There’s zero question here. Fox is going to begin the season as the starter, and it won’t be Harper unless he blows Fox out of the water the entire season or Fox gets injured and Harper turns into a superstar by the time he gets back. (Or god forbid Castle gets hurt for an extended period).

He was playing through an injury

I’m not the biggest Fox fan as a player, but playing basketball on a high ankle sprain is crazy and got way more flack for his performance than he deserved

Man imagine Fox just dribbles the ball out and gets fouled and the series goes 2-2 back to San Antonio

I don’t think he’s on this team for much longer. Harper is too good and you can’t have 40mil coming off the bench

He’ll be on the team for now, but at some point they won’t be able to justify Harper off the bench

This basically just comes down to hater culture

People’s lives are miserable so they feel better about themselves by tearing someone else down.

Dude played on a HIGH ankle sprain and for the most part managed the games well, protecting possessions by not turning the ball over, complementing their pair of young guard that made enough “fuck it” LeRoy Jenkins plays to push them to the Finals at the expense of a million turnovers.

Eventually Fox imploded, but I have no idea why people wrote off the Knicks, a team with the most dominant playoff performance since the super team Warriors.

When the Spurs beat OKC in the WFC, I was sitting there at the bar telling people as a Celtics fan - I’ve seen this movie before. The scene on the court of Wemby crying and all the players acting like they just overcame their greatest hurdle reminded me so much of Al Horford crying on the ground and all the younger players on the Celtics blowing their collective emotion load.

I didn’t want to believe it back then in 2022, but when I saw it happen with San Antonio this year I immediately thought Knicks in 4 or 5 because how are you gonna lock in again mentally after something like that? I thought Fox was still composed relative to those guys, his body just failed him, but my point even beyond that is they DID NOT lose to New York because of Fox, the Knicks maybe win in 6 without him limping around on the court, same if he was perfectly healthy - they were that good.

Fox’s choking in the Finals completely made people forget that the Spurs entered the season ranked as a play-in/low seed team and they beat the supposedly indestructible OKC and got to the Finals ahead of schedule.

They aren’t supposed to be this good so quick. They did good together and Fox was an AllStar this season.

the only thing that is interesting about this to me is they don’t really need him if Harper takes another step forward this season which seems very likely, then they have Castle and Harper both as lead guards who have playoff experience

people shitting on Fox as a player because he had a rough stretch in the playoffs are getting to be a bit much, he was clearly hurt and not close to 100%

still a very good player for a lot of teams, I just don’t think the Spurs are one and they could spend that $$ elsewhere

Fox missed the first 2 games of the WCF, and the Spurs had 23 and 21 turnovers. Fox comes back and the max they commit in the next 4 games is 15. Fox is a stabilizing force for the offense

> while playing on a high right ankle sprain

everyone chose to ignore this part and decided to shit on him anyway. bring up the injury during the series and you’d get downvoted

r/nba is neck and neck with NBA twitter for being the worst place to discuss basketball lol

I saw Fox play all year, he was disappointing all year. He’s an inefficient scorer who isn’t a great playmaker and is a mediocre defender at best that lacks size

His best attribute is speed, which he rarely uses at this point, and it’s not long until he hits 30.

The reality is this - his value is shit. After Trae Young, he’s in contention to be the worst contract in the league when you factor in price and years remaining.

They wouldn’t get anything good for him, have a chance to rehab his value with him bouncing back, and there’s still plenty of minutes for him to contribute in the guard rotation. There are 96 total guard minutes, even if you give Castle and Harper a full 32 each, there’s still 32 to fill for Fox

Fox was supposed to be the closer. During the regular season when he wasn’t injured he shot 39% in what the NBA considers clutch time. That’s below the league avg. Fox simply wasn’t worth his contract last year.

However hes barely been on the team 2 seasons. No FO would be dumping on a guy they just a gave max to that quickly. So theres not much to read in to the any statements. I do think at least one person in the org likes him more than the rest of the league.

The real test is this season. If he underperforms again the FO is going to be in an uncomfortable spot cus the spurs do need a third playable guard but there are much cheaper options of you can’t rely on Fox as a closer.

The Fox criticism was always way overblown. 

Everyone shitting on Fox must not have watched the games.

Dude might have made one big mistake in one big game.

But he also hit a lot of big shots late in games when it seemed nobody else wanted the ball. He kept them in games as they imploded in 4th quarters.

And let’s not forget all the turnovers the younger guys had when Fox was out.

The Spurs lack of experience had a bright light shined on it but Fox did his job more often than not.

I just hope he’s motivated to improve and be more consistent.

Everybody over-reacts to players playing poorly on injuries in playoffs. Just because Fox and Christian Braun played on injuries in the playoffs, they are branded as the worst contracts in the league lol.

