De’Aaron Fox had a rough Finals. He limped through Game 3 with an ankle, threw the ball away with the season on the line in Game 4, and the entire Spurs core looked overmatched against the Knicks. Naturally, the trade rumor mill started turning.
According to multiple reports, the Spurs have heard the noise and made their call. Fox is staying. San Antonio has no plans to move him this summer, and the franchise still views him as the long-term running mate next to Victor Wembanyama.
It’s the right read. Trading Fox after one bad playoff run would be a panic move, and the Spurs aren’t a panic-move organization. They traded for Fox specifically because they wanted a star point guard for Wembanyama’s prime. Nothing about that calculation has changed.
What did change is the expectation level. The Spurs got further than anyone thought they would this season, which means next year’s bar just moved. Fox is going to be evaluated against playoff success now, not regular-season vibes.
The ankle injury complicates the read on his Finals tape. Fox was clearly not himself once the series moved to New York, and he played through it without complaint. That’s the kind of thing the Spurs notice. It might also be the reason San Antonio is willing to give him another full year before making any drastic call on his future.
His mental error in Game 4 is going to follow him. With the Spurs down two and the ball in his hands, Fox made a baffling decision that turned into a turnover and effectively ended the game. Knicks fans loved it. Spurs fans didn’t.
That single play won’t define his career, but it absolutely became the rallying point for the camp arguing San Antonio should move on. Those voices are louder than the front office expected, and the Spurs apparently felt the need to put the rumor to bed before it spiraled into draft-week chaos.
The fit with Wembanyama is the entire point of keeping Fox. When Wemby is on the floor as the screener and Fox is the ball-handler, the Spurs run actions that nobody in the league can guard cleanly. Wemby’s gravity creates open looks for Fox, and Fox’s speed creates rim attempts for Wemby. It’s a fundamentally good pairing.
What the Spurs need to do now is add shooting and a real backup point guard. Fox isn’t going to play 38 minutes a night again. He shouldn’t have to. The bench point guard situation was a disaster in the playoffs, and San Antonio’s front office knows it.
Expect San Antonio to be aggressive on the wing market and the secondary point guard market. They’re not trading Fox. They’re trying to make Fox’s job easier.
The Spurs are betting that a healthier Fox plus an upgraded supporting cast equals a Finals team again next year. After what they just pulled off, that’s a defensible bet. The trade rumors can stop now. The actual offseason work begins.
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.
