Player The Layne Staley Depression-Laden Foxhole of De'Aaron Martez Fox

[scott]

Not sure if it’s been mentioned but the young guards seem to genuinely like having Fox around and have said how much he’s meant to their development. Besides him being good player he seems like a genuinely good guy to have around.

Irrelevant. Trade him to KD, who is ready to turn a new leaf

 

[TimmyBuckets]

He closed out the 2 most important games of the last 7 years for the Spurs. Cry more haters. Y’all don’t know what to do now do you? You think max contract is too high? I’m gonna hit up the mayor and make sure y’all’s tax money, and even my LA tax money go to Fox’s contract. No sales tax? I’m gonna veto his property tax too. Bow down.

 

[Paramore]

First Round series MVP is Fox!

Thank you for this round

 

[O_V]

Irrelevant. Trade him to KD, who is ready to turn a new leaf

You guys need to stop with the KD stuff or I'm going to start using words to describe him that will risk getting me kicked off of the forum. Please don't make me do that.

 

[scott]

You guys need to stop with the KD stuff or I'm going to start using words to describe him that will risk getting me kicked off of the forum. Please don't make me do that.

You’ll never get banned for “model teammate”, “the missing piece”, “hero” or “future spurs legend”

 

[Kick-Stand]

You’ll never get banned for “model teammate”, “the missing piece”, “hero” or “future spurs legend”

I prefer Dickerson

 

[Paramore]

 

[MannyIG]

Too bad we didn’t have Durant sitting at home instead of Fox tonight

Sure wish we had the guy who can't live without a Twitter burner account where he calls his teammates shitty names instead of building them up. Would have been a huge upgrade.

You can't fail to score 20 ppg in the playoffs if you're not in the playoffs!

 

[MannyIG]

Gonna need to see him cure cancer before I’m sure he has a place on this team

Dude is on a Max contract, gonna need to see him cure TWO diseases before we can be sure he's earned it.

 

[O_V]

Dude is on a Max contract, gonna need to see him cure TWO diseases before we can be sure he's earned it.

If he could just cure that locker room cancer thing, he'd probably be okay.

 

[dastexan]

If he could just cure that locker room cancer thing, he'd probably be okay.

I mean he got them to jettison Sochan....

 

[tearsofmorningdew]

Apologies to Fox

 

[spursparker9]

Castle is still very prone to playing out of control with his TOV and foul trouble issues.

Fox is still much needed for the team. The 3 headed monster Hydra, we will need at least 2 of out 3 playing well to stand a chance in every game

 

[DAF86]

omg start a Durant thread. This is for dunking on those with Fox Derrangement Syndrome

Imma post this here too, since it seems relevant.

I'm far from a Fox hater and I'm quite pleased with how he has accepted his diminished role on this team, but at the same time I'm realistic and realize Harper won't stay on the bench past his sophomore year. I know many Spurs fans expect Fox to accept a bench role and retire with us, but I think it would be more benefitial for the team to trade him for assets that keep us as a deep roster for years to come.

 

[SpursFan86]

Some of you people are insane tbh.

I think Harper is pretty clearly the future PG of this team, and will be all-NBA caliber. I think Castle will be a very important secondary creator who will have a huge role as well.

That being said…those guys are 20 and 21 years old respectively. This team just won 62 games and more or less breezed through the 1st round. Fox is not going anywhere until the 2027 offseason at the earliest. Any talks about wanting to move him just seem wildly premature and I don’t get why some Spurs fans are so intent on discussing this

If you think he hasn’t played up to his contract that’s fair, but I’d argue he’s done pretty much exactly what he’s been asked. We didn’t bring him in to be a 25 ppg high usage guy…and if we were running the offense like that, everyone here would be shitting themselves over him stunting the growth of Castle/Harper.

Later on down the road when our young guys start getting paid we can have the conversation about whether Fox’s contract is worth the role he provides. Talking about this (ad nauseam) right now after the way this season has gone is so bizarre to me.

 

[ambchang]

I didn't change shit. It's not my problem you have basic comprehension problems.

lol. The entire thing is you gloating about you knowing Durant will be on his best behaviour because you were right when you said CP3 will fit in despite people saying he won’t.

