The San Antonio Spurs fell short of their first title since 2014, and one player everyone wants to blame is De’Aaron Fox. After all, he was supposed to be the veteran presence that steadied the ship when things got dicey, and yet, he was the one who faltered when the lights got brightest.

The Fox Problem

De’Aaron Fox is what I like to call a “flawed star.” Why I say this is that he is someone getting paid star money who does not produce at the level you would expect him to, given his dollar figure.

This season, Fox was “worth” 9.3 wins (per Dunks & Threes). When you multiply that by the average value of a win (3.8 million dollars), Fox was worth $35.3 million this season. That is roughly $14.2 million less than what he set to be paid on his upcoming extension, making his contract a soon-to-be negative-value deal.

The reason for this is that Fox is an on-ball-centric guard who isn’t as good at being on the ball as other high-usage players. Compare Fox to the marks of other high-profile guards:

It also doesn’t help that Fox’s skill set is kind of redundant with the Spurs’ past two top five picks, who are progressing at an unexpected clip. Stephon Castle and Dylan Harper are both rim hunters who struggle shooting from the outside. Fox has only had two seasons in his nine-year career shooting over 34% from beyond the arc, and this year was not one of them.

A Possible Solution

What if the Spurs have Fox come off the bench? I know, Fox likely fancies himself one of the best guards in the association, and this relegation would be a huge hit to his ego.

But what if we spin it this way: you’ve already gotten paid, so you don’t need to worry about playing for another contract any time soon. Why not just juice your stats by beating up on weaker bench units en route to a Sixth Man of the Year Award?

Original reporting: All Sports Feed (HLL/CB) — read the source article.