NBA Trade Rumors: 'Strong Belief' De'Aaron Fox Will Be More Available in Offseason

Despite recent chatter about De'Aaron Fox's status with the Sacramento Kings, the star point guard isn't expected to be traded during the season.

Per The Athletic's Sam Amick, there is a "strong belief" within the NBA that Fox is more likely to become available during the offseason rather than ahead of the Feb. 6 trade deadline.

Marc Stein later reported in his Stein Line newsletter that the Kings "have shown no known willingness to date to field trade approaches for Fox before the Feb. 6 trade deadline. By all accounts they are not there yet."

Stein also noted that teams "do not consider Fox available as we speak."

The vibes out of Sacramento don't appear to be very high right now. In addition to the team's on-court struggles this season, head coach Mike Brown's firing on Dec. 27 apparently caught everyone in the organization off-guard.

Per ESPN's Ramona Shelburne, one person with the Kings said "nobody" wanted Brown fired and they were exploring ways to improve the team's play.

Amick and Anthony Slater reported the Kings' decision to fire Brown stemmed from their poor performance so far this season and apparent tension with Fox after Brown made strong comments about the star guard following a 114-113 loss to the Detroit Pistons on Dec. 26.

Fox denied there was any rift with Brown, telling Shelburne they "never" had an argument and would talk things out whenever they disagreed about something.

"I feel like there's this perception that people thought that we were at odds," Fox said. "You can ask anybody in this organization: me and Mike have never even had an argument. We could disagree with something. We talked about it and it was gone."

All of this happened after Amick and Slater reported on Dec. 21 that Fox could be preparing for his exit from Sacramento if the organization is unable to build a team that is consistently capable of competing to be a contender in the Western Conference.

It would make sense for the Kings to wait on exploring any potential trade options for Fox until the offseason. They will be able to get more teams involved at that point because of the salary cap.

Coming into the season, 18 teams were hard-capped at either the first or second apron. Waiting until the summer would open things up to potentially the other 29 teams to make their best pitch to Sacramento.

Fox, who turned down a three-year, $165 million extension offer in the offseason, will be entering the final year of his current contract with a $37.1 million salary in 2025-26. He ranks fifth in the NBA in scoring average with 26.8 points per game.

The Kings have won back-to-back games after a six-game losing streak, but they are still 12th in the Western Conference with a 15-19 overall record.