in its negotiations with Gentry.

Gentry received a raise as part of his new duties, Amick adds, and he has a contract that runs through the end of next season. However, his future as the head coach in Sacramento will depend on how successful he is at turning the team around. Amick notes this is the fourth time in his career that Gentry has received this type of promotion, and he was able to earn long-term coaching stints with both the Pistons and Suns.

As the lead assistant, Gentry already had a huge influence on Sacramento’s offensive strategy, so other than possibly increasing its pace, the team won’t look much different with him in charge.

“This is not about making mass changes or changing philosophies or anything like this,” Gentry said. “I think we’ve got a good system in place. So I think what we have to do is we have to have our players perform better. I’ve got to be better. All the other coaches have to be better, and our players have to be better. I think it’s a group thing.”

There’s more from Sacramento:

The Kings’ next major decision should be determining whether they can build a contender around De’Aaron Fox, Amick adds. Fox has gotten off to a terrible start in the first season of his five-year, $163MM extension, shooting just 42.1% from the field and 24.% from three-point range. Three-guard lineups with Tyrese Haliburton and Davion Mitchell haven’t been effective, observes Amick, who wonders if a roster upheaval may happen before the February 10 trade deadline.
Gentry is the sixth coach in eight years for owner Vivek Ranadive, writes Chris Biderman of The Sacramento Bee. Ranadive has a history of being impatient, Biderman adds, and his desire for change caused the organization to part with Michael Malone, who has become a perennial playoff coach in Denver.
Tristan Thompson, who was acquired over the summer to provide veteran leadership, said after Monday’s loss to the short-handed 76ers that it will take an organization-wide effort to recover from the poor start (video link). “I think everyone has to look in the mirror,” said Thompson, who also publicly expressed frustration with the team’s situation last week. “It’s not only just players. Yes, it’s a player’s league … but in terms of building a team, it takes a collective group. It takes everyone from the top to the bottom. From ownership to the trainers, to the equipment managers, to the players, to (the physical therapist), to the GM to the assistant GM. It’s all of us.”

Kings Notes: Walton, Gentry, Hines, Fox

November 22nd, 2021 at 10:04am CST by Luke Adams

Addressing reporters on Sunday, Kings general manager Monte McNair explained why the team fired head coach Luke Walton just 17 games into the season after initially deciding to bring him back for the 2021/22 season.

“The start of the year was a lot of what we were hoping for, and we really thought it could have been even better,” McNair said, per Jason Anderson of The Sacramento Bee. “I think we saw a lot of the things that we thought this team could do, but these last eight games were a change, and, for me, the question became what’s the best way to move forward, and that’s my job at every point in the season.”

The Kings began the season with a 5-4 record, but have since dropped seven of eight games. That stretch included losses vs. San Antonio, Oklahoma City, Minnesota, and Toronto, all of whom are multiple games below .500.

“It wasn’t any one thing,” McNair said. “It was a combination of things, but sitting here with where we’ve been the last two weeks, we felt we weren’t getting the consistency and certainly the results we wanted. We all need to be better. This is not on any one person, but we did feel this was the change that was best to get us back to where we need to go.”

Here’s more on the Kings and their head coaching change:

McNair said on Sunday that he still believes the Kings have enough talent to make the playoffs and thinks Alvin Gentry is capable of leading them there. The team chose Gentry over other assistants – like Doug Christie – as its interim replacement due to his previous head coaching experience, McNair added (Twitter links via Sean Cunningham of ABC10 Sacramento).
Kings player development coach Rico Hines will move to the front of the bench as one of Gentry’s assistants, McNair said (Twitter link via Anderson).
Michael Pina of SI.com and Jonathan Tjarks of The Ringer take a look at what’s next in Sacramento following Walton’s exit, with Tjarks suggesting that the Kings will soon need to determine whether De’Aaron Fox is still the player they want to build around.
The timing of Walton’s dismissal is another “Kangz” moment for Sacramento, according to John Hollinger of The Athletic, who notes that a coaching change made in the first third of a season probably should’ve just been made during the offseason.

