Malik Monk made a brief appearance in the second half of Sunday night’s win over Houston, but the Kings guard told Jason Anderson of The Sacramento Bee that he’s still not sure why he was pulled from the rotation.
Monk, who was kept on the bench for the previous two games, was inserted for a nearly five-minute stretch. He made his only shot from the field, but missed a pair of free throws and finished with two points and a minus-3 rating.
Monk, who wasn’t expecting to play at all, talked to Anderson before the game began and admitted being confused by the demotion.
“One thousand percent,” he said. “But it’s not my job to try to figure out why I’m not playing because I deem myself more than the whole, so I’ll just be ready when my name is called.”
Monk added that he had a private conversation with head coach Doug Christie and listened to Christie’s public explanation about the move, but he still doesn’t fully understand it.
“He just told me he’s trying something new,” Monk said. “That’s basically it, and I said, ‘Yeah, OK, I’ll be ready whenever my name is called.’”
Monk has been a valuable part of the Kings’ offense since signing with Sacramento in the summer of 2022. He was a high-scoring reserve for his first two seasons, finishing sixth and second in the Sixth Man of the Year balloting, before being used mostly as a starter last year.
Christie decided to switch Monk back to a bench role this season, and his numbers have fallen across the board as his playing time has decreased. Through 24 games, he’s averaging 12.5 points, 2.0 rebounds and 2.4 assists in 23.1 minutes per night while shooting 43.7% from the field and a career-best 41.1% from three-point range.
Monk’s reduced status comes as Christie has been sorting through his options in a crowded backcourt. He was criticized earlier in the season for not playing defensive specialist Keon Ellis, who was given 32 minutes against Portland on Thursday, which was the first game that Monk received a DNP-CD. However, Ellis has been experiencing soreness in his right wrist and was listed as questionable for Sunday. He wound up playing nine minutes, but he fouled Reed Sheppard on a three-point attempt just before the halftime buzzer and wasn’t used in the second half.
Christie, who has called Monk the “odd man out” in a “numbers game,” received numerous questions about his guard rotation in his pregame meeting with reporters, Anderson adds.
“There’s a lot of challenges,” Christie said. “You can’t play everybody. It’s just the nature of what it is. This isn’t participation. It’s professional sports, and right now we have a logjam, but everyone is in play. If someone isn’t playing great, there’s a really good chance someone else is going to play. If someone isn’t playing to our standard of competitiveness, of all the different things that we value, then obviously there’s a strong possibility that they’re going to come out of the game.”
Monk, who’s making $18.8MM, is under contract for $20.2MM next season and holds a $21.6MM player option for 2027/28, so his situation may not be resolved soon unless he gets traded. He told Anderson that he doesn’t let “this stuff get to me,” but he added, “Everybody knows I want to be out there, especially playing in front of this crowd in Sac, but there ain’t s–t I can do about it.”