NBA Rewind: Previewing the Christmas schedule. Plus, will De’Aaron Fox demand a trade?

It’s holiday week! And the NBA is always going to make a big effort to highlight many of its best and brightest stars/teams on Christmas Day. Does the league regret any of these scheduling decisions one-third of the way through the 2024-25 season? We’ll let you know about that. Plus, we will discuss De’Aaron Fox possibly being on the trade block soon, along with what’s good and bad in the NBA Stock Report.

Here’s your latest NBA Rewind!

Stock Report extended

I can’t believe it, but the theme of this week’s NBA Stock Report involves three teams in the East heading in the right direction and three teams in the West heading in the wrong direction. I’m not sure this has happened this season. I’m uncertain whether this has happened in the last three seasons. But that’s where we are.

📈 Cleveland Cavaliers (25-4): After their historic 15-0 run to start the season, the Cavs fell off a little bit. They lost three of their next five games and started coming back down to earth. Well, they’re shooting back up into the stratosphere again. Cleveland has won eight of its last nine games. Milwaukee went into its showdown with Cleveland on Friday night riding a stretch of 12 wins in 15 games and the NBA Cup championship. The Cavs smacked them down and have now won four in a row. Cleveland’s offense and defense are clicking on every cylinder.

📉 Golden State Warriors (15-12): Despite a much-needed win over the Minnesota Timberwolves Saturday night, the Warriors have yet to pull themselves completely out of a recent funk. Their great defense gave up 287 total points in consecutive games, including a 51-point loss to the Memphis Grizzlies. Golden State hasn’t been nearly as disciplined lately, giving up a ton of points off turnovers, lots of second-chance points and points in transition. The turnovers haven’t even been that bad for the Warriors, but they can’t hit a shot. I’m starting to wonder if this is the curse of Klay Thompson no longer being there. Is that a thing?

📈 New York Knicks (18-10): We’ve been marveling at the Knicks’ offense all season long, but recently their defense is fueling them. New York has won eight of its last 10 games, though its opponents haven’t been the most offensively inclined. In this stretch, the Knicks have wins over Charlotte (twice), New Orleans (twice), Orlando (twice), Toronto and Minnesota. They won’t exactly remind you of the 2017 Warriors. However, the Knicks needed to prove they could stop somebody, and they did exactly that. Five of these eight wins have been by double digits, including kicking the Wolves’ collective butt in Karl-Anthony Towns’ return to Minnesota.

📉 Sacramento Kings (13-17): Let’s put aside all the De’Aaron Fox trade conversation for a minute. Literally a minute (scroll down for us to dig into it). The Kings aren’t doing so hot right now. They were recently heading up with a three-game win streak but have since lost four in a row, including two games to the Lakers this past week. They also lost to Denver, and it was one of the best games of the season. Sacramento probably should have won that game, but then it played two straight games against the Lakers and managed to score just 199 points total. The Lakers do not have a good defense in the slightest, but the Kings somehow couldn’t score against them. After that, Indiana blew them out. Now, we add back in the Fox rumors, and it’s fair to wonder just how solid this team is right now.

📈 Indiana Pacers (14-15): Don’t look now, but the Pacers might finally be turning this thing around. Over its last six games, Indiana is looking a lot more like the team we saw for most of last season. The Pacers have won five of their last six games, and their closest margin of victory during this stretch has been nine. Their defense has been surprisingly solid, and the offense is clicking once again. Everything is really balanced for them. Tyrese Haliburton is back to knocking down shots, and they have seven different players averaging double figures in scoring. Indiana is within shouting distance of moving into the top six in the East.

📉 Minnesota Timberwolves (14-13): They’ve only lost two games in a row (to the Knicks and Warriors). Those aren’t exactly terrible losses, but Anthony Edwards said the quiet part out loud about their offense. Almost a month ago, the Wolves were in a bad place, losing a bunch of games, and not playing defense as accustomed. Edwards criticized his team internally and to the media, and it worked in motivating everyone to fix a lot of their defensive issues. After Minnesota’s 26-point loss to the Knicks, Edwards told everybody, “We don’t have s— on offense.” He said the coaches have put them in position, but they’re not helping each other enough. When asked how to fix it, Edwards said the team wouldn’t like his answer, so he’d keep it to himself. Maybe this will work again?

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Big Story: De’Aaron Fox wants out?

The NBA trade market was a bit of a mystery heading into this season. The dreaded second-apron penalties due to the luxury tax have left a dark and confusing cloud over how aggressive teams might be in trying to acquire significant talent at the trade deadline. We’ve been unsure if any stars might be available. We’ve heard that New Orleans is potentially ready to part with Brandon Ingram and maybe anybody else on that roster, as the Pelicans have had a brutal season because of injuries. We’ve heard Jimmy Butler might be gettable from the Miami Heat. And Sam Amick, along with Anthony Slater, gave us a major eyebrow raise this weekend by reporting on De’Aaron Fox and the Kings.

