Malik Monk was widely considered a great bargain last season for the Los Angeles Lakers. Following four underwhelming campaigns in Charlotte, Monk got another chance next to LeBron James, Anthony Davis and Russell Westbrook, and he shined in his only season in Los Angeles.
Monk finished the season averaging career bests in points (13.8), rebounds (3.4), assists (2.9) and minutes (28). He also shot 47% from the field and 39% from three. According to Cleaning The Glass, the Lakers Efficiency Differential was a +6.6 with Monk the floor and a +10 in terms of points per 100 possessions.
The Kings signed Monk on a two-year, $19 million deal, which also could be considered a bargain for a 24-year-old who showed he might have just been a late bloomer. His three-point shooting is obviously the biggest benefit to his game, and it helps solve a real problem the Kings had last season. As De’Aaron Fox and Domantas Sabonis attack the paint, Monk will often be left open for kick-outs. That isn’t the only way Monk could help the Kings though. He has improved in his playmaking ability in terms of his passing and attacking off the dribble. He also should serve as a good complement to Fox, Sabonis and Keegan Murray on the fast break.
Let’s take a look.
Playmaking
Monk improved his assist numbers with the Lakers as the season went on. From March 1 to the end of the season he averaged close to 4 assists per game. And when the season concluded and he reflected, he spoke about how he thought he matured as a player and how this aspect of his game was part of that.
“Just being an all-around player, not just focusing on putting the ball in the basket. … Trying to rebound, trying to get other guys involved. Just playmaking, just more mature. I think I got a more mature game than my last four years,” he said.
We shouldn’t get too carried away because Monk is a shooter before he is a playmaker, but he is capable as a third or fourth option in that regard. The Lakers used him in the pick and roll at times.
And because of his speed he is able to blow by defenders if they try to guard him tight to prevent the three.
If a big tries to come out on him he can get by him and quickly get to the basket.
Plus, he can create his own shot if he needs to.
Monk’s playmaking ability in spurts has the potential to make the Kings offense more unpredictable and dynamic. He can be a little sporadic in terms of production though. He had three, 7+ game streaks of double digit scoring last season, but he also had 21 games with 7 points or less.
The Fast Break
When it comes to the fast break, Monk will add another element to the Kings arsenal.
Athleticism has always been one of Monk’s calling cards. And this is another thing the Kings lacked last season. It wasn’t a particularly athletic roster, which often made Chimezie Metu stand out when he got minutes. With Monk the Kings have someone as part of the main rotation who can help keep that athletic pressure on defenses next to Fox.
Monk make 67% of his shots around the rim last season, which was in the 91st percentile for combo guards in the 2021-22 campaign.
Plus, Fox and Monk will be reunited after their one season in Kentucky when they both looked like athletic avengers.
Now, we can’t talk about all this exciting stuff without bringing up the obvious – defense is something this team will still need. If Monk, who is on the smaller side at 6’3’’, is the starter next to Fox then they will need to put a lot of focus into defense because neither of them have the greatest track record in that category. Monk knows he needs to step it up in that regard.
“I think I need to do a little bit more on the defensive end, but that was the first words Monte [McNair], Mike [Brown] and everybody said to me when they called me was, ‘you’ve got to pick it up on the defensive end.’ I think that is what I am going to carry over the most from last year that I didn’t do,” Monk said Friday in his introductory press conference with the Kings.
The effective field goal percentage of Lakers opponents last season when Monk was on the floor was +1% better, so I guess that isn’t terrible, but clearly Monk can improve.
With the additions of Monk, Kevin Huerter and Murray, the Kings offense should be pretty fun to watch. If the group, starting with Fox, can put effort into defense then this team could be even more fun to watch. Kings general manager Monte McNair addressed the defense in Friday’s presser also.
