The Sacramento Kings are reportedly opening up trade talks on star guard De’Aaron Fox prior to the Feb. 6 trade deadline. He’s probably been linked to the San Antonio Spurs the most out of any team in trade rumors, as they’re said to be his preferred destination.
But Fox’s list of preferred destinations apparently extends beyond the Spurs, and the Miami Heat are reportedly one squad in his second tier of ideal landing spots, according to NBA insider Vincent Goodwill, along with the Houston Rockets.
De’Aaron Fox list is led by the Spurs but also includes Houston and Miami (not Portland as I said in video, just misspoke)
— Vincent Goodwill (@VinceGoodwill) January 30, 2025
“There is a list,” Goodwill said of Fox’s preferred destinations. “… It’s a short list. That list is not one, but at the top of the list I think is the San Antonio Spurs.”
According to Goodwill, the Heat and Rockets are behind the Spurs. The NBA insider accidentally mentioned the Portland Trail Blazers as one of Fox’s preferred spots but clarified on X that he meant say the Rockets instead of the Blazers.
“Those are the two teams I believe that are in second tiers, but in that first tier is playing with Victor Wembanyama,” Goodwill said, with Miami and Houston being the two teams in question other than Wembanyama’s Spurs.
It has been a rocky season for the Kings. They fired head coach Mike Brown shortly before the calendar flipped to 2025. Brown was one of the more successful head coaches in Kings franchise history, as he coached Sacramento to a 54.9 percent regular-season winning percentage.
Brown also helped the Kings snap a lengthy playoff drought when the squad qualified for the 2023 NBA Playoffs, though Sacramento lost to the Golden State Warriors in seven games in the first round then missed the playoffs last season.
The Heat trading for Fox would make good sense. With star forward Jimmy Butler seemingly having one foot out of Miami already as he’s serving his third suspension in the month of January alone, the team could benefit from acquiring a premium talent to help take Butler’s place.
Fox has certainly proven that he can handle the responsibility of holding the keys to a team’s offensive attack. He has been Sacramento’s starting floor general for years now and is putting up some impressive numbers across 43 games played with the Kings so far this season.
Furthermore, a backcourt of Fox and fellow guard Tyler Herro in the Heat’s starting lineup would seemingly make for one of the more dynamic offensive tandems in the NBA.
Both players are averaging 24-plus points per game in the 2024-25 regular season, and they’re from the same alma mater. While they were never teammates at the collegiate level, they played college basketball at the University of Kentucky, one of the distinguished college basketball programs in the nation.