Fox has been one of the better point guards in the league for some time. He didn’t take long to establish himself as virtually unguardable, and as the best clutch player in the NBA. In 2022-23, Fox won Clutch Player of the Year, was named an All-Star and made All-NBA third team. That was a massive year for him and the Kings, who snapped the longest playoff drought in NBA history. Sacramento hadn’t made the playoffs since 2006, but the combination of Fox, Domantas Sabonis and coach Mike Brown got the Kings to the No. 3 seed in the West. Since then, the Kings haven’t been able to build on that, though.

Sacramento went from 48 wins in 2022-23 to 46 wins and finishing ninth last season. The Kings didn’t make it through the Play-In Tournament, and the Western Conference has only become tougher. Fox turned down a big extension offer from the team this past summer and told The Athletic that he wanted to make sure everything was headed in the right direction before he commits to a new deal somewhere. It was something Fox reiterated when he joined Draymond Green’s podcast recently:

“I want to make sure that we’re in a position to try to win in the future, because that’s ultimately what I want to do,” Fox, who turned 27 on Friday, told Green and fellow former player Baron Davis. “For me, it’s ‘Are we looking like we’re continuing to get better year after year, and ‘Are we going to be able to compete at a high level?”

Rich Paul is Fox’s agent, and he’s really good at getting his clients where they want to be. He’s become arguably the best agent in the game, and if Fox is willing to look for a better spot than Sacramento, Paul will likely get him there. Sacramento is clearly dedicated to Fox, and it would love for him to be its franchise guy until the end of his career. The Kings have done right by him and a good job of building a good team. After last season’s disappointing ending, Sacramento got DeMar DeRozan in free agency. With the team sitting just 13-16 so far, that acquisition hasn’t yielded the results the Kings would like, but they’ve also dealt with guys being in and out of the lineup.

Fox could be eligible for a five-year, $345 million supermax deal if he makes All-NBA this season. The supermax was designed to give incentives for players to stick with their incumbent teams by awarding certain accolades that trigger bigger tiers and percentages of salaries they could qualify for. That doesn’t necessarily mean it will keep Fox in Sacramento at this point, though. And teams are looking to pounce the second the Kings are willing to part with him, if things get to that point. Here is another excerpt from the article by Amick and Slater:

Meanwhile, rival executives are monitoring the Fox situation closely, and league sources say one team in particular — the San Antonio Spurs — is positioning itself to pursue the Houston native as a possible partner for Victor Wembanyama, should Fox become available. Barring a significant Kings turnaround, others are surely close behind.

Now this is what I call intriguing! Let’s say the Kings did decide to move Fox. Would the Spurs be a viable destination? They have a lot of roster flexibility and a significant amount of young talent to offer Sacramento. San Antonio also has a ton of draft capital to move around. It has multiple picks and a pick swap owed to them from Atlanta. They have future picks and other pick swaps from several teams, including a 2031 first-round pick swap with Sacramento that the Spurs control. So, they could actually give control back to Sacramento for the 2031 pick, along with a combination of picks and young players the Kings could find quite enticing.

While we’ve heard for a short time about people on the internet trying to pair Victor Wembanyama and Trae Young, the Fox and Wemby duo would probably be even deadlier. Fox is a better, more efficient scorer, and he has a good history playing alongside an All-Star big man in Sabonis. Wemby will take all of those things to a greater level regardless of which point guard he’s paired next to. There aren’t many teams who can offer up what the Spurs can offer, and it would likely give the Kings a good opportunity to maintain a certain level of success while also restocking young talent and future picks.

The ideal situation for Sacramento is keeping everything together and continuing to build, even if it isn’t linear. If this situation does crumble enough for everybody to move on, the Kings and Spurs could end up mutually benefitting from this if that’s where Fox wants Paul to get him to next.

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The Week Ahead: The Christmas Day slate  

One of the biggest days on the NBA calendar is the Christmas Day slate. Even though the NFL has been coming for the NBA’s corner in that regard the last few years, the league still has the goal of showcasing some of the best teams and individual talent available to fans who possibly haven’t tuned in much in the early parts of the season. Except, for some reason, the NBA doesn’t have the Oklahoma City Thunder scheduled for this day. Considering they have an MVP candidate (Shai Gilgeous-Alexander) and the No. 1 seed in the West from last season, it’s not like they’re a surprise to anybody this season. You can understand that with the Cleveland Cavaliers’ exclusion from Christmas Day, but not the Thunder.

Alas, we have five games on the holiday schedule for everybody to consume. I’ll give you a little rundown of each game, where the brightest spotlight should be and a scale of 1-10 for measuring the scheduler’s remorse. Should the NBA wish they had the foresight to schedule somebody else? We’ll let you know. Let’s get everybody ready for the Christmas slate! (All times ET)

San Antonio Spurs at New York Knicks, Noon, ABC

This is a big-time way to start the Christmas holiday. You get a really good Knicks team, the magic of Madison Square Garden, the celebrities in NYC at the game and Wembanyama coming to town to remind everybody of where this league is headed. The Spurs have had an excellent start to the season, and we’re seeing the Knicks starting to separate themselves from the rest of the middling teams in the East. In Wemby’s MSG debut as a rookie, he had just 14 points on 14 shots to go with nine rebounds, two assists and one block in 30 minutes. He’s a different player now.

