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.