The Kings have been “trying very hard” to trade guard Malik Monk this offseason, a league source tell Grant Afseth of Dallas Hoops Journal.
According to Afseth and Ashish Mathur of Dallas Hoops Journal, Sacramento would like to create an opening in its backcourt to sign Russell Westbrook, who would become the team’s sixth man behind new starting point guard Dennis Schröder.
The fact that Monk has been on the trade block this summer isn’t breaking news. His name has come up in rumors since even before the start of free agency, when word broke that the Kings’ front office was gauging the market for him and fellow guard Devin Carter.
During the opening days of the free agent period, Monk was linked to the Pistons as part of a potential sign-and-trade for Schröder, but Sacramento and Detroit ended up completing that deal without Monk’s involvement. The Kings took Schröder into an existing traded player exception and the Pistons generated a new TPE of their own by not taking any players back.
Monk is also said to be part of the Kings’ latest offer to the Warriors for restricted free agent Jonathan Kuminga, but Golden State isn’t interested in taking on the 27-year-old’s contract, which includes an $18.8MM cap hit for this season and has three years and $60.6MM remaining in total. Signing-and-trading Kuminga to Sacramento for Monk would either require the Warriors to include another mid-sized contract or would hard-cap them at the first tax apron, compromising their ability to fill out the rest of their roster.
Monk averaged a career-high 17.2 points per game last season and is just one year removed from finishing second in Sixth Man of the Year voting in 2024. He’s also nearly 10 years younger than Westbrook, so it’s a little surprising that the Kings would be looking to move Monk in order to sign the 36-year-old free agent, but that rumor has persisted since early July.
It’s worth noting that the Kings overhauled their basketball operations department this spring, with Scott Perry replacing former general manager Monte McNair. Sacramento’s new top decision-maker didn’t acquire Monk or sign him to his current extension and doesn’t appear to have the same level of attachment to him that the old front office did.
Surprising they can’t find a taker he’s a good scorer
Warriors are trying to have a clean cap sheet in the summer of ‘27 and Monk will still have a remaining year at that point, cutting into potential cap space.
I think that’s why they’re offering Kuminga only the two-year deal variations, and seeking players like Kentavious Caldwell Pope (two guarantee years remaining) in return on a possible S and T of Kuminga to Memphis.
great point about the 2 year thing. steph, Jimmy, draymond, Kerr……all have 2 remaining seasons.
@jacobjackson, if you listen to what Lacob and Dunkeavey keep telling us, there is another, opposite, way to read this. The Warriors intend to retain their young players for the future, and not trade them to optimize the next 2 years. Lacob told ESPN that last week (although not reported here).
link to sports.yahoo.com
Yes, the Jimmy, Draymond and Steph contracts expire in 2 years. But, the Warriors absolutely want to have a young core in place at the start of the next phase, so they do not want to trade Podz, Moody, or Kuminga without getting equivalent young talent or draft capital in return.
Kings GM is destroying the team fast. First trade Fox for almost nothing. Want Kuminga but don’t want to trade assets. Now put Monk on the trading block. Its liek they don’t know what they want. Should go through a rebuild instead of throw a bunch of spare parts and hope and pray. Should put Sabonis on teh trade block their best asset and see what draft picks and young players they can get for him.
The last GM traded Fox, well, the owner mandated it and wanted LaVine on the team.
The new GM has a mess to clean up, and nobody wants to trade for LaVine, DeRozan, or Monk at the price the Kings set. The team needs to rebuild, but the owner won’t allow it. Stuck in Basketball Hell.
Almost nothing? Fox wouldn’t sign an extension and asked for a trade, plain and simple. I think they did great, getting 3 firsts, 3 seconds, and LaVine isn’t bad at all when you’re moving a guy who wanted out.
I think a lot of Kings fans, myself included, wanted them to get back a young player to build around, and they got LaVine instead. The picks were nice, but they used those 2nd rounders on acquiring Jonas and LaRavia, who are now gone.
Paying Fox that contract was probably something the owner didn’t want to do, so they shipped him out when they could. Now they are old, not very good, and have bad contracts that nobody wants.
I wanted that, but I don’t think Vivek settled for LaVine. I think he never stopped wanting him after Chicago matched the Kings signed Lavine.
Interesting team they had 2 outstanding point guards now they have a run-of-the mill on the decline schroder. It seems their center has better pass abilities at this point than their PGs
Sad Sacramento cannot get out of their own way to be better now they look like a bunch of shooting guards with a great center. Their defense is suspect as always
I still do not undersatdn the Fox trade. Sabonis is not the player you build around. They should go all in on a rebuild.
I didn’t understand the Fox trade either, but I disagree with you on Sabonis, who I think is a Top 30 player… which are very hard to come by in Sacramento.
Monk has been a bright spot for the past 2 seasons. I can think of only 3 or 4 guys in the league that can reliably spark an offense off the bench like him. He’s too ball-dominant to start alongside Lavine and Derozan, but Sac has no other offense coming off the bench.
