Sacramento Kings guard Malik Monk has ‘grown up’ to become Sixth Man of the Year candidate
Malik Monk went from being one of the most explosive players in college basketball to struggling to get on the court in the NBA.
Now with the Sacramento Kings, Monk is finding his stride as a potential Sixth Man of the Year candidate, an evolution which he can trace to being humbled by former head coach Steve Clifford during his rookie season with the Charlotte Hornets.
“One thousand percent, man,” Monk said. “That year with Cliff definitely molded me to who I am right now.”
The Hornets drafted Monk with the No. 11 pick in 2017, which was considered a slip down the board at the time. With the Kentucky Wildcats, Monk was named SEC Player of the Year and Freshman of the Year during his only college season, which included a 47-point performance against the eventual national champion North Carolina Tar Heels.
Monk was unquestionably one of the top scorers in his class, but wound up getting drafted after Frank Ntilikina, Dennis Smith Jr. and Zach Collins, who were selected eighth, ninth and 10th.
But for the first time in his basketball life, Monk wasn’t the best player on the floor when he got to the NBA. The former high school All-American struggled with consistency under Clifford, who is notoriously tough on young players, and would back up 20-point performances with games in the single digits. As the season wore on, Monk often played fewer than 10 minutes per game and sometimes did not play at all.
It’s hardly a unique story for NBA players, many of whom go from a big fish in a small pond to being thrown into the ocean as a professional. It’s the ability to evolve and adapt that often defines those players’ success or failures.
Monk finished off his rookie campaign averaging just 13.6 minutes per game while struggling to find a rhythm, shooting just 36% from the floor despite posting a reasonable 34.2% clip from 3-point range, an area where he excelled in college. He averaged just 6.7 points and 1.4 assists.
Clifford, now in his second stint coaching the Hornets, was in Sacramento for Monday’s game. He said he had a conversation with Monk last season while he was in the midst of his best NBA season with the Los Angeles Lakers.
“He just told me, ‘I get it now,’” Clifford said. “You know, ‘I’ve grown up. I’ve matured. I’ve been through it.’”
Clifford has made it clear over the years he’s not in favor of the way the AAU circuit or current college landscape impacts the development of players. He believes modern NBA prospects are perhaps the best they’ve ever been individually, but they are lacking the fundamentals and “basketball IQ” players of previous generations had when they spent multiple years in college with the same programs.
“To be honest,” Clifford said of Monk, “he wasn’t ready to play in the NBA.”
When Monk was asked this week about transitioning from the limelight of starring at Kentucky, alongside current Kings teammate De’Aaron Fox, to transitioning to a scant NBA role, he interrupted the question being asked.
“Yeah, not playing,” Monk said. “It was hard, man. Probably the most difficult things I’ve ever done in my life, trying to keep a straight, level head through that whole process. Because I knew I was gonna come back on the flip side, so that was the biggest (challenge).”
The Kings signed Monk this offseason to a two-year, $19 million contract after a year with the Lakers, and he’s quickly proven to be worth the money to provide a spark off the bench. The team has been impressed by Monk’s overall playmaking — he ranks sixth among NBA reserves with 3.9 assists per game — to match his scoring. Monk has averaged a career-best 14.6 points per game to rank fifth among bench players.
Kings coach Mike Brown has pined for Monk to be in the Sixth Man of the Year conversation throughout the young season. Monk is tied for third on the team with seven 20-point games behind only Fox and Domantas Sabonis. And while the overall sample sizes are small, most of the Kings’ most effective lineups include Monk playing with the starters.
Some of the knocks on Monk during his four seasons in Charlotte had to do with maturity — he was suspended from February to June 2020 for violating the NBA’s anti-drug program — leading to not having much of a market when he hit unrestricted free agency prior to last season before he signed with the Lakers.
There, Monk had a resurgence of sorts, posting a career season across the board. He was coveted by Kings general manager Monte McNair over the summer and signed with Sacramento on July 6.
Brown’s new-look offense with the Kings is known for emphasizing pace and space. But he also prioritizes paint touches, breaking down a defender and getting into the lane to either shoot or create opportunities for others. That’s where the 24-year-old Monk, listed at 6-foot-3, has excelled with the Kings.
“He gets into the paint so easy,” Brown said. “And he’s explosive, he’s athletic, he’s quick. He’s got all types of tricks around the hoop and so he could finish with the best of them. He can make tough passes with the best of them.
“But one of the things that we really preach on offensively, especially when we touch the paint, is the spray 3, or the spray to swing (pass). He’s gotten better at that from the standpoint he’s not taking as many risks as he was before. And that’s a fine line because you don’t want to put any constraints on him, because he’s going to make great plays that can help you win more than the opposite.”
To be sure, Monk’s turnover rate per 100 possessions is a career worst 13.6, but he’s playing in an offense that requires more passing and movement than he’s had at any other point in his career. The team believes Monk is continuing to grow into one of its best playmakers to complement Fox and Sabonis.
“I think if you asked him, I think he just didn’t realize how much work it took, how good players are,” Clifford said of Monk’s growth. “I don’t think it’s so much his game — it’s more his approach and understanding how hard it is to play in this league.”
Monk agreed.
“It’s a job,” Monk said. “It’s really a job. It’s really a nine to five. You can’t look at it like anything else.”
