Malik Monk, as a rookie in the lottery area in 2017, did not develop well during the rookie contract, and was once banned by the team indefinitely for carrying **, but after running a four-year rookie contract, he joined the Lakers on a short-term contract in 2021-22, becoming a rare high-quality shooter for the Lakers, and was caught by the Kings on a two-year mid-range contract the following year, and was a key player in the team in the first year, and repeatedly performed with college brother Daron Fox to help the Kings enter the playoffs after 16 years.
This season Malik Munch went to the next level, 150 points, 52 assists, 0427's 3P% have reached a new career high, and they have maintained a high level recently, averaging nearly 18 points and 7 assists per game, and have the potential to challenge the sixth man of the year.
What exactly does Malik Munch mean to the king?His contract is about to expire at the end of this season, and the Kings are bound to want to renew Malik Monk, is there anything that can be prepared in advance?
The current situation of the king, the rotation is actually 4+2+35, 4 absolute main forces, 2 tactical main forces, plus 3-4 back-end rotations, regardless of the back-end rotation, Mike Brown has been trying to adjust, the first 6 are the main lineup of the Kings in the past two years, and it is these 6 main players who entered the playoffs last season.
Among them, the main tactical forces are Harrison Barnes and Kevin Huerter, both of whom are key tactical roles for the Kings, but their irreplaceability will be lower than the other four main players.
Among the four absolute main players, Keegan Murray's positioning is different from the other three, on the one hand, he is still in the development stage, and some playing styles are still gradually Xi learning and adjusting, on the other hand, he is mainly a POA and scorer, not a tactical starting point.
The king's main tactical launch point, everyone is known to be Daron Fox and Domantas Sabonis, in fact, it is more correct to say that Daron Fox + Domantas Sabonis + Malik Monk, under normal circumstances, the king will let Malik Monk completely run through the time of the break between Daron Fox and Domantas Sabonis (and Daron Fox and Domantas Sabonis are taking turns), that is, they will always keep two of them on the court.
Domantas Sabonis is one of the league's top three center-forwards, and his style of play is more dynamic than that of Nikola Jokic and Alperen Shinkyung, and his tactical value goes without saying, Daron Fox has a strong one-on-one ability, and in the playmaking part, it mainly comes from cutting in to attract the defense, and the passing that is more traditional for the commander to stand on the perimeter and wait for his teammates to run.
Malik Monk provided the third tactical launch type of the King, in fact, it is easy for the outside world to have a misunderstanding of Daron Fox and Domantas Sabonis, Daron Fox and Domantas Sabonis like to create opportunities with different rhythms, but the two do not like to play blocking, the Kings have been the team with the least number of blocks in the league for two consecutive years, and the biggest number of Kings blocking** is Malik Monk.
Malik Monk is actually the king's real favorite player, the king has a very extreme statistic this season, that is, there is a huge difference between players and players, among which when the king uses the bench lineup led by Daron Fox + Malik Monk, the pace is raised to 10648, the control group was the king's team this season with a pace of only 10090。
Basically, Malik Monk is a non-stop style of play, and as long as he is given a long man, he can think about launching an offensive in 0 seconds, which also makes the Kings more simple in the link of the substitute center, which does not require too many skills, and can block and dismantle Malik Monk.
Malik Monk in the first 15 games of the season, the two-point part fell into a low ebb, once as low as 4 percent, lower than the three-point shooting percentage, until recently it was relatively pulled back, but 0447 compared to career 0There is still a gap in the level of 506.
The two-point slump is that the Kings try to make Malik Monk more of an offensive initiator than a finisher, Malik Monk will use singles in some plays that can't be directly blocked, but singles are not Malik Monk's strong point, he has a lot of singles that twist in the air and look handsome, but the shooting percentage is not high.
On the one hand, such an attempt is also because Daron Fox is injured and missed, and the Kings' guard is in addition to Daron Fox, in essence, only Malik Monk has organizational ability, on the other hand, it is also at the beginning of the season that Mike Brown sent Chris Duarte and Davion Mitchell to the court in large numbers, and these two brothers played together, Malik Monk could only come by himself, but after Tre Lyles returned to the team and Mike Brown adjusted the rotation, it was better.
If there's anything about Malik Munch that has improved from last season?Last season was Malik Monk's first cameo role in his career, and he often started to spray when he was high, in fact, his win share was not outstanding, and he was in the latter part of the King's main rotation, which was similar to his previous season when he was with the Lakers, simply put, there were a lot of Malik Monk who came out to save the game, but in other periods, he was also easy to lose points.
On the one hand, Malik Monk has taken on more of the role of initiator or playmaker this season, and he has also been more adaptable, and his recent good performance has mainly come from the improvement of his sense of stability in control, and on the other hand, he has also been able to switch back to the role of shooter when paired with Daron Fox and Domantas Sabonis, allowing himself to reach a career high of 0 by 3p%.427, due to factors such as missing games and fouls, Malik Monk has played more minutes in Clutch Time this season than Daron Fox and Domantas Sabonis, and he is also the first on the team in scoring.
