A common talking point is that a team is only a contender if they have a top 15 player, and that is sometimes said to wave off the Sacramento Kings as a non-contending team. Many Kings fans believe, though, that the Kings already have a top 15 guy in De'Aaron Fox. He only made his first All-Star & All-NBA selections and playoffs appearance last season, so a lot of people are unaware of him and his skill set.

Ultimately, he is an offensive point guard who's not great on defense. That is a very common archetype in the league. His average points and assists are solid, but they don't stick out compared to the consensus top 15 guys like Luka or Dame. What does stick out are his shooting stats, and anyone who watches a few Fox highlights will realize how effective his game is.

He pressures the rim like the best of them. In the regular season, he was 76.5% on 285 FGAs in the restricted area. That is efficiency that is better than most big men who camp in the restricted area. Compared to guards, nobody is close to him. Ja Morant is 61.3% on 424 FGAs, SGA is 63.5% on 499 FGAs, Luka is 72.1% at 315 FGAs, Booker is 68.3% on 202 FGAs, and Dame is 63.3% on 324 FGAs.

Of course, the modern NBA needs shooting. Fox recently developed his floater/midrange game and it's at elite levels compared to the big name point guards. The bulk of his shots came from the paint outside of the restricted area. Typically he drives so fast that defenders sag off too much, which allows him to decelerate and get an easy 8 or 10 footer.

Fox shot 52.9% on 427 FGAs in the paint outside of the restricted area. Ja was 42.9% on 389 FGAs, SGA was 48.2% on 467 FGAs, Luka was 57% on 379 FGAs, Booker is 52.3% on 239 FGAs, and Dame was 46.8% on 109 FGAs.

Fox's midrange game is also solid, though his current offensive weakness, 3 point shooting, starts to rear its head. Still, Fox shot 47% on 251 FGAs in the midrange. That's compared to Ja's 42.5% on 80 FGAs, SGA's 42.1% on 247 FGAs, Luka's 42.3% on 215 FGAs, Booker's 49.4% on 310 FGAs, and Dame's 50.5% on 111 FGAs.

His 3 point shooting speaks for itself, as it's below the league average at 32.4% with 367 FGAs. Luka, Booker, Ja, and SGA's 3 point shooting is also below average, but Luka, Booker, and SGA are better by about 2 or 3%. Dame is Dame, and I didn't even add Curry to this discussion.

Another offensive weakness is his foul drawing rate and free throw shooting. He doesn't draw fouls as well as other guards, and his free throw shooting of 77.2% isn't spectacular for the fouls he does draw.

So, these shooting stats for the last season show that, compared to the elite guards of the NBA, Fox is shooting more efficiently and at higher volumes than many of them in multiple areas of the court. Of course, I did not touch on all aspects of offense, but Fox is a solid playmaker for his team as well so that's not a weakness of his. What it does lead me to is the question in this topic. Fox is definitively as or more efficient than his point guard peers in terms of shooting inside the arc. His playmaking is as good as most of them as well. What would it take, statistics-wise or just record-wise, for Fox to become the next level in the eyes of NBA fans and media?