De’Aaron Fox Scouting Report

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1230
2017 NBA Draft
Spruce Derden-USA TODAY Sports

Date of Birth: December 20th, 1997

Position: Point Guard

College: University of Kentucky

Measurements: 6’3, 187 lbs

 

Strengths:

De’Aaron Fox’s greatest strength is his leadership quality. Being the leader of a team is hard as a freshman, but Fox was somehow able to do it. If Fox wasn’t so talented he’d be the kind of guy to stick around with a team for 4 full years, but since he is too good to stay in college, leaving for the NBA was the logical choice.

Fox is long and shifty. He thrives off of his ability to defend and hit the mid-range shot. First, let’s take a look at his defense. In the 2nd part of this clip, you’ll see how great he is at help defense:

De’Aaron has a great defensive stance and while he over-commits a bit, he is quick and smart enough to recover and get the steal. Those defensive instincts are what sets him apart from the other point guards in this draft.

As noted above, Fox also can attack the basket very well. His handles are great and can finish quite well at the rim with style:

Weaknesses:

De’Aaron Fox’s main weakness is his three-point shot. If you saw his shot for the first time, you would never think he was a poor three-point shooter given how good his shooting stroke is. Well, that is just not the case. Fox shot 24.6% from deep this season, a number that will need to improve if he is going to succeed in the NBA.

Another number that I am not too fond of is his mid-range shooting percentage. Again, I would’ve considered the number to be quite high given his talent, but in reality he only shoots 36.2% on 2-point jumpers.

Risks:

The greatest risk with selecting De’Aaron Fox is that his jump shot does not pan out. Whatever team selects Fox will be choosing him while truly believing that his jump shooting will improve. If it doesn’t, then Fox will become a liability offensively.

Interesting Stat:

Only 19.6% of De’Aaron Fox’s makes at the rim were assisted, meaning he is able to attack the basket and get to the rim in an isolation set.

Comparison:

John Wall

It’s a huge compliment to give Fox a comparison of John Wall, but this is definitely the best comparison for him. Wall, in college, was super quick, talented, and was a great defender. Fox was the same kind of player at Kentucky this year. Who knows yet if De’Aaron Fox can improve from college to the NBA the way John Wall had, but Fox definitely has the potential. He isn’t nearly as gifted offensively and athletically as John Wall was when he left college. Still, they have a similar game and to really hit this comparison home…

De’Aaron Fox is the 1st player in the SEC to have 600+ PTS, 50+ STL, 140+ REB, and 160+ AST in a single season since John Wall.

Draft Prediction:

Between Picks 3-5

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