Brightest spotlight? Wemby. No offense to this incredible Knicks team (we highlighted their recent good play above), but Wemby is the star of this game and the broadcast. Expect to hear so much about the nearly 21-year-old French phenom who has wowed the entire basketball world for a couple of years now. And rightfully so, by the way. The NBA should be promoting Wembanyama as much as possible, even if the internet starts to get sick of him. We’ve never seen anything like him, no matter what Bol Bol fans might say.

Scheduler’s remorse? 0/10. This is a great showcase for the Knicks and the league’s biggest young star.

Minnesota Timberwolves at Dallas Mavericks, 2:30 p.m., ABC

This is a rematch of the Western Conference finals that ended far quicker and more one-sided than so many of us anticipated. The Wolves were in a really good place before hitting a recent lull. On the flip side, Dallas is thriving, and we’re seeing why Nico Harrison made the moves for Klay Thompson, Quentin Grimes, Spencer Dinwiddie and Naji Marshall this summer. Dallas is knocking on the door of the No. 2 seed in the West and could get a lot better too.

Brightest spotlight? A rematch of two teams seemingly headed in different directions right now. But we’re mostly focusing on Edwards going against Luka Dončić and Kyrie Irving. Edwards has added a lethal 3-point jumper to his repertoire this season. Meanwhile, Dallas’ starting backcourt seems to have a perfect understanding of when and how to maximize one another. It’s the exact opposite of Edwards trying to figure out how to make Julius “Fetch” Randle happen.

Scheduler’s remorse? 2/10. The league should be spotlighting these stars, and the Wolves will eventually be better than their current state.

Philadelphia 76ers at Boston Celtics, 5 p.m., ABC

These are not the Philadelphia 76ers the NBA originally scheduled for this game in Boston. They were hoping to see a Sixers squad with Paul George, Joel Embiid and Tyrese Maxey trying to prove they’re on the same level as the defending champion Celtics. Instead, we don’t know if Embiid’s face (sinus fracture) will be healed by then, and we’ve seen Maxey and George go in and out of the lineup all season. Also, rookie Jared McCain (a bright spot) is out with knee surgery. This could be a blowout within the first 10 minutes, as Boston reminds everybody it’s still the beasts of the East.

Brightest spotlight? Either the Sixers’ tough injury luck or the greatness of the defending champion Celtics. You’d like to shine a bright light on how good the Sixers are, but even their recent success (winning six of their last nine) has the cold water of more injuries poured all over it. Of course, it gives us a chance to talk more about the Celtics possibly breaking a six-year streak of defending NBA champions not being able to defend their title.

Scheduler’s remorse? 9/10. The Sixers have not been what the NBA was hoping they’d be when they threw them into the Christmas schedule. A healthy Sixers squad would be ideal here.

Los Angeles Lakers at Golden State Warriors, 8 p.m., ABC

I’m not sure how many more matchups we’ll get between Steph Curry and LeBron James. They ruled the NBA land from 2015 to 2018, giving us some of the greatest moments in NBA Finals history. Now, LeBron and Steph are trying to get back to that contending level with their current squads, and that’s proving to be a tough task to pull off and maintain. The Lakers going against the Warriors should bring in plenty of casual NBA fans looking to see two of the biggest stars ever.

Brightest spotlight? It’s LeBron versus Steph. This is not even close to approaching Hakeem Olajuwon in a Toronto Raptors uniform posting up Patrick Ewing in Orlando Magic threads. Steph is still near the top of his game, and we’ve seen a rejuvenated LeBron since his eight-day layoff. The league will highlight these two whenever they can, and they should.

Scheduler’s remorse? 0/10. The league will never be worried about whether fans will watch LeBron James against Steph Curry.

Denver Nuggets at Phoenix Suns, 10:30 p.m., ABC

Nikola Jokić and the Denver Nuggets feel destined to play in the late Christmas Day game for the rest of time. The league knows Jokić must be featured in some way because he’s the best player on the planet. At the same time, they don’t know how to make the Nuggets sexy to the masses outside of Colorado. Maybe throwing this Phoenix Suns team into the mix will get the job done, with Devin Booker, Kevin Durant and Bradley Beal all trying to figure out how to slay Goliath on the basketball court.

Brightest spotlight? Jokić going against Durant. The reigning three-time MVP is having a ridiculous season, as he tends to do. Marveling at what he does won’t get old. The same goes for Durant, who has been one of the greatest scorers and players we’ve ever seen. He’s back from injury and still virtually impossible to guard. Two talents like this dominating their matchups in very different ways is something the NBA should highlight more.

Scheduler’s remorse? 6/10. Both teams need to be better than they are, and the league has struggled to market Jokić and the Nuggets.

(Top photo: Rocky Widner / Getty Images )