So either you have the logic of an eggplant, unable to understand the difference between a free agent signing and trading away your 2nd best player on the team, plus not understanding that had less than 1/12 of the respondents disagreeing with you is different from 100% of the posters disagreeing with you, or

You can’t accept that the original premise was faulty, admit it and move on.

Hey, at least you stopped banging the drums on the CP3 thing again, just like you drop the Manu is the best passer ever, trade for Harden, Manu > Dirk and other unpopular opinions as if you’ve never mentioned it before.

 

[ambchang]

Total disclosure now because I know @DAF86 will come in and gloat about him being right and 7 levels above everyone else when / if foe is traded or even waived down the line, claiming he’s the only one who saw it coming when everyone else thought he’d be with the team until he retires.

I don’t think fox will be on the team until he retires, or even finish out his current max contract, as with most people on this board, but i think he is massively important at this stage of the teams growth and would love to keep him as long as possible, even at the max. I’d be ecstatic if he stays until he retires but im not expecting it.

 

[ginobilized]

Glad to see Fox playing like we need him to play. I tend to call them like I see them. He was masterful in games 4 & 5 and definitely not that in so many recent games. There is a LOT to figure out in how to close games and just getting reps is a big part of the process. We have been moving at warp speed in that regard. Most teams take a few years to learn each other, including coaches. I'm just happy to know that Fox can play like this, what a weapon for us.

 

[Spurminator]

I'm not sure what else Fox needs to do to be more of a fan favorite here. I know fans of all teams tend to more easily embrace the players they drafted. But this is a former all NBA player who WANTED to come to San Antonio, who accepted a role on a deep team that may prevent him from ever even being an All-Star again, who doesn't ask for his shot or complain about his usage going down, who everyone else on the team loves and views as a mentor, and who more often than not is the one guy you can rely on when the rest of the team seems to be losing steam.

It's like some of you think because he's making a max deal he should be more of a selfish player to generate max-worthy individual production. I would argue he's doing more to earn it this way.

 

[Mugen]

I'm not sure what else Fox needs to do to be more of a fan favorite here. I know fans of all teams tend to more easily embrace the players they drafted. But this is a former all NBA player who WANTED to come to San Antonio, who accepted a role on a deep team that may prevent him from ever even being an All-Star again, who doesn't ask for his shot or complain about his usage going down, who everyone else on the team loves and views as a mentor, and who more often than not is the one guy you can rely on when the rest of the team seems to be losing steam.

It's like some of you think because he's making a max deal he should be more of a selfish player to generate max-worthy individual production. I would argue he's doing more to earn it this way.

He just needs to have more games like G4 and G5 the deeper we get into the playoffs tbh. Not every game, just when we need him.

That's all, he does that and even the naysayers will come around.

 

[scott]

I'm not sure what else Fox needs to do to be more of a fan favorite here. I know fans of all teams tend to more easily embrace the players they drafted. But this is a former all NBA player who WANTED to come to San Antonio, who accepted a role on a deep team that may prevent him from ever even being an All-Star again, who doesn't ask for his shot or complain about his usage going down, who everyone else on the team loves and views as a mentor, and who more often than not is the one guy you can rely on when the rest of the team seems to be losing steam.

It's like some of you think because he's making a max deal he should be more of a selfish player to generate max-worthy individual production. I would argue he's doing more to earn it this way.

The same people will also talk about trading for TM3… maybe they just like having someone to hate on and already have their “I can’t believe we gave up all that just so TM3 can average 17ppg, what a waste!”

 

[spurraider21]

I'm not sure what else Fox needs to do to be more of a fan favorite here. I know fans of all teams tend to more easily embrace the players they drafted. But this is a former all NBA player who WANTED to come to San Antonio, who accepted a role on a deep team that may prevent him from ever even being an All-Star again, who doesn't ask for his shot or complain about his usage going down, who everyone else on the team loves and views as a mentor, and who more often than not is the one guy you can rely on when the rest of the team seems to be losing steam.