Before talking about the king's next layout, let's talk about some basic salary concepts, Malik Monk is an expiring contract this season, he signed a two-year contract with the king, and after expiration, he does not meet the bird right qualifications, only meets the early bird, so what the king can give Malik Monk is a contract with a starting point of 17.4 million and a total value of 80.06 million for up to four years, or 1+1 of the same number (two years about the second year player option), there is no other possibility.
That's a question I've been asked a lot lately, and a lot of teams are able to offer Malik Monk a bigger contract than the Kings because those teams have salary space in the summer, and the Kings can't have more salary space than early birds.
The league's team salary is roughly divided into 4 levels, under the new system, there is a salary ceiling of 90% of the poor ghost line setting, simply put, it can be regarded as as as long as it enters the opening season, no team has salary space, the lowest level is the poor ghost line to the team slightly higher than the salary ceiling, in this season there are 7 teams, except for the Magic and the Pacers, the other 5 teams are lying flat teams.
The next level is the teams that are significantly above the salary cap and not within the luxury tax range, and there is no way to define it very clearly, but the luxury tax is 16.5 billion, I'll catch 1 firstIf it is less than 600 million, there are 6 teams that meet the standard, and the king is in this range, and the team salary is 15.2 billion ranks 22nd in the league, and the King's salary is indeed low for a team at the playoff level, but it is still 13.6 billion is much higher, and it is necessary to be below the salary ceiling to sign people with salary space, and the king does not meet it.
The next two levels are the teams that are up and down the luxury tax and break through the second layer of the hard cap, so let's not talk too much about it here, just simply say that the teams that want to make a difference in the playoffs will rush to at least in the luxury tax range is the norm, and more than half of the teams in the league are at this standard (of course, there are a few teams that will be pressed on the edge to see if there are tax avoidance opportunities), so the Kings still have the need to increase the team's salary, and whether or not they succeed in renewing Malik Monk, they will definitely improve next season, because Domantas · Sabonis has changed his contract.
Then there is a possibility that the king can operate to clear the salary space?The answer is no, unless you don't want to play this season.
It's a simple math problem, and now the salary cap is expected to be 14.2 billion, even if the Kings can get the second round, base salary, and Chris Duarte and Davion Mitchell all get back to 0, only counting the 7 contractees other than Malik Monk, Daron Fox, Domantas Sabonis, Harrison Barnes, Kevin Huerter, Keegan Murray, Trey Lyles, Vychenkov, plus always 13.3 billion salary, the team salary needs to be calculated by 12 people, that is, 5 virtual basic salaries are added, and the salary ceiling will still be reached.
To put it more extremely, if one of Harrison Barnes or Kevin Huerter can also be attributed to 0, it is still impossible to open a larger contract than the early bird that Malik Monk can get, that is, if the Kings want to make up the salary space, Harrison Barnes and Kevin Huerter both have to try to return to 0, if they do, does it mean that they don't have to play this season?So it's an operation that doesn't have any possibilities, and the point is that it doesn't make sense.
The four-year or 1+1 that can only be given to Malik Munch for an early bird jump means that the king can't keep Malik Munch?The answer is not necessarily, in fact, this ** is competitive, here is a direct look at a few summer vacation just happened, but also under the new system of signing cases.
The Rockets poached Dillon Brooks with 85 million in 4 years, which is not much different from the early bird that the King can open to Malik Monk, basically just like this, he can't grab Malik Monk, and like the Pacers opened to Bruce Brown, the 1+1 of the team's option is even less attractive to Malik Monk, if he wants to take this card, it is better to get 1+1 with the King.
To snatch Malik Monk from the Kings, you have to at least get two 4-year 100 million contracts similar to Kyle Kuzma or Cameron Johnson, which may not be a reasonable number for Malik Monk's value, because although there are many teams with salary space in the summer of 2024, most of them are young teams in the rebuild. Monk may not be the player who fits the needs of these teams.
And even if it is 100 million in 4 years, it does not mean that it is more attractive than renewing the contract with the king, because as long as Malik Monk gets 1+1 with the king, he will get the bird right in the summer of 2025, and he can ignore the salary ceiling to renew the contract, and we don't need to emphasize too much about brother basketball, with the king's demand for Malik Monk, and this demand will continue to grow, plus the salary cap, luxury tax line, and hard cap continue to rise, it can be said that 100 million in 4 years is just the low standard that Malik Monk can expect to receive in the king.
Therefore, the King's renewal of Malik Monk's contract will only have an early bird contract in the summer of 2024, but this plan is not uncompetitive, and this matter is not 100% or 0%.
There are many rumors about the King's trade, and in fact, the King does have a layout to launch a trade, but it may not be the same as many people intuitively know.
First of all, the king can't move, it's 3 players, Daron Fox, Domantas Sabonis, and Keegan Murray, this article is not about Keegan Murray, so I won't talk too much about it, I can only say the names that are circulating in the market now, and it is a joke to want the king to pack Keegan Murray in. Murray is not only a high-quality shooter who has just hit the most consecutive three-pointers in NBA history, he is also a POA between 11-15 in the league's defense, various singles skills are still improving rapidly, and he is only about the second year of rookie shooting, and he has a full salary bonus.
