Monk or Ellis? Kings excited for beginning taking pictures guard competitors
Monk or Ellis? Kings excited for beginning taking pictures guard competitors initially appeared on NBC Sports activities Bay Space
SACRAMENTO – The most important query looming over the Kings as they enter coaching camp Tuesday is who would be the beginning two guard for the 2024-25 NBA season.
If Kings coach Mike Brown and the remainder of the crew made one factor clear, it’s that the competitors is a welcome sight.
Kevin Huerter has been the man over the previous two seasons. That modified on the finish of final yr solely after he sustained a season-ending harm. Insert Keon Ellis.
From undrafted to the G League to a two-way participant to a starter within the NBA Play-In Match – Ellis was the epitome of benefiting from a possibility and working with it. When he initially was supposed to simply be a “fill-in,” his impression and success within the lineup now current Brown with a tough choice.
Do you begin Ellis, a participant who – in a comparatively small pattern measurement – has confirmed he not solely belongs within the NBA however can impression successful on a crew with playoff aspirations? To not point out a crew that lengthy has aimed toward bettering defensively – the place Ellis excels most.
Or do you have a look at Malik Monk, the participant who willingly took a pay minimize this summer season to stay in Sacramento and construct upon his perception within the crew’s potential?
Huerter’s nonetheless rehabbing his shoulder harm, and will likely be re-evaluated in mid-October. However as soon as he’s again, at any time when that is perhaps, is he an choice to reclaim his place?
For Brown, regardless of it being a troublesome choice, he’s grateful for the quantity of choices he has and looking out ahead to how the competitors performs out.
“The very first thing I’ll say is that this: I need guys on my crew to not solely wish to begin, however wish to be the perfect,” Brown stated Monday at Media Day. “You need everyone in your crew to wish to have a dedication to being their greatest, and also you need everyone to wish to be at their highest degree 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 crew, and he would not do something to disappoint his teammates, particularly his greatest buddy on the crew.
“He would not wish to deliver them down, and simply as importantly, he would not wish to deliver down the 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 facet of him or behind him, whereas we’re making an attempt to get higher as a gaggle.”
Whenever you ask Monk – and we did – he responds in true Malik Monk style.
As one reporter prompt there was a little bit of a log jam 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 fairly simply identifies as a “guard.”
Traditional Monk.
The 2023-24 NBA Sixth Man of the 12 months runner-up displayed the perfect basketball of his skilled profession throughout his two seasons with Sacramento. He did that in 149 video games – all off the bench. It’s a job 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 these as aggressive as Monk. With that being stated, nonetheless, as Brown talked about, Monk is a crew participant and certainly will likely be OK with no matter function the crew wants him to play.
The identical goes for Ellis, who stated the teaching employees hasn’t looped him in on the place it would stand with the beginning job.
“I have not heard something, actually, however I am open to something,” Ellis stated Monday. “No matter it’s to have the crew win and look good, I am positively down to take action. Whether 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 at all times nice for a crew,” Fox stated. “You go into it and you’ve got guys which might be combating 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 crew whenever you’re really combating for a place.
“So I feel it will be battle.”
