We "Don't" Want the Monk: The Malik Monk Thread

[316Hornets]

I'm not nearly as down on Monk as a lot of you are. In my opinion, he's doing exactly what he needs to do; get a feel for NBA style defense. His shot selection is what it is. The true evaluation will be whether he can make the proper adjustments. I'd like to see him shoot more, maybe give him the start and give Kemba some rest.

[Radu_Hornets]

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The shot selection did not change...

[geraldwallace]

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[geraldwallace]

Ya'll are such idiots for hating on this kid

[fatlever]

great listen on monk. sums up my feelings. awful from monk last 6 games, awful on coaches for letting him play that way, awful on player dev, agree 100%. another reason for cliff to go along w/ all front office on basketball side.

https://cms.megaphone.fm/channel/buzz-beat?selected=ADL8093931491
#57 Chuck Your Heart Out

start at 20:35 for monk talk

[MasterIchiro]

This board was 100% wrong about Kemba being destined to become a 6th man.

Monk is an unconscious chucker, a maniac obsessed with scoring the ball at all times. When they start going in, history will repeat.

[fatlever]

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[Diop]

This board was 100% wrong about Kemba being destined to become a 6th man.

Monk is an unconscious chucker, a maniac obsessed with scoring the ball at all times. When they start going in, history will repeat.

I like to think a lot of us just hold the players accountable. We have criticised and praised every player in this god damned franchise.

[HoopsMalone]

My new nickname for him is Lil' Elvis

He's always jumping and jiving around the court doing the jitterbug treating the coaches like a bunch of flapper girls while the defenders are doing the 'ole Betty Baroo

[catch20two]

Zach Lowe on Monk’s shot selection.

8. Malik Monk, stepping back

Has anyone told Monk you don't get extra points for step-back jumpers? This isn't springboard diving -- there is no degree-of-difficulty bonus.

I'm not sure I've ever seen a player -- perhaps not even young J.R. Smith, Monk's obvious NBA soulmate -- who loves step-back jumpers so much.


Dude, you just burned Mike Muscala with a pump fake, and there is plenty of time on the shot clock! You are allowed to keep driving. You might dunk! You might open up a drive-and-kick triple for a teammate! But Monk cannot resist the siren song of the step-back.

He doesn't just step-back for 3s, either. Monk will happily slide back from floater range into a long 2-pointer.

Steve Clifford has never seen anything like this. I mean, look at that entire sequence. It is glorious. Monk just kind of meanders, bobbing back and forth with zero endgame in mind beyond "shoot."

Monk has prodigious talent. A lot of teams were ready to snap him up had the Charlotte Hornets passed. He just turned 20, and has barely played in the NBA -- or in the G League, where he has strangely appeared in just one game. He doesn't understand what is happening around him yet.

Monk should grow into a good player. What he is now is not representative of what he will be in five years. But the journey from here to there is going to be interesting -- and cost his coaches some hair.

http://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/22872716/zach-lowe-10-things-like-including-lebron-james-kevin-love-nba

[Liver_Pooty]

Zach Lowe on Monk’s shot selection.

8. Malik Monk, stepping back

Has anyone told Monk you don't get extra points for step-back jumpers? This isn't springboard diving -- there is no degree-of-difficulty bonus.

I'm not sure I've ever seen a player -- perhaps not even young J.R. Smith, Monk's obvious NBA soulmate -- who loves step-back jumpers so much.


Dude, you just burned Mike Muscala with a pump fake, and there is plenty of time on the shot clock! You are allowed to keep driving. You might dunk! You might open up a drive-and-kick triple for a teammate! But Monk cannot resist the siren song of the step-back.

He doesn't just step-back for 3s, either. Monk will happily slide back from floater range into a long 2-pointer.

Steve Clifford has never seen anything like this. I mean, look at that entire sequence. It is glorious. Monk just kind of meanders, bobbing back and forth with zero endgame in mind beyond "shoot."

Monk has prodigious talent. A lot of teams were ready to snap him up had the Charlotte Hornets passed. He just turned 20, and has barely played in the NBA -- or in the G League, where he has strangely appeared in just one game. He doesn't understand what is happening around him yet.

Monk should grow into a good player. What he is now is not representative of what he will be in five years. But the journey from here to there is going to be interesting -- and cost his coaches some hair.

http://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/22872716/zach-lowe-10-things-like-including-lebron-james-kevin-love-nba

That about sums it up.

[MasterIchiro]

Again MKG is in year 6. I think Monk hit more threes in one quarter than MKG hit in his career. In the face of the game changing to a perimeter one, I can't reconcile this double standard. I mean... give the kid 6 months of full time minutes. I'm not asking for 6 years. The new GM won't be trading him.

[Diop]

Again MKG is in year 6. I think Monk hit more threes in one quarter than MKG hit in his career. In the face of the game changing to a perimeter one, I can't reconcile this double standard. I mean... give the kid 6 months of full time minutes. I'm not asking for 6 years. The new GM won't be trading him.

what an odd comparison and statement.

MKG wasn't drafted as a gun scorer and his defence and effort has helped the team, it's the only reason the most of us have stomached him. If Batum and Marv are firing, you can carry his hopeless ass on defense. We are getting sick of it though.

