Monk or Ellis? Kings excited for starting shooting guard competition initially appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area
SACRAMENTO — The largest query looming over the Kings as they enter coaching camp Tuesday is who can be their beginning two guard for the 2024-25 NBA season.
If Kings coach Mike Brown and the remainder of the group made one factor clear, it’s that the competitors can be a welcome sight.
Kevin Huerter was the man for the previous two seasons. That modified on the finish of final season solely after he sustained a season-ending injury.
Insert Keon Ellis.
From undrafted rookie to the G League, then from a two-way participant to an NBA Play-In Match starter, Ellis was the epitome of somebody benefiting from a possibility and working with it. When Ellis initially was supposed to only be a “fill-in,” his success within the lineup now presents Brown with a troublesome resolution.
Do you begin Ellis, a participant who, in a relatively small sample size, has confirmed he not solely belongs within the NBA however can influence successful on a group with playoff aspirations? To not point out a group that lengthy has aimed toward enhancing defensively, the place Ellis excels most.
Or do you take a look at Malik Monk, who willingly took a pay cut this summer time to stay in Sacramento, and construct upon his perception within the group’s potential?
Huerter nonetheless is rehabbing his shoulder harm and will be re-evaluated in mid-October. However as soon as he’s again, each time that may be, is he an choice to reclaim his place?
Brown, regardless of going through a tricky resolution, is grateful for the choices he has, and appears ahead to how the competitors will play out in October.
“The very first thing I’ll say is that this: I need guys on my group to not solely need to begin however need to be the perfect,” Brown mentioned Monday at Kings media day. “You need everyone in your group to need to have a dedication to being their finest, and also you need everyone to need to be at their highest stage in a gaggle. However clearly not everyone can begin. So, I am excited that Malik needs to begin. I do know his teammates are excited that he is that kind of competitor, however I additionally know that Malik is in regards to the group, and he would not do something to disappoint his teammates, particularly his finest good friend on the group.
“He would not need to convey them down, and simply as importantly, he would not need to convey down town of Sacramento. So, I do know he’ll embrace no matter function we throw at him whereas persevering with to compete and push whoever is in entrance of him or to the aspect of him or behind him, whereas we’re making an attempt to get higher as a gaggle.”
If you ask Monk – and we did – he responds in true Malik Monk trend.
As one reporter advised there was a little bit of a logjam on the two-guard spot, Monk minimize him off: “The place?”
He then made a correction, stating he isn’t a taking pictures guard and reasonably simply identifies as a “guard.”
Traditional Monk.
The 2023-24 NBA Sixth Man of the 12 months runner-up performed the perfect basketball of his seven-year pro career throughout his first two seasons with Sacramento. He did that in 149 video games – all off the bench. It’s a task he has thrived in and made his personal with an unmatchable quantity of swagger, vitality and effectiveness.
However in some unspecified time in the future, everybody needs to begin. Particularly somebody as aggressive as Monk. That mentioned, as Brown talked about, Monk is a group participant and absolutely can be OK with no matter function the Kings want him to play.
The identical goes for Ellis, who mentioned Sacramento’s teaching workers hasn’t looped him in on the place he would possibly stand with the beginning job.
“I have never heard something, truthfully, however I am open to something,” Ellis mentioned Monday. “No matter it’s to have the group win and look good, I am positively down to take action. Whether or not or not it’s beginning or off the bench, no matter, I am prepared for it.”
The man whose job is not in query — star level guard De’Aaron Fox — additionally is worked up to see how the competitors performs out.
“I feel competitors is all the time nice for a group,” Fox mentioned. “You go into it and you’ve got guys which might be preventing for a spot. And clearly nobody’s on the market going to be making an attempt to harm one another, however you get the perfect out of one another. You get the perfect out of a group while you’re really preventing for a place.
“So, I feel it will be a very good battle.”
