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Veteran  parlays career year into lucrative deal with Kings
Sacramento Kings guard Malik Monk. Cary Edmondson-USA TODAY Sports

Free-agent guard Malik Monk intends to re-sign with the Kings, according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, who reports that Monk has agreed to a four-year contract worth approximately $78M. The deal will include a fourth-year player option, Wojnarowski adds.

Monk, 26, spent his first four NBA seasons in Charlotte and one year with the Lakers before signing a two-year, $19.4M contract with the Kings in 2022. He has enjoyed two of the best seasons of his career in Sacramento, emerging as a crucial scorer and playmaker off the bench and earning Sixth Man of the Year votes in both seasons — he finished fifth in 2023 and was the runner-up award for the award in 2024.

Monk set new career highs with 15.4 points and 5.1 assists per game for the Kings in 2023-24. While his three-point percentage has slipped a little since his final year with the Hornets (40.1%) and his one season in Los Angeles (39.1%), he has still knocked down 35.4% of his 5.5 attempts per contest during his time in Sacramento while taking his game to new heights as a ball-handler and playmaker.

Having just spent two years in Sacramento so far, Monk has Early Bird rights this offseason, which means the Kings are limited to giving him a 75% raise on his 2023-24 salary. That works out to a starting salary of $17,405,203 and a four-year total of $77,975,309.

There was a belief that another team might outbid the Kings’ max offer if Monk had made it to the open market. However, he either got early signals that a more lucrative offer wouldn’t be out there or simply decided that he preferred to remain in Sacramento, regardless of the other options that may have been available on June 30.

The NBA’s free-agency rules changed this offseason, allowing teams to negotiate with their own free agents beginning one day after the end of the NBA Finals instead of having to wait until June 30. That allowed the Kings to strike an early deal with Monk, but the contract won’t be officially signed until July 6.

Monk is the second free agent to reach a tentative agreement with his team this week, joining Pascal Siakam of the Pacers. Unless one of those deals falls through, two of the top 10 players on our list of 2024’s top 50 free agents are now off the board. Monk came in at No. 10 on that list.

It’s worth noting that Monk’s new deal could make the Kings a taxpayer in 2024-25. Taking into account Keon Ellis‘ non-guaranteed salary and the cap hold for the No. 13 pick, Sacramento already had about $155M on the books for 12 players. Adding a $17.4M salary for Monk will push that total above the projected luxury-tax line ($171.3M) with at least one more roster spot left to fill.

I speculated within our preview of the Kings’ offseason that the team could look to shed a contract — possibly Sasha Vezenkov and his $6.66M cap hit — if Monk were to re-sign, in order to duck below the tax.

This article first appeared on Hoops Rumors and was syndicated with permission.

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