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

[JMAC3]

Seems like this is being overblown, Monk is a third year guy. Not a ton of them playing even if they have struggled thus far.

If he is working out and getting stronger that’s way more important.


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[LurkCobain]

I concur with those saying that Monk will likely be traded. I don’t see how this don’t put him in the doghouse unless he discussed with Kupchak beforehand with mutual reasoning and agreement not to play in summer league. It’s a bad look that he opted not to play yet he still traveled to Vegas likely to attend all of the festivities where Instagram hoes were looking for basketball players.

Dude is in "the weight room" aka the woods of Arkansas carrying deer to the truck. He doesn't care about greatness. Hes dead weight.

[MasterIchiro]

Monk is the only player on the team with a chance to become a Kemba-level star. Where was Kemba when he was 21? He was a draft pick coming off his junior year in college.

And what potential did we see in Kemba? We fantasized about the Sixers trading Tony Wroten to us for him. He was worth nothing. We concluded he was undersized. We blasted him for being a chucker, for making bad passes and taking ill-advised shots. His ceiling was 6th man. It was never Gerald Henderson's fault for pounding the ball and tossing grenades to Kemba. It was never MKG's fault for killing spacing. Nope, Cho was doing a fantastic job surrounding Kemba with quality players, scrub overpays we still have today, and the reason we had to part ways due to tax penalties.

A nuclear bomb just went off and some here want to dowse Monk with fallout.

He's just getting started. There will always be many fools with big fat mouths.

It has been written.

[MasterIchiro]

And another thing...

JB hardly ever drew up plays for Monk. For all we know, the offense from the starting lineup will run primarily through Monk.

If JB decides he wants to prioritize Monk as a future star, he's gonna feed him the ball. Currently we have no record of what that looks like. Yet some have rushed to judgment and have concluded they know exactly what we have in Monk.

Outrageous.

It has been written...

[LofJ]

I still believe in Monk. Guys as athletic as he is with a lightning quick release don't grow on trees. I hope the team doesn't give up on him too soon and use him to dump salary.

[MasterIchiro]

I still believe in Monk. Guys as athletic as he is with a lightning quick release don't grow on trees. I hope the team doesn't give up on him too soon and use him to dump salary.

The threat of that happening ended when Kemba left. I'm fairly certain Kupchak could have attached Monk to Batum and created the space to retain Kemba.

That says a lot about what the front office thought about our chances of advancing past the first round with Kemba. But it also hints at their scouting on Monk and you can bet your last Honey Bee, the projections are quite bullish. When they arrived, I specifically remember JB saying they could run offense through Monk. His eyes lit up when he saw Monk up close for the first time. But I guess that was sooooo long ago when Monk was only 20 and now soooo much time has gone by and sooooo many things have changed because Monk is now 21.

But some fans don't closely watch the videos on Hornets.com. They have no clue what the plan is for Monk.

Practice patience. It's healthy.

It has been written...

[JDuaneWayne]

I still believe in Monk. Guys as athletic as he is with a lightning quick release don't grow on trees. I hope the team doesn't give up on him too soon and use him to dump salary.

The threat of that happening ended when Kemba left. I'm fairly certain Kupchak could have attached Monk to Batum and created the space to retain Kemba.

That says a lot about what the front office thought about our chances of advancing past the first round with Kemba. But it also hints at their scouting on Monk and you can bet your last Honey Bee, the projections are quite bullish. When they arrived, I specifically remember JB saying they could run offense through Monk. His eyes lit up when he saw Monk up close for the first time. But I guess that was sooooo long ago when Monk was only 20 and now soooo much time has gone by and sooooo many things have changed because Monk is now 21.

But some fans don't closely watch the videos on Hornets.com. They have no clue what the plan is for Monk.

Practice patience. It's healthy.

It has been written...

You should go back and tag all your post with #ithasbeenwritten and RealGM should make a search function.

I don't know if I'd go so far as the FO being bullish on Monk, we will see this year though. If he's in the doghouse to start the year he's getting traded or we will not extend him a QO and let his contract expire next year. To be fair though, I believe with what he has shown (college included) he would have been a lottery pick this year (I see you Mitch) now if he shows what he has shown most of his first two years, his value quickly turns into a late 1st early 2nd pick.

[MasterIchiro]

Let's all imagine what it's like to develop a player deemed a lost cause. Kemba.

This is exactly what it feels like.

It has been written...