It's like some of you think because he's making a max deal he should be more of a selfish player to generate max-worthy individual production. I would argue he's doing more to earn it this way.

i know its a tough ask for him to juggle these roles of "letting castle/harper get theirs and not getting in their way" vs "being the veteran/closer who can deliver us these wins"... but he's getting paid sufficiently to warrant him to manage those roles

the frustration comes in games where we our offense is struggling and he's also being passive or ineffective... or when he is invisible/ineffective down the stretch, like he was for the first 3 games of this series

yes obviously if he gives us game 4/5 performances regularly nobody would hate on him

 

[ambchang]

The same people will also talk about trading for TM3… maybe they just like having someone to hate on and already have their “I can’t believe we gave up all that just so TM3 can average 17ppg, what a waste!”

Ultimately it is Mitch Johnson’s fault for not designing an offence that allows all the players to hit their statistical peaks if they were the alpha dog on the team.

My baseline is that wemby should average at 30ppg, otherwise it hurts his mvp chances. Don’t forget the mandatory 35mpg.

Castle at 25ppg

Fox should reach his Sacramento days of 27ppg

Harper is easily another 25ppg

Vassell should be at 20ppg eaay

KJ is another 20ppg

So between these 6 players we are already at 167 ppg. Carter should get at least another 15. Barnes at 15, kornet another 10. Of course champ having anything under 15ppg with his shooting would be just coaching malpractice.

We are now at 222 ppg on a 10 man rotation. It sounds very reasonable to me.

Screw that first team in history to have 8 players average double digit scoring. It could easily be 10, with five of them over 20 and another one over 30.

Offensive genius my ass.

 

[Spurminator]

He just needs to have more games like G4 and G5 the deeper we get into the playoffs tbh. Not every game, just when we need him.

That's all, he does that and even the naysayers will come around.

We're not going to need him every game, and sometimes his slump games are going to overlap team slump games.

His off games were 2 and 3 when Portland keyed in on him because Wemby was out. He's not taking us to a Championship without Wemby anyway. The team isn't built around Fox.

the frustration comes in games where we our offense is strugglig and he's also being passive or ineffective... or when he is invisible/ineffective down the stretch, like he was for the first 3 games of this series

yes obviously if he gives us game 4/5 performances regularly nobody would hate on him

Both of you seem to be putting Game 1 in the "ineffective Fox" bucket and I don't get that. He had 17 and 8 in a game the Spurs controlled. Maybe I'm just forgetting the Game 1 viewing experience since it was 5 games ago but I don't recall being disappointed by Fox or feeling like he wasn't up to the moment.

By my count, he only had two "we need more from you" games this series, both of which were games where the D was more focused on him due to Wemby's concussion, and we still won one of those in part because of "letting castle/harper get theirs and not getting in their way" as you suggested.

I think sometimes Fox suffers from an eyeball test bias because he sometimes has ugly misses close to the basket, and looks like he should be a better FT shooter than he is.

I also think an expectation of regular game 4/5 performances is unrealistic. If this team goes far, Fox is going to be the 4th or 5th best performing player in some games. I want him to be the 2nd or 3rd best player more often than not, but this is a deep team with a lot of players who will be able to step up. Not comparing them to the 2014 team (yet) but it would be interesting to review how performance varied across all of the players from that team throughout the Playoffs.

If Wemby gets injured again, a lot of expectations are going to fall on Fox, and that's a no-win situation for him. We're probably going to lose, and he's going to be blamed as though the expectation for a De'Aaron Fox-led team was an NBA Championship.

 

[spurraider21]

Both of you seem to be putting Game 1 in the "ineffective Fox" bucket and I don't get that. He had 17 and 8 in a game the Spurs controlled.

This is fair. iirc i gave him a lot of praise after game 1

i wouldnt expect Fox to lead a wemby-less team to an nba title. maybe a win against portland though. game 2 we had a 14 point lead in the 4th quarter and saw it go away. thats when you need a closer, just like Fox did yesterday when portland tried to make it a game in the 4th

being a closer doesnt necessarily mean making successive go-ahead shots in a razor right game