De’Aaron Fox From the Bench? 1 Specific Stat Shows Dylan Harper Can Contribute More With More Minutes

De’Aaron Fox recently game-for-the-spurs-success" target="_blank">spoke about sacrificing aspects of his own game to help the San Antonio Spurs reach their current level. Perhaps he can sacrifice even more, allowing coach Mitch Johnson to give Dylan Harper a larger role.

The Spurs are down 0-2 in the NBA Finals against the New York Knicks after costly mistakes in Game 2. They lost 105-104 despite four of their five starters scoring in double figures. Only Julian Champagnie failed to reach double figures, as he was limited to eight points.

Harper provided a strong contribution off the bench, finishing with 15 points, six rebounds, and three assists. He also recorded a steal and delivered several highlight-reel plays.

NBA reporter Evan Sidery shared a specific statistic from the Spurs’ losses and suggested that it was time for Johnson to make a change. However, the player he believes should be removed from the starting lineup is not Champagnie, but Fox.

The Spurs are outscoring the Knicks by 15.3 points per 100 possessions when Dylan Harper shares the court with Victor Wembanyama.

Needing to win three of the next four to force a Game 7 in the NBA Finals, it’s time to bench De’Aaron Fox in favor of Wembanyama’s long-term option. pic.twitter.com/KdUTbLAuts

— Evan Sidery (@esidery) June 6, 2026

Fox is a guard while Champagnie is a forward.

Dylan Harper of De’Aaron Fox

Fox recorded 20 points in the Game 2 loss. He scored 9 points in the first quarter which was two more points than his total output in Game 1.

However, they were still not enough. Some critics and reporters think Harper should be inserted into the starting five. He thinks they should take a cue from the time when Gregg Popovich decided to make team legend Manu Ginobili a part of the first five after being off the bench in his first eight years with the team.

He also thinks Harper can do better on defense against Jalen Brunson compared to the two-time All-Star.

“As smaller, All-Star guards go, Fox is a reasonably effective defender. But “reasonably effective” still translates to vulnerable against Brunson,” Sam Quinn of CBS Sports argued.

“Julian Champagnie turned into Brunson’s preferred target, and Fox held up reasonably well when Brunson found him. But Harper guarded Brunson across 14.4 partial possessions, according to NBA.com tracking data, and the most frequent feature of those possessions was New York trying to screen Harper off of him.”

Harper made a good account of himself as a starter in Game 1 of the Western Conference Finals with the Oklahoma City Thunder. It was Fox whom he replaced.