Elite athlete Malik Monk will continue sixth man role for Kings

Four of the five spots in the starting lineup of the Sacramento Kings to begin the 2024-25 season are set. Those spots will be filled by De'Aaron Fox, Keegan Murray, Domantas Sabonis and newly-acquired six-time NBA All-Star DeMar DeRozan.

Coach Mike Brown has not made a final determination as to who the fifth starter will be. However, the coach said it wouldn't be Malik Monk, even though Monk is a prolific scorer and the team's best athlete. Rather, the fifth starter will be either Keon Ellis or Kevin Huerter.

As reported by the Sacramento Bee , "Monk, the runner-up for the Sixth Man of the Year award last season, will likely reprise his role as one of the NBA’s most explosive and impactful reserves."

The 26-year-old sky-walking 6-foot-3 shooting guard is entering his eighth season in the league and his third with the Kings.

In his one year of collegiate ball at Kentucky, Monk was an All-American and paired with Fox to lead the Wildcats to the Elite Eight in the NCAA tournament. An explosive scorer, Monk poured in 47 points against the North Carolina Tar Heels in a regular season game on Dec. 17, 2016.

Drafted No. 11 overall in the 2017 NBA Draft, Monk played four seasons with the Charlotte Hornets and one with the Los Angeles Lakers before signing a two-year deal with the Kings on July 6, 2022.

In 2023-24, Monk was Sacramento's third-leading scorer , behind only Fox and Sabonis. In a game against the Minnesota Timberwolves on March 1, Monk took over, scoring 39 points and leading the Kings to a thrilling overtime victory.

On July 6, 2024, exactly two years after signing with the Kings, Monk re-signed with Sacramento, inking a four-year, $78 million deal . Monk has become a fan favorite in Sacramento.

In the same Sacramento Bee article , Monk says his decision to bypass free agency and stay with the Kings is based on "the love he feels from the city and the Kings organization."

Although Monk has come off the bench in each of the 149 games he has played for the Kings, he is usually on the court to close out games in crunch time.

Coach Brown explained Monk's critical importance to the team, comparing him to historically excellent sixth men and stressing that Monk is typically on the court at finishing time:

"I've been fortunate, blessed, lucky, however you want to call it, to coach two of the best sixth men out there in Manu Ginobili (San Antonio Spurs) and Andre Iguodala (Golden State Warriors). They won eight championships between the two of them. Seven of them were won as sixth men. Being around two Hall of Fame coaches in Steve Kerr and Gregg Popovich, and to have the luxury of having that pop come off the bench, is something every team dreams of. We're fortunate enough to have that luxury, and at the end of the day, it’s not about who starts stuff. It's about who finishes stuff, and that will be a telltale sign in my opinion. "