Kings Notes: Mitchell, Fox, Ranadivé, Sarin, Coleman III

September 24th, 2021 at 5:46pm CST by Rory Maher

Many around the NBA world were surprised when the Kings selected guard Davion Mitchell with the 9th pick of the 2021 draft, not because they thought Mitchell was undeserving, but because two of the Kings’ best players last season were De’Aaron Fox and Tyrese Haliburton, both slender guards.

However, Mitchell quickly showed his value in Summer League, spearheading a dominant defensive effort en route to the championship, winning co-MVP in the process. Fox believes Mitchell’s defense-first mentality will be “great for the team,” and “he’s definitely going to come in and help us change a lot of that,” in regard to turning around the team’s 30th ranked defense, per Jason Anderson of The Sacramento Bee (via Twitter).

There’s more on the Kings:

Kings owner Vivek Ranadivé announced today that he bought out the shares of several minority owners who were essential in keeping the team in Sacramento, per James Patrick of The Sacramento Bee. It’s worth noting that the move was made in part because the former owners believe the team is stable now, with no plans to relocate.
The Kings are hiring Saagar Sarin as a scout, per Jason Anderson of The Sacramento Bee. Sarin served as the Timberwolves’ scouting coordinator the past two seasons and previously worked with Kings general manager Monte McNair in Houston. Anderson adds that the move was unrelated to the recent firing of Gersson Rosas.
McNair believes players want to play for coach Luke Walton and credits him with the the team’s ability to re-sign free agents as well as the return of Alex Len, per Jason Jones of The Athletic (Twitter link).
The Kings have officially signed Matt Coleman III to a non-guaranteed training camp contract, per Keith Smith of Spotrac (Twitter link). Coleman played four seasons for Texas and was a two-time All-Big 12 member for the Longhorns. James Ham of NBC Sports Bay Area confirms the contract will be a standard Exhibit 10 (via Twitter). The move was first reported in July by Jeremy Woo of SI.com.

Western Notes: Bozic, Gordon, Ntilikina, Fox

September 17th, 2021 at 6:45pm CST by Dana Gauruder

The Spurs have a new G League coach in Petar Bozic, according to a press release from the Austin Spurs. Bozic spent the past four seasons as an assistant coach for the G League franchise. Before coming to Austin, he served as head coach of Partizan in his home country of Serbia from 2015-16.

We have more from the Western Conference:

The agreed-upon four-year, $92MM extension between the Nuggets and forward Aaron Gordon is a sign that the franchise is going all out win a title in the next three seasons, Mark Kiszla of the Denver Post opines. It’s a declaration that Nikola Jokic and the core group is good enough to capture the championship, regardless of the moves made by the Lakers and other contenders.
The two-year contract that guard Frank Ntilikina has signed with the Mavericks includes a team option in the second season, Marc Stein of Substack tweets. It’s still unclear whether the former Knick received a full guarantee for the upcoming season.
Kings guard De’Aaron Fox explained why he’s faster than anyone else in the league in an interview with The Reel’s Kenny Beecham, relayed on the team’s website. “The way I move is so much different than everybody else,” Fox said. “Everybody’s not able to make the cuts and just stop and do what I do, especially going at full speed.”

Kings Aren’t Active In Ben Simmons Trade Talks

September 1st, 2021 at 5:38pm CST by Arthur Hill

The Kings haven’t talked to the Sixers about a possible deal for Ben Simmons for several weeks, according to Sam Amick of The Athletic.

During their initial conversation, Sacramento made it clear that De’Aaron Fox and Tyrese Haliburton wouldn’t be made available, which has also been reported by other outlets. A source tells Amick that the Kings will stick to that position and consider their roster virtually set heading into training camp.

There are no ongoing trade talks involving the two teams, Amick adds, and Sacramento shouldn’t be considered a realistic possibility for Simmons unless Philadelphia president of basketball operations Daryl Morey lowers his asking price.

If a deal is eventually reached with the Kings, it’s more likely to involve Buddy Hield and Marvin Bagley, according to Amick.

Trade rumors involving Simmons have heated up again after a report on Tuesday that he plans to hold out of training camp if the Sixers don’t ship him elsewhere. The Kings, Timberwolves, Clippers and Warriors have been the most frequently-mentioned possibilities.

