Nick Crain | 4/19/23

The Sacramento Kings broke a 17-year playoff drought over the weekend as they took on the Golden State Warriors at home. In what has been a huge year for the Kings, they earned the No. 3 seed in the Western Conference with a record of 48-34. It took a series of key moves over the past few years to ultimately put this fantastic roster together that will look to make a deep playoff push.

One of the moves the Kings made during the offseason was signing Malik Monk in free agency. The 25-year-old is a former lottery pick that just never began to showcase just how special he could be until the last two seasons. He really broke out in the 2021-22 campaign with the Los Angeles Lakers, but has continued to shine this season in Sacramento.

With his increased performance over the past two seasons, Monk is a rising stock according to ProFitX models. When it comes to players that are really starting to emerge, he’s near the top of the list. In 77 games off the bench this season, he’s averaged 13.5 points and 3.9 assists per contest while shooting 35.9% from deep.

In fact, his on-court production right now is worth over 2x what he’s being paid by the Kings. Monk recently signed a two-year, $19 million deal with Sacramento and that’s already looking like an extremely team-friendly contract. For NBA teams, it’s all about putting the right pieces of the puzzle together at the right price. Over the past few years, that’s been something the Kings’ front office has been extremely good at en route to finally building a legitimate contender.

This should be a lesson learned for teams and players across the league, as some athletes take longer than others to get comfortable at the NBA level. For Monk, it even took a new team and system to really get into his groove last season in Los Angeles. Over the past two years, he’s steadily improved and has really gotten his career back on track. At the trajectory he is on, the 25-year-old should continue to get better and live up to the lottery pick that he once was. In the playoffs this season, he’s averaged 25 points per game in the first round, continuing to elevate his game in the biggest moments.