We wished more from Monk, but he really doesn't fit Cliffords style. Mitchell kinda chucked Utah out of an overtime win today, no way in hell Clifford would allow that.
As always we all hope he stars next year, relax with your own narrative and getting aggressive with others for being disappointed or criticising someone you like.

[MasterIchiro]

Again MKG is in year 6. I think Monk hit more threes in one quarter than MKG hit in his career. In the face of the game changing to a perimeter one, I can't reconcile this double standard. I mean... give the kid 6 months of full time minutes. I'm not asking for 6 years. The new GM won't be trading him.

what an odd comparison and statement.

MKG wasn't drafted as a gun scorer and his defence and effort has helped the team, it's the only reason the most of us have stomached him. If Batum and Marv are firing, you can carry his hopeless ass on defense. We are getting sick of it though.

We wished more from Monk, but he really doesn't fit Cliffords style. Mitchell kinda chucked Utah out of an overtime win today, no way in hell Clifford would allow that.
As always we all hope he stars next year, relax with your own narrative and getting aggressive with others for being disappointed or criticising someone you like.

The criticism is premature. Monk is 19. How many times do you think I've had to listen to the same excuse for MKG's deficiencies? MKG has 5-6 years of excuses on Monk. It's premature to claim to discover anything informative based on a player who has not played starter minutes. The statisical samples are formed from sporadic minutes. At this point in his career, analysis should more heavily weigh raw talent and modern NBA fit.

[fatlever]

Why does everyone get so defensive when we try to criticize any of the rookies? Just because they are young and rookies and a have a lot of room to grow and improve doesn't mean they should be immune from criticism.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with all of us criticizing Monk for his shot selection or his defense. These are major areas of concern and he will need to greatly improve these things if he's to succeed and become the player expected of a lottery Pick and someone of his immense Talent.

Just because I or anyone else criticizes monk or bacon or another one of our young players does not mean that we are not rooting for them to succeed or that we don't believe they have an ability to improve and become a good player.

Lastly I don't understand Clifford's handling of bacon and Monk this past season. What is the plan for these players? Why were they not given more game time with the Swarm? Are they being scolded in practice, in games for repeatedly taking bad shots such as step back long to pointers? Are they not being instructed to keep the ball moving or or to drive the ball towards the rim whenever possible hoping for contact or to pull Defenders towards them in hopes of creating space for others. It's one of the problems that we've had with this coaching staff and others is they've long allowed too many of our players to settle for bad shots or not force or at least heavily encourage them to take more Corner threes, less jumpers off the dribble, less long to pointers, more drives to the rim Etc what other coaching staff is going to allow Dwight Howard to shoot 20 Footers? Or to allow mkg to not shoot Corner threes? Or to let Gerald Henderson survive 5 + years with this franchise without developing a three point shot.

Anyway I'm getting off topic. The main point is people don't need to be so touchy when we point out things that the young players are doing incorrectly.

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[Vanderbilt_Grad]

Why does everyone get so defensive when we try to criticize any of the rookies? Just because they are young and rookies and a have a lot of room to grow and improve doesn't mean they should be immune from criticism.

Maybe it's because we've had nearly a full page of "Monk is the worst NBA player ever" trolling?

Just release him today! Worst draft pick ever! He makes Anthony Bennett look like LeBron James.

And even if you ignore Robot Rock, there's a ton of comments going back 20+ pages (and I just looked) which are essentially "trade Monk for a 2nd round pick." Most of the criticism has been anything but nuanced. So when someone comes in with a non over the top take, it's with all that as a backdrop.

And speaking of trading Monk there are an average of 2-5 posts per page talking about it, including stuff like this:

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There's more, but all that alone should answer your question Fats.

[Braggins]

Lastly I don't understand Clifford's handling of bacon and Monk this past season. What is the plan for these players? Why were they not given more game time with the Swarm? Are they being scolded in practice, in games for repeatedly taking bad shots such as step back long to pointers? Are they not being instructed to keep the ball moving or or to drive the ball towards the rim whenever possible hoping for contact or to pull Defenders towards them in hopes of creating space for others. It's one of the problems that we've had with this coaching staff and others is they've long allowed too many of our players to settle for bad shots or not force or at least heavily encourage them to take more Corner threes, less jumpers off the dribble, less long to pointers, more drives to the rim Etc what other coaching staff is going to allow Dwight Howard to shoot 20 Footers? Or to allow mkg to not shoot Corner threes? Or to let Gerald Henderson survive 5 + years with this franchise without developing a three point shot.

It seems like they don't even try to develop the young guys. Its like at the end of training camp Clifford decides whether or not you are ready for a role on his "playoff" team and if the answer is no then you become a complete afterthought. Even when young guys do make the rotation they are often minimized to the point where it at least somewhat handicaps their actual ability to develop in the minutes they are given.

[yosemiteben]

I agree with VG. Monk has been bad, but some of the trolling criticism is over the top.

[Robot Rock]

I agree with VG. Monk has been bad, but some of the trolling criticism is over the top.

Maybe mine is sarcasm directed at a certain person. Does anyone on here really think my opinion of him changed in a day?

[Robot Rock]

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