Spurs’ De’Aaron Fox plans to make season debut Saturday vs. Pelicans: Source

San Antonio Spurs star De’Aaron Fox plans to make his season debut Saturday at home against the New Orleans Pelicans, a team source confirmed Friday.

Fox missed the start of the season as he was rehabbing from an offseason left hamstring injury suffered during a workout in August, but he has been moving effortlessly during pregame warmups for the past week. Though the 27-year-old former All-Star will miss Friday’s NBA Cup matchup against Kevin Durant and the Houston Rockets, on Saturday, he will bring some reinforcements to an injury-riddled San Antonio team.

Dylan Harper was recently sidelined after straining his calf during Sunday’s loss to the Phoenix Suns. A league source confirmed that even though Harper’s MRI did not reveal any serious injury to the calf, he is still expected to miss multiple weeks. However, a timeline for his return is unclear.

The Spurs finally had the season debuts of wing Jeremy Sochan (left wrist sprain), Kelly Olynyk (left heel surgery) and Lindy Waters III (bilateral eye procedure) in their 118-116 loss at the Los Angeles Lakers on Wednesday. Backup center Luke Kornet, who was off to a good start to his Spurs career, continues to be out after missing the last three games with a mysterious left ankle sprain.

Fox’s protracted return, as first reported by ESPN, comes at a crucial time. The Spurs’ fledgling offense has struggled now that teams are figuring out how to guard the improved Victor Wembanyma. San Antonio has a clear need for a veteran who can catalyze the fast break and run pick-and-roll when the defense takes away Wembanyama’s freedom of movement, something the Suns and Lakers did effectively this week in the Spurs’ first two losses of the season.

Fox has played just 17 games for the Spurs since arriving at last February’s trade deadline. He played through a dislocated left pinky (his dominant hand) that he suffered at training camp before the 2024 season, finally needing surgery to repair the tendon in March this year. Fox and Wembanyama played in just five games together, but the big man was dealing with the complications of a blood clot that forced him to also miss the rest of the season after the All-Star break.

This presents the first chance for Wembanyama and Fox to play together at full strength. The Spurs had their first 5-0 start in franchise history in October, but the ebbs and flows of the season have arrived quickly. Coach Mitch Johnson has cautioned that their offense will take some time to develop this season, especially as he figures out the right lineup combinations to provide effective spacing around his star big. The team has relied on reigning rookie of the year Stephon Castle and No. 2 pick Harper to run point, which has generally worked until the team goes iso heavy in crunch time.

Fox’s return also begins the evaluation process of the Spurs’ long-term backcourt. When the team acquired Fox, Castle was just starting to hit his stride en route to a rookie of the year campaign. Because Castle is more of a combo guard than a traditional point guard, the pairing made sense. The calculus changed when the Spurs won the second pick in June’s draft, where Harper appeared to be the obvious choice. He entered the league as one of the best point guard prospects of the decade and has confirmed the hype is real with his early-season play. Harper averaged 14 points on 50 percent shooting, 3.8 assists and 4 rebounds in six games before suffering his calf injury. That includes 12 points in just 11 minutes against the Suns before leaving the game in the middle of the second quarter.

Harper and Fox have enough redundancies in their game, along with Castle, that retaining all three players long-term does not fit with most proven roster development paradigms. The Spurs signed Fox to a four-year, $229 million maximum extension before the season, keeping him under contract through the 2029-2030 season. Wembanyama will be approaching his prime by then, while Castle and Harper should be mature enough to lead a contender at that point. The Spurs have a surplus of creation, which should help Wembanyama explore all the different ways he can grow as a creator and finisher on offense.

The Spurs have learned this past week that while they have a big decision to make down the road, Fox is their second most important player right now. This team has proven good enough to set the playoffs in their sights this season, all without their veteran point guard. With Fox back, the Spurs should expect their offense to take a big step forward.