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De'Aaron Fox wins NBA's inaugural Clutch Player of the Year award

Zack Geogheganby:Zack Geoghegan04/18/23

ZGeogheganKSR

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Photo by G Fiume | Getty Images

If the only games you’ve watched the Sacramento Kings play so far this season were their first two playoff outings, you already know that De’Aaron Fox has a knack for making timely plays. But that’s nothing new for the former Kentucky Wildcat turned NBA All-Star, who has been consistently showing up in the biggest moments all season long.

On Tuesday night, Fox was tabbed as the inaugural winner of the NBA’s Clutch Player of the Year award, also known as the Jerry West Trophy, which is handed out to the player who best showed up in the clutch for his team during the 2022-23 season. It was a no-brainer to give Fox the honor, as he’s been the league’s most dominant and efficient player in the clutch all season — and by a significant margin.

Fox beat out a pair of the NBA’s top closers, DeMar DeRozan of the Chicago Bulls and Jimmy Butler of the Miami Heat, to take home the hardware.

According to the NBA, “clutch time is defined as the final five minutes of the fourth quarter or overtime when the score is within five points.”

So, just how clutch is Fox? Well, how much time have you got?

Fox, only 25 years old, led the NBA in clutch points scored this season with a total of 194. That’s 35 more points than DeRozan and 43 more than Butler. His 1.21 points per clutch minute played ranks eighth all-time in league history trailing Hall of Famers such as LeBron James, Russell Westbrook, Kobe Bryant, Paul Pierce, Vince Carter, and Dwyane Wade. Not bad company to be in.

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During crunch time, Fox posted an effective field goal percentage of 58.5 percent, according to Inpredictable. For comparison, DeRozan’s EFG% finished at 47.6 percent. Fox also led the league in most field goals made in the clutch with 72.

Although he didn’t need it, Fox received plenty of justification that he deserves this (regular season only) award during the Kings’ first two playoff games against the defending champion Golden State Warriors. Despite coming into the series as the higher seed (Sacramento is the three-seed, Golden State the six), the Kings have been viewed as underdogs. Now holding a 2-0 series lead, Sacramento has flipped the script and Fox is the primary reason why.

During both playoff games — the first two of his professional career — Fox scored 15 points on 5-9 shooting (three assists, one turnover) in the fourth quarter of Game 1 before totaling 11 points on 5-9 shooting (three assists, zero turnovers) in the fourth quarter of Game 2. He played all 24 minutes between those two periods, guiding the Kings to a pair of tough victories against Steph Curry and company.

This is a well-earned award for Fox and one he continues to prove he deserved.

But Fox isn’t the only former Wildcat in contention for a major NBA award. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (OKC) is a finalist for Most Improved Player while Immanuel Quickley (NYK) is a finalist for Sixth Man of the Year, the latter award set to be announced on Thursday night.

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