Sixth Man of the Year runner-up Malik Monk and the Sacramento Kings are set to agree to a four-year, $78 million contract that includes a player option in the final year, according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski.
Monk, who was expected to see a massive raise this offseason after two great seasons in Sacramento, had always expressed a desire to return to the Kings in free agency. As a result of the league’s new negotiating rules for teams dealing with their own free agents, the Kings and Monk’s agents were able to negotiate a new deal that will be agreed upon when the free agency window opens on June 30 at 6 p.m. ET.
“I can go somewhere else with a lot more money and be in a worse situation, so you never know,” Monk told reporters during his end-of-season press conference in April. “I’ve got a great agent who’s going to do his job. I think my job is done. I did what I needed to do this year. It’s going to play out the right way.”
Monk made it a point of emphasis to say that the city of Sacramento loves him and that he also loves the city just as much. Now, Monk gets the lucrative contract offer that he wanted in order to remain with the Kings long-term.
Due to the 26-year-old only originally signing a two-year contract with the team in 2022, the Kings did not own his full Bird rights. Instead, general manager Monte McNair and the Kings’ front office had to navigate a new contract for Monk using Early Bird rights, which puts a cap on a potential new contract at 175 percent of what the player’s previous-year salary was. Monk earned slightly more than $9.9 million during the 2023-24 season, meaning the max offer he could receive from Sacramento was roughly $78 million over a four-year span, the exact deal negotiated by his agents in this early window period.
In a total of 72 games this past season, all of which he came off the bench for, Monk averaged 15.4 points and 5.1 assists per game while shooting 44.3 percent from the floor and 35.0 percent from three-point range.
A variety of teams were expected to show interest in Monk entering free agency given his natural scoring and playmaking abilities as a guard who could impact his team’s offense with or without the ball in his hands. Best of all, Monk proved to be one of the best bench players in the league over the last two seasons in Sacramento. Any other team in the league could have offered Monk close to a 10 percent increase in what the Kings could offer, meaning he could have received an $86 million contract, an annual average value of roughly $21 million per year.
With Monk’s deal all but signed, the Kings will now face some questions regarding their total cap figures heading into the offseason. The Kings’ sixth man will make roughly $17.4 million during the 2024-25 season, according to ESPN front office insider Bobby Marks. After Monk’s contract, plus their 13th overall pick in the 2024 NBA Draft, the Kings will be very close to crossing the first tax apron. Further moves involving Kevin Huerter, Harrison Barnes, or other players could be in play for this organization in the offseason as they look to get back to the playoffs.
For now, the Kings appear to be keeping their main core group intact heading into the 2024-25 season.
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