euphorbus wrote:Malik Monk has started the last four games for the Lakers.  In those games, he is shooting 57.4% and 41.7% from three, good for 19.5 points per game at +15.  LeBron James and Monk are working well together on the court--James has been on a fantastic tear, scoring over 30 the past seven games.  He now averages 28.6 points per game this season, good for second in the league, and 6.6 assists.
And he celebrated his 37th birthday on Thursday.  Amazing.
Monk has been efficient in his role this season for the Lakers. Hes at 59.9 ts% right now, which is about where he was all last season until he returned from injury. As I expected, he got his athleticism back after a healthy offseason and his 2pt% shot back way up (higher than 19/20 season) and hes already nearly doubled his dunk total from all last season in around 30 games. His 3pt% is at a respectable 37% on good volume, but so far he hasn't been quite as hot from deep as last season.
Based on the eye test he looks like hes made improvements with his passing iq and overall decision making and hes continuing to do a nice job of playing within the flow of an offense, but his role in LA is more limited than it would be here due to how many ball dominant guys they have, so he hasn't been able to show it as much as youd like (I think his general volume #s would be a lot better if he was on the Hornets). His role has been expanding more and more as the season has progressed and it seems most Lakers fans on here are happy to have him on the team, so I hope he can keep it up. 
His defense was atrocious at the beginning of the season, but he has settled in and gotten back to like a normal bad, but not completely terrible level, for most of the season. I think hes improved a bit on that end from last season as well and I didn't think his defense was as bad last year as some of his rabid haters on this board insisted, but its close and hes still clearly a negative. I can't believe I'm saying this because it still feels crazy to say given the difference in their body types, but Monk is somehow not as bad as Kelly Oubre on defense (like seriously how is it possible for Oubre to be so bad at defense?).