“Ja Morant with a Jumper”: Kings’ De’Aaron Fox Gets Big Praise from Andre Iguodala Amid In-Season Tournament MVP Discussions

In his Point Forward podcast, Andre Iguodala recently discussed De’Aaron Fox’s place in the NBA In-Season tournament MVP race with co-host and former NBA star Evan Turner. Speaking about the Indiana Pacers’ Tyrese Haliburton, Iguodala initially brought up Fox, talking about how he was placed 2nd in the Draft Kings betting odds for the In-Season Tournament MVP title. 

Iguodala suggested that De’Aaron Fox was not receiving the kind of attention he deserved for his heroics on the court. Fox has been averaging 30.3 points, 6.4 assists, and 4.7 rebounds per game, something Iguodala thought was nothing to to “too quiet about.”

Fox helped his team all the way to the In-Season Tournament Quarterfinals, where they were knocked out by the New Orleans Pelicans. Despite the elimination, Fox is still one of the favorites for the MVP award, even though that might change once the semis take place.

Regardless, Turner seemed to agree, claiming that if some other player, such as Ja Morant was doing what Fox has been doing, people would be going crazy. “When you think about his athleticism, his quickness, the scoring ability, and all that, he can be compared to a Ja Morant,” Turner said.

He then referenced how people want Ja Morant to work on his jumper. However, that is not the case with Fox. “We saying, damn, we would love to see Ja Morant with a jumper, and that’s what De’Aaron Fox is right now, it’s Ja Morant with a jumper,” he added.

Iguodala went on to talk about how the Warriors had been forced into making adjustments in order to cope with De’Aaron Fox’s threat during the 2022 Playoffs. While the 4-time champion himself did not play in the 1st round of the playoffs, he claimed that his team was forced into making sudden changes in their coverage of De’Aaron Fox in order to contain him. The 25-year-old still managed to take the Kings close to qualifying for the next round, and produced multiple memorable performances.

De’Aaron Fox: a dark horse for NBA MVP award?

Fox’s form and the unique versatility of talent that the Kings possess means that fans will be optimistic about doing better than they did last season. The Kings have gotten off to an 11-8 start and have seen their star man produce multiple MVP-level performances already.

This comes with him missing five games due to injury already this season. Despite that, the 25-year-old is still in the top 15 for the NBA MVP race and will only be looking up.

This is after Fox turned down a 2-year, $105,000,000 offer from the Kings at the start of the season, a move understood to be a result of his intention to earn an All-NBA selection this year, according to Chris Haynes. That, will in turn allow him to negotiate a lot more money in the future, considering the kind of contracts that have been offered in the NBA recently.