Sabonis numbers on defense is horrible. He is an offense only player. A guy who puts up stats on a losy team. Without fox he will be picked on over and over. He is one of those guys who should be the third best player on a team.
> Sabonis numbers on defense is horrible. He is an
> offense only player.
Strongly disagree with your take on Sabonis’ defense. He’s the best defensive rebounding center in basketball (led the NBA the last 2 seasons, the only player to average more than 10 defensive rpg in both seasons). That alone makes him not, to use your word, “horrible”.
Let’s call Sabonis a good, not great, defender whose rebounding, IQ, and maximum effort mostly offset a lack of rim protection and mobility.
You will not change my mind. I seen how he plays. He is a stat grabber but a #3 option on most teams not a guy you build around. Kings need to rebuild so why not trade your best asset when he has peaked. Just look at that roster there is not a lot there that are tradeable assets. laVine, DeRozan, and Monk are not good contracts with value. There are a few young assets but in a rebuild no reason to trade them.
A “#3 option”? A “stat grabber”? Everybody is entitled to their opinion, but you’re in a small minority.
3× NBA All-Star (2020, 2021, 2023)
2× All-NBA Third Team (2023, 2024)
3× NBA rebounding leader (2023–2025)
Stats gets you things but he is not a best player on your team unless its a bad team. Fox was their best player. Watch his stats go way down now that he is going to be more of a focus. His career will be like Westbrook a stat chaser.
> Stats gets you things but he is not a best player on
> your team unless its a bad team. Fox was their best
> player.
Sabonis finished 7th and 8th in league MVP voting in Fox’s best seasons (as well as being All-Star and All-MVP)– way ahead of Fox.
2022-23 MVP voting (7)
2023-24 MVP voting (8) (also got DPOY votes)
> Watch his stats go way down now that he is going
> to be more of a focus.
Not so far. Fox was traded mid-season, and Sabonis was statistically better.
Sabonis can’t carry a team. If he could you would see the kings as a top team in the west. I doubt they will even make the play in this year. Spurs will have a much better record than the Kings.
> Sabonis can’t carry a team. If he could you would
> see the kings as a top team in the west.
In his 1st season with the Kings they went 48-34 and finished 2nd in the West, 18 more games than the year before (when they had De’Aron Fox). That’s how you finish 7th in MVP voting and get names All-NBA.
In his 2nd season, they finished 46-36, and he’s 8th in MVP voting, and an All-Star, etc
You’re entitled to your opinion, but everyone else considers him a Top 30 player.
It’s easy to get defensive rebounds when you’re not guarding anyone. He plays the paint like he’s the one with the ball on defense.
I love Sabonis but he’s too soft and isn’t aggressive enough on offense to be the number one option.
Replacing Monk with washed up Russ and mid Dennis = the Kings FO is the worst in the league.
Until the owner gets out of the way or sells the team, it’s going to be the same crap.
Sabonis would look soooooo good on more than a few contenders.
It will be so funny when GSW trades Kuminga and Jimmy for Sabonis and Monk.
The Kangz
Crazy how Sabonis’ prime is being wasted, you even forget how good he is
Monk still has 2 years + player options. Has it become negative? How negative?
If so, I have a trade idea. It would be a joint trade agreement with 3 teams but split in two steps for salary matching rules.
Step 1:
Sacramento OUT Monk + Min contract + picks (to Boston into traded player exception)
Sacramento IN Anfernee Simons (from Boston with new 27,7 million trade exception for Boston)
Step 2:
Boston OUT: Monk + picks (to Nets?)
Boston IN: Low value expiring contract and extra trade exception
In case of Nets maybe Highsmith (5,6 million) + buy-out after trade deadline or trade to a fourth team.
Boston reduces payroll by around 22 million and would be about 10 million below luxury tax level. They could also chose a higher value player than Highsmith, but pick situation would change.
Considering some of the wacky stuff proposed on here this seems possible at least. My one question is would it push Sacramento into the tax? Because if so it makes no sense for them. They aren’t good enough to be a tax team.
I was also trying fake trades to get monk to boston for Simons. Mine was Simons to the Bucks, kuzma and a bucks draft pick to Sac, Monk to boston.
If the Kings are going to include their 26 FRP unprotected, the Nets might consider Monk. And yeah the reason they just added Highsmith is probably as a return salary in another deal.
This is just banter by any means but cmon kinGs let’s trade Vooch for Monk and let’s complete this top 3 player dump off 😂
(I honestly wanted to keep Lavine and lonzo)
Scott Perry. Full circle. This strategy completely makes sense for his regime.
Lets be clear, Fox wanted out!Paul screwed the Kings with only the Spurs Kings had made offers for 2 years. Paul wanted Fox out, and wanted to move Zac as well. McNair got any and everything he could. Nobody wants Derozen, Zac, or they would trade them. Monk might be the only player they could trade. Perry got this mess, you can’t clean this up in 1 off season. Young players need time to learn and play. There are alot of young players. Deadline trades are the next step. Hang on!
Salary cap restrictions are ruining the NBA. So teams who wanna spend have to shed salaries while teams who don’t wanna win get a pass for tanking???