A busy day in the NBA got even busier late Thursday night when word broke just before midnight that Malik Monk is returning to the Sacramento Kings. The guard is fresh off a career year, and he parlayed that performance into a four-year, $78 million contract. It's the maximum the Kings were able to pay.
Monk set new highs with 15.4 points, 5.1 assists and 2.9 rebounds per game in the 2023-24 campaign, which were well above his career averages of 11.6 points, 2.8 assists and 2.5 rebounds per game. Sacramento made sure other teams wouldn’t have a chance to snatch him away, locking him up well before June 30, when he could have negotiated with other franchises.
Monk provided an instant spark off the bench for Sacramento all year long. He led the league in points and assists off the bench, and finished second in Sixth Man of the Year voting just behind the Timberwolves' Naz Reid. The Minnesota center barely edged him out, finishing with 352 total votes to Monk’s 342. Reid also had 45 first-place votes while Monk finished with 43.
The veteran guard joined the Kings prior to the 2022-23 season, when he inked a two-year, $19 million deal. He played a role in turning the franchise’s fortunes around as they finished third in the Western Conference after not making the playoffs in 17 seasons. The Kings finished ninth in the West this past year but fell in the second round of the Play-In Tournament after Monk sprained his MCL shortly before the end of the regular season.
