{"id":82217,"date":"2024-06-21T01:02:45","date_gmt":"2024-06-21T05:02:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=82217"},"modified":"2024-06-21T01:02:45","modified_gmt":"2024-06-21T05:02:45","slug":"nba-free-agency-kings-bring-back-beloved-backcourt-scorer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/06\/21\/nba-free-agency-kings-bring-back-beloved-backcourt-scorer\/","title":{"rendered":"NBA Free Agency: Kings to Bring Back Beloved Backcourt Scorer"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>After having a career season, free agent guard <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/m\/monkma01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Malik Monk<\/a> \u201cintends to sign a four-year, $78 million deal\u201d to return to the Sacramento Kings, per ESPN\u2019s Adrian Wojnarowski. Monk began negotiating a new deal with the Kings after <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/wojespn\/status\/1803988189582946706\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">the conclusion of<\/a> the 2024 NBA Finals, Wojnarowski adds. The contract includes a player option that would allow him to re-enter free agency in 2027.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">ESPN Sources: Free agent G Malik Monk intends to sign a four-year, $78 million deal \u2014 including a player option \u2014 to return to the Sacramento Kings. Monk had career-bests of 15 points and five assists on his way to the NBA\u2019s Sixth Man of the Year runner-up. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/J8KuOwPl0H\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/J8KuOwPl0H<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/wojespn\/status\/1803987986482155933?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">June 21, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>In 2023-24, Monk averaged career-highs of 15.4 points and 5.1 assists per game on a .564 true shooting percentage. For the second straight season, he was named a Sixth Man of the Year candidate. In fact, he was <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/04\/24\/2024-nba-sixth-man-of-the-year-winner-announced-naz-reid-minnesota-timberwolves\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">the runner-up for the award<\/a>, many believing him to be the favorite before a knee injury abbreviated his season.<\/p>\n<h2>Kings to Bring Back Beloved Backcourt Scorer<\/h2>\n<p>A shifty and springy shot-creator who is still developing as a facilitator, the Kings are a stronger team with Monk in the fold. It doesn\u2019t hurt that he shares a friendship with franchise point guard <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/f\/foxde01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">De\u2019Aaron Fox<\/a>. Teammates with Fox at blue blood Kentucky, their chemistry shows up on and off the court.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"De&#039;Aaron Fox &amp; Malik Monk &quot;DYNAMIC BACKCOURT&quot; Moments \ud83d\udc51\ud83d\udd25\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/ytZVJzcenJ4?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Due to Monk\u2019s defensive limitations, he and Fox are unlikely to ever start together in the backcourt. Nonetheless, over the past two seasons, the only players who Fox has lined up alongside more than Monk <em>are<\/em> the starters. In 2023-24, Fox played more minutes alongside Fox (1,099) than starting shooting guard Kevin Huerter (1,069).<\/p>\n<p>With that being said, if Monk does want to be promoted to the starting lineup, he has a fighter\u2019s chance. The Kings are <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/06\/18\/nba-rumors-kings-wizards-discuss-kyle-kuzma-trade\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">rumored to be offering<\/a> Huerter and Harrison Barnes in trades. Washington Wizards forward Kyle Kuzma and Chicago Bulls guard Zach LaVine have emerged as their top targets.<\/p>\n<p>Of course, if Sacramento lands LaVine, he\u2019ll line up alongside the starters. However, if they haul in Kuzma instead, it could open the door for Monk.<\/p>\n<p>Again, there are defensive concerns with he and Fox in the backcourt, in part due to Monk\u2019s lack of size. Still, with teams like the Boston Celtics, New York Knicks, Milwaukee Bucks, and Cleveland Cavaliers also starting smallish backcourts, they aren\u2019t necessarily going against the grain. The duo will be streaky, both players shooting below 36 percent from 3 in three of the past five seasons. Yet, at their best, they can deliver plenty of damage from beyond the arc.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>After having a career season, free agent guard Malik Monk \u201cintends to sign a four-year, $78 million deal\u201d to return to the Sacramento Kings, per ESPN\u2019s Adrian Wojnarowski. Monk began negotiating a new deal with the Kings after the conclusion of the 2024 NBA Finals, Wojnarowski adds. The contract includes a player option that would [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5008,"featured_media":82223,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[29,1608,62,3],"tags":[664,1600,700,297,4557],"class_list":["post-82217","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-kings","category-basketball","category-nba","category-news","tag-deaaron-fox","tag-kevin-huerter","tag-malik-monk","tag-nba-free-agency","tag-nba-offseason"],"modified_by":"Quenton S Albertie","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82217","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5008"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=82217"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82217\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/82223"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=82217"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=82217"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=82217"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}