The Los Angeles Lakers and Sacramento Kings have provided one of the best rivalries in modern NBA history.
Under the direction of De’Aaron Fox, the Kings have become one of the better young teams in the Western Conference. Fox’s friendly rivalry with Lonzo Ball may help to propel competition between the teams even further.
Although for Lakers fans, Fox will largely be the enemy, but he recently extended a proverbial olive branch.
During his appearance on Fox Sports 1’s ‘Skip and Shannon: Undisputed,’ Fox voiced his personal favor of not trading the Ball and the young core for an All-Star player:
“I know you want to do all the trading and all that, but I don’t know if I would trade the guys that they have. I wouldn’t personally. Now if I was New Orleans, I would have [done] it a long time ago. I was born in New Orleans. I didn’t grow up a Hornets fan because they were the Hornets when I was there. I would have pulled the trigger so quick.”
Fox has echoed the same sentiment that many fans and media alike have already made: trading the entire young core does not seem to be the right move for Los Angeles.
Of course, the trade in question focused around Ball, Brandon Ingram, and Kyle Kuzma in exchange for Anthony Davis. Other pieces could have included Ivica Zubac, future draft picks, and salary cap relief.
However, Zubac and Michael Beasley were shipped across town to the Los Angeles Clippers for Mike Muscala. The trade was questionable and it reportedly even garnered actual laughs from the Clippers front office after it was proposed.
While Fox may not have the insight that some insiders do, it is refreshing to get this take from a player. Fox has played against the Lakers young core already eight times and he definitely has more than enough experience to assess the value each player brings to the team.
Although things have changed since the 2018-19 NBA trade deadline, it still seems the Lakers front office is looking to bring Davis to Los Angeles. In addition, Davis wanting to leave New Orleans still remains even though they made some front office changes by hiring executive vice president of basketball operations David Griffin.