We the Knicks Delegation remain thankful to Fox’s contribution to the Knicks championship win

This Fox hate is unfair. Does anyone remember the turnover numbers before and after he came back?

Spurs fan here. Totally agree. But did the ankle sprain go for a layup at the end of game 4?

The main thing now is that they’d have to attach assets just to get off his contract. He’s looking like one of the worst contracts in the league

the level of excuses people make for Fox’s performance will never not baffle me

He was literally playing for the knicks all series. Get him off my team.

This season they will wait till he puts up good numbers then trade him.

High ankle sprains are serious business. The fact that he was playing on one should give him a pass. In the NFL players with high ankle sprains typically miss 4-6 weeks. This guy was playing on it under a week after the injury.

Let’s see what he’s got next season when he’s healthy and then make a judgement.

I think Spurs fans should actually be mad at Mitch Johnson and his lack of adjustments during the Finals. I think we can all agree that with the high ankle sprain, and Harper playing really well, maybe Harper should have been on the floor instead of Fox and that is entirely on the coach.

truth is they know nobody wants that contract lol

SA would never admit it publicly, but the only reason Fox is starting is because of the size of his contact.

It’s not a basketball decision at all. Pretty disappointing for a team that’s a legitimate contender.

Mitch Johnson’s refusal to make adjustments and play Harper more during the Finals was a big reason why they lost. It seems like he’s doubling down.

Any other team besides the Spurs and Fox would be out the door already. He’s lucky the Spurs are a patient and loyal org, most others wouldn’t put up with a playoff performance that bad

Fox is a good player. He’s overpaid but still he brings a lot to the table. The big issue I see is his 3 point shooting though. If Castle and Harper don’t improve there either, you have 3 guards that don’t provide great spacing. they added harris who isn’t a knock down shooter either.

Wemby also isn’t consistent from deep. that’s the only real flaw I see with them.

As a non spurs fan. I like them keeping fox. 50M in a 2nd apron era for a guard who relies on athleticism whos also near 30. They already got super lucky with the draft they need some of this roster imperfection.

He was like a basketball terrorist that Finals. For a veteran paid what he’s paid, it was a really poor showing. If you can’t lean on him when your team is shaken, what is he there for?

Ok but they don’t win a championship with fox. 

Oh do they remain committed to his fully guaranteed unmovable max extension? I thought maybe they would have chosen one of their many many alternatives.

While joyously rewatching the Finals all summer I noticed two things about Fox’s play:

• He had a bunch of good looks that went in-and-out. Many of them were early in the shot clock so they probably weren’t strategically smart shots from a game management perspective, but the looks were good and he was really unlucky with the bounces.
• He made a bunch of egregious braindead passes that resulted in turnovers. Straight up unforced errors.

I think he should be criticized much more for his game management than for his poor shotmaking. That said, I really don’t know what to make of the guy and I’m fascinated by both sides of the argument from Spurs fans.

Fox was disappointing almost the entire year. He started off solid (also coming off injury), but then he was way up and down all season. People brushed it off as him letting the young players grow, which he did, but when the Spurs needed him to be a 50 million dollar guy, he made a ton of mental mistakes and flat out bad plays. This was happening all season, healthy or not, regular season and playoffs.

Fact is, the ankle sprain does not excuse him of some of the plays he made. If you can’t go full speed, why are you playing like you can? Like, seriously, if you’re really injured, you need to play conservatively. You a stabilize the team without trying to be the leading scoring. He did not play conservatively though. In fact, to me, he was playing like he normally has on the Spurs, which is the main reason why he struggled mightily.

Why do so many people think Harper can run an offense? He’s been amazing as a small wing, but there is no indication that he can play the role Fox plays. 

Was saying it throughout the playoffs. Spurs needed Fox so bad when Castle and Harper couldn’t keep the ball under control. Once Fox played, everything seemed to settle down for them and the Spurs played better but yeah. It seemed to finally catch up to him in the Finals while Harper caught fire.

Spurs will have to make a decision though because Harper has looked to be a superstar in the making. I see him as their 2nd best player sooner rather than later.

Ok, but that doesn’t change the fact that Dylan is too good for a sixth man role and next year Spurs will have to extend Castle and the year after the same Dylan. At that point, Fox still has two years left, making around 60M each season.

Without Fox, they wouldn’t have won the only game they did win in the Finals…the contract sucks, but they are a better team with him unless they trade him to get an extra big with size and physicality (Isiah Stewart) and a real backup PG (example Lonzo ball or tyus jones).