“We have to improve on both sides of the ball, we’ve talked with Coach Brown about that, he’s addressed it at his press conference. Our team is going to defend, but we have to score as well, and we’ve got to improve on both ends. I think last year, neither side of the ball was up to par,” McNair said. “We think these two guys [Monk and Kevin Huerter] will help. We all know about their shooting, but I think defensively underrated and guys that Coach Brown is excited to get on the floor and see what they can do on both ends.”
We shall see.
Chemistry at last!
Seriously.
D’arotomic Monklecule!
Those Kentucky highlights blow me away every time. Fox and Monk look like superheroes playing against mere mortals.
And thanks for all of the more recent clips! I hadn’t forgotten how good of an athlete Monk was, but I think not having seen him play much since getting to the NBA, I may have failed to fully appreciate how damned springy he is.
The take foul is gone, and the Kings are going to score a dozen points a game because of it.
With the Lakers being a shit-show, I watched more of their games last year than ever before. Monk and Reeves were standouts for that team. Monk has surprising hops.
Monk was my pick at 10 back in ‘17 (spoiler: I would have left Bam, OG & John Collins, among others, on the board, so…). I envisioned him as having the potential to become a B-Jax type player, kind of a 1.5 to 1.75. I’m looking forward to seeing him on the floor this year – it seems that between Fox, Huerter, Mitchell, Monk & maybe even Davis, the Kings will spend a bit of time rolling out a small ball lineup.
Fox, Monk, Davis, and Mitchell are four of the quickest guys in the league. With Sabonis’ rebounding and great passing, it’s going to look like a track meet out there. You love to see it.
Obviously we know with Vlade, no brainers seem like rocket science but I have no idea how he didn’t take the duo out of UK. Once we took Fox I thought it was automatic even though I personally wanted Mitchell at 10, but I was fine with Monk. Ultimately, we ended up with the more developed version of him so whatever I suppose haha.
Malik was never a high usage guy until last season, 28.1 minutes/game. Maybe he is a late bloomer. We’ll see. Sometimes players come into the league too early. He’s only 24, yet coming into his 6th season
It will be interesting to see how the Kings use him. There’s a lot of options to mix and match at the guard position.
Your latest Sasha Vezenkov news from Greek radio:
Interesting. Taking that with Monte’s “we don’t think we’re done yet” it makes me very curious. What’s up Monte’s purple polo sleeves?
Appreciating these updates, Zen. Thanks!
My god! The Linas Kleiza?
He can come here, or he can stay there, I don’t know if it matters. I wouldn’t break my wallet, let alone the bank, to get SV here. It’s the biggest show on Earth, and if you prove yourself for a year or two, you’ll gain generational wealth.
Despite all of this, I don’t know that he’s actually serious about making the jump.
Screams agent leverage on alot of fronts.
I might be wrong but I FEEL that his reluctance is due to fear- his rights have been owned since 2017- so he must had shown some talent then- why not try to make the jump? and why not now when he is at height of skills?
If he is any good, he comes over, plays and the other guys get benched or traded. Prove yourself already. Risk averse.
or- his agent is doing the big leverage thing- for more $.
We’re packed, babeeeeee!
Those Fox and Monk clips are crazy. Monk looks like he’s gonna jump over the backboard in the last one.
That’s more L*ker’s highlights then I’d Iike to see, but appreciate what he’ll bring to the table. Interested to see if he and Fox gel as much as they did in college. We’re slowly putting together a respectable team! Not going to get too excited but looking forward to the season.
Good write-up. Plenty of reason for optimism.
Still not sure we have a play-in roster, but it’s been hard not to get excited for the upcoming season with all of the offseason moves. Finally seeing the Kings receive love from the national media just adds to the excitement/optimism.
Genuinely terrific content again Blake, thanks for the effort.
Monk is such a dynamic player, and the Kings have not had much in that regard besides Fox for a couple of years.
Thanks for reading!
J/k, here we go +100% optimism and +10 wins improvement baby
I like Monk.
Hate seeing his old jersey all over this web page. Horrific in so many ways.
