By Anthony Slater, Sam Amick and Mark Puleo
Malik Monk will remain in Sacramento. League sources confirmed that the high-scoring reserve player is expected to sign a new four-year contract worth $78 million, the maximum the Kings will allow him to, which includes a player option for his final season.
Here's the dollar amount per year on his new deal.
- 2024–25 – $17.4 million
- 2025-26 – $18.8 million
- 2026-27 – $20.2 million
- 2027-28- $21.6 million (player option)
Monk was the runner-up for the 2024 Sixth Man of the Year Award after averaging a career-high 15.4 points per game in 72 contests off the bench for Sacramento. His energy off the bench was key for the Kings, who went 46-39 and lost in the play-in tournament.
Monk also performed well as a distributor in 2023-24, averaging 5.1 assists per game and ranking tops in the league in assists per drive.
After being drafted by Charlotte in 2017 and then spending a year with the Los Angeles Lakers in 2021-22, Monk arrived in Sacramento in need of a fresh start in 2022 and found immediate success as a bench sparkplug. He finished fifth in Sixth Man of the Year voting in 2022-23 and 11th in Most Improved Player voting.
Sacramento signed Monk to a two-year, $19.4 million contract through 2022, but he opted out of that contract early.
After helping the Kings end their lengthy playoff drought in 2023, Monk's 2024 season ended poorly as he missed the final month of the season, including the team's play-in tournament games, due to a sprained right MCL.
“I could go somewhere else and make a lot more money and be in a worse situation,” Monk said after the season when asked about potentially receiving a bigger paycheck. “So you never know. I have a great agent who will do his job. I think my job is done, I did what I had to do this year. I think it's going to work out the right way.”
While he was controlling his emotions and seemed undecided about his future, he gave a straightforward answer when asked if he would like to wear a Kings jersey next season.
“Certainly,” said Monk without hesitation.
Why was this work done so quickly?
The new CBA rules allowed the Kings and Monk to begin negotiations the day after the Finals. In fact It was a simple presentation on Sacramento's part. Due to some financial restrictions, they were able to offer him the maximum of four years and $78 million. They incentivized this with a player option in the final season, allowing Monk to head back to free agency a bit earlier if his career trajectory continued to trend upward.
The Kings put the maximum offer on the table, and Monk – whose team Clearly surveyed the free agency landscape — decided it was enough to bring him back to the Kings, a place where he had blossomed and wanted to stay. — Anthony Slater, senior NBA writer
What does this mean for the Kings?
They bring back one of the league's most productive bench players, who is in his prime (26) and also keep four core members of their team together: De'Aaron Fox, Domantas Sabonis, Keegan Murray and Monk, who was terrific in the playoffs two seasons ago and might have been good enough to get them back to the playoffs in April if he hadn't missed the final stretch of the season with a sprained MCL. The Kings have the 13th pick in next week's draft and general manager Monte McNair has expressed a willingness to possibly use it in a trade if they can upgrade the roster. – Slater
What does this mean for the free agent market?,
it When a player returns home, it is always beneficial for other incoming free agents own The team got involved early in the process. This keeps more cap space and potential landing spots available. Monk didn't go to Orlando or Detroit or San Antonio or anywhere else, soaking up available cap space.
So that leaves potential landing spots open for players in similar areas to his, like Klay Thompson, D'Angelo Russell and James Harden. – Slater
Required Reading
(Photo: Justin Ford/Getty Images)