De'Aaron Fox frustrations are causing Spurs fans to repeat the Devin Vassell mistake

Let's all take a chill pill. The De'Aaron Fox slander has been dialed up to 1,000 since the Spurs dropped Game Five of the NBA Finals to the Knicks, and while he's deserving of some criticism, most of it has gone way over the line in suggesting that San Antonio needs to move off their speedy point guard entirely. We're not at that point, yet, folks.

Fox is set to earn $229 million over the next four seasons, and the Silver and Black will be the ones gladly paying it. Why? Because I don't think we saw the best that Swipa has to offer during the 2025-26 season, and the Spurs probably feel the same way. ESPN's Michael C. Wright nailed the reason why.

I've criticized Fox, and I've defended him, but this part of the equation didn't really factor into my thinking throughout most of the season, regardless of which side I was on. It's a fair point to make, and Spurs fans have a very recent example of the impact not having an offseason has on a player with Devin Vassell.

De'Aaron Fox deserves the benefit of the doubt

First of all, we must ensure we don't engage too fiercely with recent events at the expense of viewing the entire picture. The ex-Kings franchise guard averaged 19 points per game on 49% from the field this season. That's pretty damn good for a player who didn't perform to his fullest capabilities. He may want to see more, but he was far from a scrub, and his inability to truly work on his game held him back.

Devin Vassell went through something similar the year before. A foot that wouldn't heal right forced him to get surgery, costing him his summer in 2024. As a result, he had one of the most inconsistent seasons of his young career. Spurs fans were furious at the shooting struggles and began putting him in every other trade package under the sun just for him to come back with a vengeance this year.

Fox deserves a chance to do something similar. He just entered the prime of his career, but he didn't get a chance to hone his craft to the same degree he would have had he been healthy. The question is about how quickly he can recover from his ankle injury to make that happen. Excitement was through the roof when the Spurs traded for him for a reason.

We've just been sabotaged in seeing the pairing of him and Victor Wembanyama reach its potential. But the Spurs would be the ones doing the sabotaging if they were to move him because of a bad stretch. It would also be in very poor taste considering he sought San Antonio out, sacrificed his role with a smile, and then helped the team return to the NBA Finals for the first time since 2014.

Say what you want about his performance against the Knicks, but the Silver and Black don't make it past the Oklahoma City Thunder without him. There's a reason for that, and it goes deeper than scoring the basketball (that helps, though).

Fox brings a needed element of playmaking to the Spurs

Nobody will make this comparison because SA's guys are so young, and how the team was put together is slightly different, but think back to when the Big 3 of LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, and Chris Bosh were together. Despite being one of the five best power forwards in the league at that time, Bosh struggled to adjust his game to fit the new dynamics of the team.

It took about a year to figure it out, and once he did, they were almost unstoppable... almost. A similar theme is playing out here for Fox, but with some caveats. He knows how to run a team's offense, and that, alone, is valuable. The Spurs' guards are young, and having a veteran playmaker on the court with Victor Wembanyama, who just knows how to set people up and defer, is necessary for this group.

Dylan Harper is a scorer, and Stephon Castle is a bruiser with playmaking abilities that are in the development stages. There is no need to ruin a good thing here. San Antonio's formula led them to 62 wins and a top-three rating in both offense and defense during the regular season before an NBA Finals run with a bunch of kids, so it's not like his presence was a detriment.

Allow a talented player his offseason to work on his game and continue building chemistry with his teammates. It will make a world of difference. We just saw it with Vassell, and fans were elated that the front office didn't overreact to a bump in the road. A similar script could be in the works for Fox. We just have to let it play out.

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