Agreed. We need pics of him in the Royal garb stat.
Looking forward to see what he can do.
BTW most annoying thing about this site is even though I check “keep me logged in” when I log in, I still have to log in every day. Sometimes I’ll want to comment and the login prompt comes up. I’ll just say fuck it and forget about making a comment
I don’t have this problem using Chrome. Could it be the browser? Some setting on your browser that keeps a site from recognizing your status?
Chrome both on my pc and phone. Don’t have this with other websites
It happens to me too, but I can’ replicate it enough to determine the cause. Sometimes it will make me enter my password everyday for week, other times, I can go a week without having to enter my password. It happens more often on my phone than my PC.
The downside of being an independent website.
Can you test and see if this is still happening?
Excellent article Blake, much appreciated.
Thanks for reading!
What a matchup Keegan Murray vs Chet holmgren! We’re gonna have a dandy as we watch the future of the league battle it out for a summer league chip
Keegan winning the battle so far
He killed it..
He played a lot of minutes but I’m not gonna complain about it
Can anyone here tell me why there’s a couple days between articles at this site. The last game was not even covered. The Kings beat the Pacers by the way. I love these articles profiling our players , why aren’t the games covered in a timely manner. A post on the game should be out that night , or the next morning at the latest. Are your writers on vacation?
What are you paying to receive such service?
You seem to be good at posting this question. I suggest you actually read the answers. You got plenty in the previous thread you asked this.
What was the reasoning?
I’m assuming articles aren’t posted too often due to the writers having actual jobs and lives…but it wouldn’t kill them to have open threads for games and perhaps a daily open thread. Even if the daily open thread doesn’t get a ton of comments, I’m guessing it would generate some ad revenue.
I was wondering why there wasn’t an article on that game. Never saw an explanation
Feel like you answered you own question and that was given in other threads. Also obviously the site operators don’t feel it is worth the while. Judging by comments or lack thereof in other threads about summer league I would tend to agree.
I guess my biggest gripe is someone (not you) coming in here consecutive days bitching about updated content and not being a Patreon supporter. I mean there is an easy way to help the lack of content if one is so inclined.
Not saying everyone has to be a Patreon, but geez if those comments don’t come off to me as not very self aware. There are other free options for Kings content if one so chooses. Prolly a reason we all congregate here though. My two cents.
I’m very appreciative of this site, the community and the content creators. I too was checking during the pacers game and this game to see if there were threads and was wondering why at least an open thread wasn’t created. I’m not able to watch the games so I like to read the comments from those of us who do. Reading through game threads especially on a win or a game where our rookie puts up 29, that’s the kind of stuff my sorry kings fan self looks forward to. I know it’s Vegas and slightly pathetic but I’ll take what I can get with this team. Shit, I’m bummed we probably won’t be getting that summer league ring. Seriously, I’ll take what I can get.
btw I’m a patreon supporter. Guess my badge just isn’t showing up for some reason…
The badges do show up to the community. When I comment I am unable to see my own badges. I also recall a couple of weeks ago the writers mentioning when they did post about the greatest game in summer league history they rarely write post game articles because it’s summer league.
I appreciate all the writers here and their commitment to this community and am hopefully optimistic I win $5mm after my $10k bet. Go Kings!
I don’t see my own badges, either, after I immediately post, but they show up a few minutes later on that same post.
I don’t see my own badges, either, after I immediately post, but they show up a few minutes later on that same post. Or, you can refresh the page to see them immediately.
Bro, it’s summer league, chill out. Go to STR or reddit or something lol
We get it’s summer league. Tbf it probably would take one of the writers 2 to 3 minutes to put up an empty open thread for a game. I get the dude’s point but just not gonna complain much.
It takes less time to sign up for a TKH Patreon membership!
An empty game thread is the easiest post I can make, but it still takes more than a couple minutes. Recaps are a lot more involved because they require someone to sit down and watch the whole game and then write it up. Life is busy for me right now, and historically speaking there is very little interest in game threads or recaps for summer league games. So, apologies, but the reason is that life happens and summer league is mostly meaningless.
