The Fantasy Basketball Encyclopedia

Player Dossier · Sacramento Kings

Malik Monk

Malik Monk projects as Sacramento's sixth-man creator, a useful assists-and-threes guard whose value jumps if Acuff or LaVine misses time but falls if the team prioritizes younger wings.

Team: Sacramento Kings · Age: 28 · Position: PG/SG · As of: 2026-07-18

2026-27 median projection

GP MPG FG% FT% 3PM PTS REB AST STL BLK TO
68 25.0 .440 .860 2.0 13.0 2.0 3.7 0.7 0.4 1.7

Correction 2026-07-18: MPG trimmed from 27.0 to 25.0. Hunter's April eye clearance restores a healthy starting wing ahead of the second unit, which compresses the guard/wing bench allocation; the two minutes move to the frontcourt in the team minute model.

Nine-cat: top-105 to top-135. Points: C+; assists make him more useful than a pure scorer. Dynasty: 5.0/10.

Role and evidence

Monk averaged 12.5 points, 2.0 threes, and 3.0 assists in only 22.0 minutes across 62 games in 2025-26 (ESPN statistics). The model restores minutes but not his previous 5-assist ceiling because Acuff is the development priority and LaVine remains another handler.

ESPN lists Monk second at point guard and also third at shooting guard on its July 18 depth chart. RotoWire called his 2026-27 standing uncertain after Acuff's selection (June 25 update). His late-season personal absence is not treated as a medical injury.

Range

Career record

Pre-NBA: One season at Kentucky (2016-17): 38 games, 32.1 MPG, 19.8 PTS, 2.5 REB, 2.3 AST on .450/.397/.822. Consensus second-team All-American, Jerry West Award, AP SEC Player of the Year, SEC Freshman of the Year, first-team All-SEC. Set the Kentucky freshman scoring record with 47 against North Carolina on 2016-12-17. Draft: 2017, first round, No. 11 overall, Charlotte Hornets. Not traded on draft night.

Season Age Team GP MPG PTS REB AST STL BLK 3PM FG% FT% TO
2017-18 20 CHA 63 13.5 6.7 1.0 1.4 0.3 0.1 1.3 .360 .842 0.8
2018-19 21 CHA 73 17.2 8.9 1.9 1.6 0.5 0.3 1.5 .387 .882 1.2
2019-20 22 CHA 55 21.3 10.3 2.9 2.1 0.5 0.3 1.1 .434 .820 1.4
2020-21 23 CHA 42 20.9 11.7 2.4 2.1 0.5 0.1 2.0 .434 .819 1.3
2021-22 24 LAL 76 28.1 13.8 3.4 2.9 0.8 0.4 2.3 .473 .795 1.6
2022-23 25 SAC 77 22.3 13.5 2.6 3.9 0.6 0.3 1.9 .448 .889 1.9
2023-24 26 SAC 72 26.0 15.4 2.9 5.1 0.6 0.5 2.1 .443 .829 2.1
2024-25 27 SAC 65 31.6 17.2 3.8 5.6 0.9 0.6 2.1 .439 .865 2.4
2025-26 28 SAC 62 22.0 12.5 1.9 3.0 0.6 0.4 2.0 .438 .878 1.5
Career 585 22.7 12.3 2.6 3.1 0.6 0.3 1.8 .434 .851 1.6

No season split across two teams — Monk moved to Los Angeles and Sacramento in free agency, never at a deadline.

Fantasy history: season-end nine-category rankings from Basketball Monster, Hashtag or the ESPN Player Rater could not be verified for any of Monk's seasons, so no specific finish is asserted here. What the verified per-game lines support: he has never been a punt-free every-category asset, and his value is concentrated in FT%, threes and assists. The 2024-25 line (17.2/3.8/5.6 with 2.1 threes and .865 FT in 31.6 minutes) is comfortably his best category season; 2025-26 at 22 minutes is a clear step down in counting stats with the percentages intact. In points leagues he grades better than in categories at every stage of his career, because the assists and scoring volume carry weight while the mediocre FG%, thin rebounding and near-zero blocks stop mattering.

Durability: 63, 73, 55, 42, 76, 77, 72, 65, 62. Two of the low seasons have non-injury causes: 2019-20 ended early when he was suspended indefinitely on 2020-02-26 for violating the NBA's substance-use policy (reinstated 2020-06-08), and the 2020-21 total reflects both a shortened 72-game league schedule and ankle trouble. He also missed the entire 2017 Summer League with an ankle injury. In 2025-26 he missed roughly eight games, including a three-game stretch in early January, and reporting cites a sprained right ankle absence of about four games, a right shoulder issue that ended one game early, and at least two absences for personal matters including the regular-season finale. Precise dates for the 2024-25 and 2025-26 absences were not verifiable from the sources checked. The pattern is a lot of small soft-tissue and joint absences rather than any structural injury: he has cleared 70 games three times but not since 2023-24.

Trajectory: Monk's arc is one of the clearer role-change stories of the era. Four Charlotte seasons produced a scorer with no passing dimension (1.4 to 2.1 assists per game) and shaky efficiency; the Lakers year at 28 minutes established him as a genuine rotation player, and the move to Sacramento converted him into a secondary handler — assists jumped from 2.9 to 3.9 to 5.1 to 5.6 while minutes climbed. That progression is not purely a minutes artifact: his assist rate rose faster than his playing time, which is the signature of a real skill and usage change rather than opportunity inflation. The 2025-26 collapse to 22 minutes and 12.5 points is the first genuine reversal, and it is a role decision rather than a decline signal — the shooting percentages barely moved (.438 FG, .878 FT, still 2.0 threes) while his rebounds and assists fell almost exactly in proportion to lost minutes. At 28 he is at the point on the aging curve where explosion starts to go but shooting and feel hold, so the 2026-27 question is entirely about opportunity, not ability. If Sacramento clears a handler ahead of him, the 2024-25 line is still available; if Acuff and LaVine both hold their reps, the 2025-26 line is the honest baseline.

Career sources: ESPN — Malik Monk stats, StatMuse — Malik Monk career stats by season, Wikipedia — Malik Monk, CBS Sports — Malik Monk player file

Open questions