Been saying this when the trade went down. If if fox gets benched he is going to be an absolute locker room problem. He won’t be a team player, I said it back then and said it now he will only stunt the development of castle and Harper IF those two were showing promise (this was 1.5 years ago)

He’ll probably start with the team then get traded at the deadline 

Realistically it probably won’t be a huge problem as long as theyre winning and he still plays a ton, Fox had a bad playoffs but he can still help him a lot

Fox sat a few games and they asked Castle to run the offense and it was a disaster. Castle got all the heat but Harper didn’t step out of his pseudo wing role in any meaningful way in those games.

I understand that Fox is overpaid and that Harper is an incredibly gifted driver and finisher but maybe we should see him do literally anything other than that before we decide that Fox is holding this team back or that Harper is already a starting caliber point guard let alone an all-star like how some people are talking.

High ankle sprains fucking suck

They need to start Fox even if they want to trade him, to recover his trade value.

On a contender Fox is a 6fh man at best. Hes a good stats mediocre team guy. Not a good defender or good enough shooter. Start Harper and Fox comes off the bench

I’ve been saying this same exact thing!

Fox wasn’t great in the Finals, but he was injured and the Spurs wouldn’t have gotten that far in the first place without him

My only issue with Fox is his contract but other than that he’s been a positive for the Spurs and it just sucks that he became the team’s scapegoat when it wasn’t just him that faltered in the Finals.

But it’s all fox’s fault wemby choked!!

If he knew his ankle was fucked why would he go for that layup?

Fox didn’t play great in the finals by any means, but we definitely wouldn’t have been there without him. Look at the turnovers by castle with and without Fox.

He’s just the obvious scapegoat because of his age + contract. But I like having Fox, and I know he had a huge mental lapse going for the layup, but that’s not why we lost the series.

Every Spurs fan needs to acknowledge that this was a team wide choke. There isn’t 1 culprit, it just feels like we blew our wad the first half of every game and didn’t have the energy or composure down the stretch.

They’re right. Fox was huge for this team, and injured in the end. He should have stopped taking so many dumb shots, but otherwise he’s a huge part of the team

I get that Fox is a good player, but as an opposing fan I was much more concerned in the minutes Harper was on the floor cooking the Knicks in the lane and at the basket. That kinda tells you what you need to know.

Harper is a super talent, but not really a PG.

There are some Spurs fans who say they need to immediately trade Fox after that Finals run. But they need to build up Fox’s trade value because it’s in the gutter. Who’s going to trade for that huge contract after his Finals performance?

Fox screw up not due to his injury, it’s due to his bbiq. That itself don’t need legs

Why can’t Harper start at the 3, starting lineup being Fox/Castle/Harper/Tobias/Wemby, what am I missing here

The whole team was kinda buns in the finals. Wemby blew a game (2?) by throwing into Castles back.

Injury or not, the way the Spurs utilize Fox is the issue. They have a lot of quality talent and multiple ppl that can score/assist, however, he appears most effective when he’s initiating the offense. The team is talented enough to still be successful but I definitely believe he needs the ball in his hands more. Hard to gain any rhythm when you’re relegated to a spot up shooter for numerous possessions at a time.

Their funeral

Fox being considered a veteran makes me feel old as shit

I’ve been saying I’d rather break my ankle bone than sprain it, that shit is the worst, can’t even imagine running let alone play the most important games of his life on that bum ankle.

That being said, his greatest blunder was that layup and I hope he learns from it.

They really needed Chris Paul’s veteran leadership in the finals

There is no world where Harper starts over Fox this season

I generally like Fox as a player (no shade, I swear). He was definitely injured and his performance was admirable given the circumstances.

He also fucked up game 4. Plain and simple. He ultimately got former Kings coach Mike Brown, our current coach who recently won an NBA championship if anyone forgot, fired because of a late game playoff blunder that cost them the series vs the Warriors and ended the Kings “light the beam” season. It’s not a one time thing. And dude, on one functional leg, thought he can out-run OG trailing him too. What are we doing here, Spurs fans?

We also gotta stop fishing for excuses on how that Finals series would’ve went if, analytically, the moon and the stars aligned. I’m seeing too much of it ITT and every time a collection of Spurs fans join a comment section out of pure saltiness. Don’t be Philly and Detroit fans. ffs you guys have the past (pop years), the present (Finals appearance), and the future (Wemby era). But y’all lost in 5 games, fair and square.

If you haven’t already, say “GG”, shake our hand, and get tf over it.

TL;DR: “Sorry about that, yes I’ll get a 4-for-4 and a medium chocolate frosty. Yeah that’s it. Yup. Thanks I’ll drive up.”

Duh. That’s pretty obvious.

They have a point. Luckily, Spurs aren’t reddit.

Why do so many people hate Fox lol, I think hes a very good PG for this team. What are the other options??

He ass to keep it a buck

Posts like this gets posted every 10 business days lol