That said, we still try to cover the broad strokes. As SL winds down we’ll write up a review of Murray’s performance overall, and might have a piece on Queta as well. We already have a piece on Ellis that Brenden wrote.
&ct=g
Little of column A, little of column B
i don’t take issue with the lack of threads, but perhaps a worthwhile compromise might be to open up a thread for the entirety of Summer League so those can comment can there. Just open the thread at the start of the CA Classic and keep it at the top of the page (assuming you have the ability to do so on this format) until the end of Summer League.
But like I said, if that’s been considered and rejected I understand that too.
I mean, people can discuss an ongoing summer league game in whatever the top post is at any given time
And people do do that. I’m not pointing fingers here, was just offering up a thought. Obviously you aren’t doing it so it is what it is.
Lol, do do.
If you stopped before you posted this you actually seemed decent and reasonably intelligent.
Is what it is…..
When have you ever written anything related to the topic of the article or thread?
There’s actually been quite a lot of involvement in the summer league game threads this year
Just a suggestion. Is it possible to automate the creation of “Open thread for the Day” that can be used to discuss any topic?
The authors put in so much effort to write excellent articles and half the comments under the article are from the latest hot topic rather than the article itself.
this was a great breakdown.
Can’t wait till you use non Lakers pictures for him
Looks like Ayton signing a max offer sheet with Indy.
I think Ayton and Hali will be really nice in the pick and roll together. Let’s see what happens with Turner now
My blind arse guess is Phx will match. $133m / 4 yrs. might be a bit of an overpay, but it’s not an albatross, and Ayton could always be moved later. On the other hand, Sarver is a kook.
He’s also the kook who made Jones and that FO take Ayton in the first place.
You’re right. They might match.
Would a sign and trade still be on the table? Turner and parts sounds like an OK haul for the suns. Turner fits in really well for their squad methinks
Nah they can’t once he signs an offer sheet. If they match they can only trade him starting Jan 15 to other teams besides Ind and a year later to Ind
I really enjoy these video breakdowns Blake so thank you. What excites me about Monk is that he is perhaps a better playmaker. I have a feeling Monk comes off the bench as the 6th man (that’s exciting right there) and Huerter starts. But man, having those two on the court with Murray, Sabonis and Fox has the potential for a lot of fun offense.
Incidentally, I was reading Seth Partnow’s tier rankings and Fox and Sabonis are both in tier 4 (Fox is 4B, Sabonis is 4A). It’ll be interesting to see where they might end up if the Kings end up around 45 wins and in the playoffs. But I suspect they both might end up in tier 3 (and if DeAaron has the year I think he’s going to have he might be squarely in tier 2).
Be fun to watch either way if it works, and certainly Monk will be a big part of that. Thanks again Blake.
Thanks for reading!
Since there’s no new threads..????????
I’d like to introduce myself to the community. I’m Jon, but my friends call me MacDoogs. Just dont call me Shirley.
Became a Kings fan because the older kid who I played ball with was a diehard who would always talk about them and over time my love grew too. Started watching in maybe 03? Have been an everyday lurker since probably 08 when I discovered STR and I’ve been hooked to this wonderful, dysfunctional community ever since.
Reading such well thought out and in depth articles and comments from Ziller, Aykis, Section, Pookey(Kings) and so many more of you have made being a fan of this team worth the heartache over the years. Just wanted to formally say, sup yall
Welcome!
Welcome to Basketball Hell, Jon!
Can’t put too much stock into summer league but I would not be surprised at all if Eason started over Jabari to start the season at pf
According to real gm, KZ Okpala has agreed to a 2 year deal with the Kings. Familiar with Mike brown from the Nigerian team.
Time for me to figure out who he is!
https://twitter.com/JandersonSacBee/status/1548018741568348165?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Etweet
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