Malik Monk set himself up for a rich payday after the 2021-22 season he had for the Los Angeles Lakers.
Monk joined the Lakers on a one-year minimum deal and outplayed the value of his contract almost instantly, taking the reins as the team’s third most reliable scorer. Monk handled more offensive responsibility when L.A. was hit with injuries and he exceeded in an increased role, eventually earning a starting spot.
While the guard’s on-court production reached new heights, Monk believes his maturity level was his biggest improvement as a player and person.
“Becoming more mature as a man and a basketball player. That’s really the biggest thing that grew with me cause I had seasons like this before in Charlotte and I wasn’t playing this much too, so I had to deal with that and the losing part. I just became a mature man.”
As far as improvements go, Monk said he can work at every facet of the game. “Oh yeah, for sure. Everything. Everything including my scoring, threes, free throws…free throws…my free throws were terrible this year I didn’t like that. But yeah, I think I can grow in everything, there’s never a spot I can not grow in.”
Without many options to retool the roster around LeBron James and Anthony Davis, it would seem like a no-brainer for the Lakers to re-sign Monk. He has been open about his love for Los Angeles and even admitted that money would not be a factor in his free agency decision.
Hopefully Monk and the Purple and Gold are able to agree on a new deal, but fans are just going to have to wait and see how his market develops in the coming months.
Malik Monk grateful for Lakers organization’s support
One reason why Monk has been so happy being in L.A. is because of the support he has gotten from the organization. Even though he was having a good individual season amidst the team’s poor one, he never got down on the situation because of the people in his corner.
“Just knowing I had an organization behind me that made me way more comfortable to go do things like that. It’s hard to be down when you have ‘Bron on your team. Russ, AD, Dwight Melo, all these vets that had not so good years and they know how to deal with things like that. It wasn’t that hard for me cause I got a lot of support from those guys.”
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