De'Aaron Fox Will Bypass Three-Year, $165M Extension With Kings

[Charlesareed]

Fox bout to pull a Brad Beal, John Wall, Dame, Westbrook and AI… you know a small guard that can’t get you a ring but saddle your team with max money problems -

Better look at what the Celtics did and let IT walk-

If they not 6’5” they better Be Stephen freaking Curry or the original IT before you pay that much for a small guard

You can compare fox to any of those guys they were all all stars in the careers AI former mvp he’s in the hof Russ future hofer former mvp de Aaron fox not making all star team in the west til like 3/4 years tops better take the money rn look what happened to the others who turned it down it2 Noel boogie cousins to name a few

[CobraCommander]

Kind of a silly take, not every big contract PG needs to be 6'5" or taller like Hali or Magic.

Ok give me an example of the small guard that was the best player on a championship team -‘ Steph and IT- that’s it - if a team gives fox 300 mil they are sunk foreverrrrr

But here me clearly- fox should get as much money as he can. But the short guard as best player on team and thus warranting a super max, hasn’t worked out …. If you disagree and you think Fox or ja or Tre will lead you to a chip… then man good luck bro

This isn’t hate- Fox is a great player but your super max guys have to be able to lead you to a ring - see Tatum and brown - Steph - Kawhi - LeBron - jokic -Giannis- You can’t put fox in the conversation with the best winners of any generation - do you really see Fox being the best player on a championship team?

People used to say you couldn't win without dominant bigs until Jordan.

Then you couldn't win by relying on the 3 (remember Chuck) until Golden State.

Why does a bonafide best player need to "deliver" the championship?

Who was the best player on the 2004 Pistons?
Maybe Billups maybe not, but there's no automatic answer there.

What about on the 2014 Spurs?
Kawhi won FMVP, yes, but he scored single digit points in that playoff as often as he scored 20.

Same in Boston. Brown won FMVP but Tatum is very likely the "best" player... also a near-zero chance Boston's winning without 3 of the other 4 core pieces.

There's lots of ways to do it. Some not even done yet, but there's only 1 title a year.

Plenty of HOF max-level guys >6'5 have failed to deliver titles too. Everyone knows the list; Ewing, Mailman, Chuck, Baylor, TMac, English, Nique, Embiid and on and on

Just naming immature bad team guys like Morant or Tre Young doesn't impugn all players under 6'5.

Maybe Fox can't be the 2nd best player on a title team. Maybe Haliburton can't. Maybe Booker can't. But I know height is a small factor in that conversation between these 3 guys

I like your youthful optimism-

Jordan broke the mold but Jordan is like the best player ever so yeah he broke the mold… and won as a guard -


And yeah Steph broke the mold but Steph is maybe the best point, best small guard and definitely the best shooter all time so again he broke the mold.

Pistons and Celtics both play excellent team ball and had great players just not the absolute best but a damn good team top to bottom.

Kawhi did it once as a sidekick and the next time as the super hero… he is validated

Fox is wall beal dame ja ai rose Tre and all the other amazing small guards with a great attitude- but if you super max him… take it from a Wiz fan, you will not love the outcome. Blazers know I’m right

[Pickled Prunes]

Why?

Fox is turning down an avg salary of 55M for age 29-31

Versus could make All-NBA and be eligible for an average salary of almost 70M for ages 29-33.

Even at age 34, he could still sign one more big deal after that supermax

This isn't unprecedented:
Aug 2021: age 36 Chris Paul 4y 120M through age 38 season
July 2022: age 32 Dame Lillard added 3y 161M through age 36 season
Jan 2024: age 32 Kahwi Leonard 3y 150M through age 35 season
July 2024: age 34 Paul George 4y 212M through age 37 season

You're not wrong... but there is a very good chance that all four teams regret the deals you mention. At some point teams may learn how foolish these contracts are.

Ask the Boston Celtics if they regretted giving Tatum and Brown their max contracts. Worked out pretty well for them…

Kind of irrelevant to the conversation. Brown will be at the supermax (35% of the cap) this season and Tatum will be next season. But they are young and healthy. (One can't shoot and the other can't pass, but we won't get into that here. )

What makes BOS elite is relevant to the conversation.... and that is what they do with their older players. They have Jrue and KP at around 21% of the cap. White at 14% (18% next season) and Horford al <7%. Those are the kinds of contracts older, but still effective stars should be getting. The idea that a player deserves a max contract because they used to be a max player is flawed.

And still, beginning next season those five players will come to 137% of the cap, signaling to the owner that it's time to get out.

[puja21]

I like your youthful optimism-

Jordan broke the mold but Jordan is like the best player ever so yeah he broke the mold… and won as a guard -


And yeah Steph broke the mold but Steph is maybe the best point, best small guard and definitely the best shooter all time so again he broke the mold.

Pistons and Celtics both play excellent team ball and had great players just not the absolute best but a damn good team top to bottom.

Kawhi did it once as a sidekick and the next time as the super hero… he is validated

Fox is wall beal dame ja ai rose Tre and all the other amazing small guards with a great attitude- but if you super max him… take it from a Wiz fan, you will not love the outcome. Blazers know I’m right

Sure Jordan and Steph broke the mold, but not every team can have the transcendent bigger guy nor does the bigger guy always have the juice to get to the mountain

Look at the year Jordan was out-- top-10 PPG for each "team's" leading scorer:

David Robinson (C) - 29.8 ppg, age 28
Shaquille O'Neal (C) - 29.3 ppg, age 21
Hakeem Olajuwon (C) - 27.3 ppg, age 31
Karl Malone (PF) - 25.2 ppg, age 30
Patrick Ewing (C) - 24.5 ppg, age 31
Mitch Richmond (SG) - 23.4 ppg, age 28
Scottie Pippen (SF) - 22 ppg, age 28
Charles Barkley (PF) - 21.6 ppg, age 30
Alonzo Mourning (C) - 21.5 ppg, age 23
Glen Rice (SF) - 21.1 ppg, age 26


Robinson did nothing until Duncan arrived, so Shaq, Dream, Pippen are the only ones who won titles as bonafide lead dogs.

7 other guys -- every one of them multi-all NBA and multiple all star and 6 of 7 in the HOF <-- 0 titles as the top guy.

So really you've paint guys like this with the same brush as Chris Paul and anyone else under 6'5 who "couldn't win" -- because none of these taller HOF guys did it either

e.g.
Embiid hasn't gotten close to a whiff of even "postseason success" despite being an MVP and scoring champ (even KD also no titles without Steph)

My issue is arbitrarily "deciding" it's height separating these players.

Winning is hard for tall and short alike and truly great careers are rare for all heights