Maybe Keegan Murray's ceiling expectations are lower than the original Tyrese Haliburton, but for the value of the Kings at this moment, Keegan Murray is even more than the original Tyrese Haliburton, and the Kings have been able to protect Daron Fox and Malik Monk in the bottom corner on the defensive end this season, because the work of the POA has shifted to Keegan Murray and Keane Ellis.
The probability of moving Malik Monk is not 0, but the chance is also very low, mainly because of the value perception of Malik Monk between buyers and sellers, because Malik Monk's salary this season is not high, and for the king, he can't exchange Malik Monk's salary for the player he wants, and the party who trades with the king, if he likes and wants Malik Monk, if there is no salary space, he can only fight early like the king, this matter itself is risky, and it is good to sign it in the summer vacation if there is salary space.
The Kings had salary space in the summer of 2023, but there was no favorite **fa at that time, so the Kings took a relatively conservative route, and one of the keys to this is to bring in Chris Duarte, in fact, when the Kings are all together, as now, there will be no place for Chris Duarte, this matter is not Chris Duarte is broken, he can't squeeze out Kevin Huerter or Malik in SG. Monk can only play up if he wants to play, and the king has Keegan Murray, Harrison Barnes, Trey Lyles, Vychenkov, just looking at the height difference, the 4 people are more than 203cm, there is no logic that Chris Duarte can play.
The King's introduction of Chris Duarte may have the expectation of trying to see, but a very important layer of logic is that "if necessary, Harrison Barnes and Kevin Huerter can be immediately converted into a salary package to bring in a ** star", and Chris Duarte is the record under this logic, if Kevin Huert is sent away, Malik Monk can be immediately on the throne, and Chris Duarte also enters the rotation.
To put it simply, the Kings keep their lineup in a state of being movable or immovable, but it will be Harrison Barnes and Kevin Huerter, these two I won't talk too much about here, but simply say that from the perspective of a salary package, it is already a very high-level salary package, which belongs to the type that can be used for own use or resale, and the salary is also good.
If the king wants to improve the success rate of renewing Malik Monk, the most feasible thing is actually to launch a trade to send Kevin Huerter away, so that Malik Monk can establish himself in the starting SG position, so that Malik Monk has a high chance of signing a 1+1 with the King, and Daron Fox will fight side by side for another 5 years, earn money, and fight for the championship.
So whether the Kings will launch a trade or not depends entirely on the one-on-one comparison of players in and out, here is one more thing to emphasize, at least the Kings have not touched the hard cap now, and at the time of the trade, they can recover 125% of the salary, that is to say, Harrison Barnes + Kevin Huerter, without considering adding Davion Mitchell or Chris Duarte, can already recover about 46 million salaries at most.
If the Kings position themselves at the level where they can enter the luxury tax like more than half of the teams in the league, and don't touch the second layer of hard caps, then no matter how the existing players are traded, it will not cause obstacles to subsequent operations, and the salary level has nothing to do with whether or not Malik Monk can be renewed, and the renewal of Malik Monk can only be used as a special case, so there is no need to worry about who the Kings have withdrawn, and it will be more difficult to renew Malik Monk.
And now these things are released on the market, such as the two that the Raptors are rumored to be, it is difficult to be the biggest reason for the king's goal, the king sacrificed Harrison Barnes positioning and ball possession, as well as salary in order to raise Keegan Murray, and now he has raised results, and then he wants to take the ball to take advantage of Keegan Murray's scores, this matter is essentially illogical, so the probability that the king will be involved in the Raptors trade is very low.
The standard of players that the Kings want to collect will be higher, and the real time to trade is not in the middle of the season, firstly, because the Kings obviously have good chemistry, there is no need to dismantle hard, they deserve to get another chance to fight for the playoffs and see if they can go further, if they can go to the next level, it is okay to continue to develop with this lineup as the main body, Daron Fox is now only on the edge of the ceiling, this season has exceeded 30 points per game, and Keegan Murray is still raising the ceiling of this team.
The second is that the Kings still owe the Hawks a first-round, as long as they enter the playoffs, they will cash out in the summer of 2024, and when this first-round card is cashed out, the Kings can open the chips of the real biggest package, the first round of 4+3, plus the powerful salary package, I use a very extreme analogy, if the Bucks and Brother Alphabet suddenly hit their heads after playing this season, the King's package plus Keegan Murray, even if it is used as a bargaining chip to trade Brother Alphabet, it can be regarded as a package with a lot of strength.
And that point in time is also the real time to talk to Malik Munch about 1+1.
The two Kings of the Raptors won't want it, and Lauri Markkanen is the chip that the Kings can't get if they want to change it, and as for Zach LaVine, if this package will be successful, it will be the Bulls who want to include Alex Caruso, which is another very complicated topic, and it mainly depends on the Bulls' views on their young players and future plans, so I won't say more about it for now.