[Vanderbilt_Grad]

Ichiro, Malik has the potential to do all the things you mention. I don't think it's going to happen though.

We tend to see guys who are committed to improving - be it new things in games, issues going away, or even social media posts about them working on their game. I don't think that we've seen any of that from Monk.

You bring up Kemba as a comp - and so let's roll with it. Kemba showed two jumps in his offense. The first came in year 2 (ORtg from 96 to 105 - OBPM from 0.6 to 3.2) and the second came in year 5 (ORtg from 103 to 112 - OBPM from 2.2 to 4.0). Monks numbers don't show that kind of jump. And moving away from stats, Monk didn't show us anything really new last year either. He was just as good at shooting 3s or dunking in some games - and just as bad on D and in the PnR. I'm not aware of him talking about working on his game much either, in sharp contrast to what Bacon & Bridges do.

Yeah you can argue that Kemba's situation was different. And Malik might even be affected by be shopped - IDK. But my overall perception is that he hasn't shown the kind of drive it would take to reach the potential you talk about. I'm more than willing to give him another year or so, but I don't have a lot of hope for him these days.

[LofJ]

Monk is the same age now that Kemba was in his rookie season. It is not a fair comparison to evaluate them based on their respective first 2 years in the NBA.

[Vanderbilt_Grad]

No comp is ever 100% 'fair.' Still it's what we have.

[LofJ]

No comp is ever 100% 'fair.' Still it's what we have.

If Monk doesn't improve more this season I'll start to doubt, but he deserves another opportunity to prove himself.

[CatgutStitches]

I love all the people talking about his lack of drive and how he isn't putting in work.

Can yall get me passes to workouts and practices too? Would be cool to experience.

[MasterIchiro]

No comp is ever 100% 'fair.' Still it's what we have.

Kemba played starter minutes his first 2 years, enjoying consistency and continuity required to inform positive trends, further complicating this comparison.

[Braggins]

Kemba's jumps happened at age 22 and 25. Monk is still only 21.

[MasterIchiro]

The most accurate comp is if we treated 2019-2020 as Malik Monk's rookie season, if Monk like Kemba at this age, plays starter minutes.

And let me be point blank, Monk has better shooting mechanics and explosive athleticism at baseline, something Kemba didn't really have. Monk has more upside than Kemba ever did. You are talking to a UConn homer btw.

[catch20two]

Monk has more potential than Kemba based on athleticism and shooting mechanics but what hold him back is what’s in between the ears and mentality. Monk still has the opportunity to reach his ceiling as a Gilbert Arenas to Lou Williams type of player but personally I’ve lost hope because of his lack of basketball IQ and apparent drive.

[MasterIchiro]

Lou Williams is 6' 1". He has played from the bench his entire career. Two years he started about half the games and shot 34% from 3.

Monk is 6' 3" and plays above the rim. Can Lou even dunk? Monk is a highlight dunker. He shot 34% as a 19 year old rookie in sporadic minutes.

Low IQ is also a BS smear used against Kemba. I specifically remember a mod here calling Kemba flat out dumb. Batum is high IQ. Marvin is high IQ. Whoopdee Doo. The highest IQ on the court needs to be your head coach, and your PG, bonus if it's your primary scorer.

[Rich4114]

It's official, Monk is our new polarizing player. We've pretty much always had one. He will have fans of 50% of the board and the rest think he's a bust and should be traded.

Given the fact Monk came into a poor fitting situation (because our star PG was on the smaller side and Monk is on the smaller side for his position), not to mention Clifford doesn't really trust rookies, and he was probably in the draft a year sooner than he should've been - I give him the benefit of the doubt. Looking at his style, he has the athletic tools, movement and creativity to be very special. He's just been so raw, which is what's held him back. I've seen him launch off balance 3's or try to do too much with too little, lacking a bit of patience. So much like Kemba, it's a matter of if he can be coached, can he learn, can he get stronger, can he work on the intelligent parts of the game so he can harness his physical tools better. He's actually a decent play maker and made a lot of nice passes last season. It was his inefficient shooting that probably hurt him more than anything. The same thing that hurt Kemba for about 4 seasons.

Monk has the most potential of anyone on this team, so I'm hoping he can make a jump at some point this season and show us why he was worth a lottery selection ahead of Donavan Mitchell.

[316Hornets]

I think there's a good chance we decline Monk's 5.3M team option in 2020.