SACRAMENTO — More than nine years ago, De’Aaron Fox entered the Kings’ facility as a 19-year-old rookie after Sacramento selected him with the No. 5 overall pick in the 2017 NBA Draft.
Fast-forward to the present day, and Fox was standing in the visitors’ locker room inside Golden 1 Center after being traded to the San Antonio Spurs in February 2025 following an eight-year stint in Sacramento.
Standing down the hall in the Kings’ locker room was Darius Acuff Jr., also a 19-year-old Kings rookie, selected with the seventh overall pick in the 2026 NBA Draft.
Fox shared advice to the young point guard as he navigates the early portion of his NBA career.
“Just be patient,” Fox said after San Antonio’s 124-109 win over Sacramento on Friday night. “I think that was a big thing. We turned it around for a bit. Obviously, it wasn’t long-lasting, but you try to find that consistency. Obviously, when you have coaching changes and things like that, it’s hard to find that. But at some point, you want to have that type of stability.”
Fox played for five different coaches and three different general managers during his eight-year tenure in Sacramento.
And despite the Kings’ 1-8 start to the 2026-27 NBA season, several reports indicate coach Doug Christie’s job is secure — for now — as the front office wants to give him time to figure things out with injury absences and other obstacles.
Like Fox, Acuff played college hoops for coach John Calipari. Of course, Fox played at Kentucky before Coach Cal’s transition to Arkansas, where Acuff played one season.
Fox is a fan of Acuff’s game for a while, and is excited to see his growth in the NBA.
“Yeah, I watched him a lot at Arkansas. I mean, he can put the ball in the basket,” Fox said. “That’s the big thing about him. He can score the ball in various ways. Once he becomes more efficient, he’s going to see all types of coverages. See two guys being thrown at him and he’ll be able to get guys any shot that he wants.”
It took a little while for Fox to be given the keys to the Kings’ franchise, as he served as the backup point guard behind George Hill for the first several games of the season. Ultimately, it became Fox’s team and remained that way for the next seven years.
Meanwhile, Acuff undisputedly became the new face of the franchise ever since he was drafted in late June.
And since then, he has averaged 25.2 points, 3.7 rebounds and 7.1 assists through the first nine games of his NBA career. The biggest concern with his game thus far is the high volume of his shot attempts. He entered Friday’s game third in all of the NBA in field-goal attempts, only behind Brandon Miller and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander.
He also ranked in the top 15 in assists.
Finding that balance as a playmaking point guard who also can score whenever he wants is the next step for Acuff.
“I think that helps whenever you touch the paint; when teams know you’re willing to pass the ball, then they start to fan out a little bit more, and that makes scoring that much easier,” Fox said. “Obviously, he’s already making tough buckets, but when you’re doing that, when you’re able to kind of balance both, I think that was a big thing for me, was learning how to balance both of those things.
“When you do that, especially at a high level, even looking at guys like Luka [Dončić], LeBron [James], Shai, when their playmaking got better, their scoring got better. It makes the game a lot easier when you’re able to do both.”
On Friday, Acuff finished with a team-high 22 points on 9-of-20 shooting from the field and 3 of 9 from 3-point land, with three rebounds, eight assists and two turnovers in 33 minutes.
Just like Fox did, Acuff is in the midst of figuring it out.
But hopefully for the Kings, Acuff’s tenure in Sacramento ends much differently.
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