Ben Simmons Rumors: Embiid, Kings, Warriors, More

September 1st, 2021 at 11:37am CST by Luke Adams

Within a Tuesday column on the Sixers‘ Ben Simmons dilemma, Jeff Zillgitt of USA Today cited a person with knowledge of the situation who said there’s a rift between Simmons and star center Joel Embiid that had been “escalating” leading up to this summer. However, in a tweet published on Wednesday, Embiid pushed back on that claim.

“Stop using my name to push people’s agendas,” Embiid wrote. “I love and hate drama. I love playing with Ben. Stats don’t lie. He’s an amazing player and we all didn’t get the job done. It’s on me personally. I hope everyone is back cuz we know we’re good enough to win.”

In the wake of Tuesday’s report that Simmons has told the Sixers he wants to be traded and doesn’t plan to report to training camp, we’ve got several more Simmons-related items to pass along today. Let’s dive in…

A trade sending Simmons to the Kings might be a long shot, according to Jason Anderson of The Sacramento Bee, who hears that the Sixers would only be willing to consider a package that includes either De’Aaron Fox or Tyrese Haliburton. As we detailed on Tuesday, Sacramento is unlikely to part with either player.
Any interest the Warriors might have in Simmons is “conditional,” according to Monte Poole of NBC Sports Bay Area, who suggests Golden State is hesitant to pair the three-time All-Star with Draymond Green, another strong defender who isn’t much of a scorer. Sources tell Poole that the Warriors are “divided” on the Simmons/Green fit, and that some people in the organization see potential in the pairing, while others believe having two non-shooters on the court would hamstring the offense too significantly. It’s also extremely unlikely that the team would move Green in a Simmons deal, Poole adds.
Unlike other teams that have traded star players in recent years, such as the Pelicans with Anthony Davis or the Rockets with James Harden, the Sixers have no intention of landing in the lottery after trading Simmons, writes Derek Bodner of The Athletic, noting that Philadelphia finds itself in an unusual spot. New Orleans and Houston were willing to wait out ugly situations for months before trading their respective stars, and it will be interesting to see if the 76ers are willing to do the same with Simmons, who isn’t quite at the same level as a Davis or a Harden, Bodner observes.
The time for “mutually beneficial maneuvering” seems to have passed for the Sixers and Simmons, per Kyle Neubeck of PhillyVoice, who says it’s now just a matter of seeing which side wins the stare-down.

Pacific Notes: Simmons, Kings, Rondo, Lakers’ Big Men

August 31st, 2021 at 7:30pm CST by Eli Cohen

The Kings still need to re-balance their roster, writes James Ham of NBC Sports Bay Area, and the Sixers still need to find a graceful exit from the debacle they find themselves in with Ben Simmons.

While it’s unlikely the Kings have what Sixers president Daryl Morey might consider the Godfather offer he’s been waiting for, Ham writes that Sacramento has been all in on Simmons since he became potentially available, and the three-time All-Star could represent the franchise-changing move GM Monte McNair has been looking for.

We have more news from around the Pacific Division:

In a similar vein, Jason Anderson of The Sacramento Bee writes that sports betting site MyBookie.ag recently gave the Kings the best odds at landing Simmons of any team (+275). Anderson doesn’t believes that the Kings are fully “all-in” on Simmons though, adding that Sacramento is unlikely to include either De’Aaron Fox or Tyrese Haliburton in a potential trade.
Rajon Rondo isn’t worried about the Lakers’ age as a team, writes Royce Young of ESPN. In fact, he considers it an advantage. “Wisdom is definitely key to winning a championship,” Rondo said after officially rejoining the club. “We have a lot of that, obviously, with the age and experience on the court. I’m most excited about not being the oldest guy on the team anymore.” Rondo adds that it’s tough to last to the age many of the Lakers’ players have without discipline, which will be key for the team in its title hunt.
While not naming DeAndre Jordan specifically, Marc Stein confirms that – according to his league sources – the Lakers have been exploring the center market, despite Marc Gasol having one more year on his deal.