It's only a matter of time before the Sacramento Kings blow everything up and start from scratch. They've now lost five straight games, including two consecutive to the Portland Trail Blazers, and their 6-22 record on the season (at present) is not even fully indicative of how poorly the team is constructed. Amid the team's mess, one of the key guys of their Beam Team of four seasons ago in Malik Monk is finding himself lost in the shuffle under head coach Doug Christie's leadership.
Monk has been shuttling in and out of the rotation, with the talented and pacey guard falling out of favor entirely over the past two games — racking up two DNPs in consecutive defeats to the Portland Trail Blazers. The Kings have not exactly kept their de-prioritization of Monk a secret, and Christie is taking it one step further by giving the likes of Russell Westbrook and Dennis Schroder more minutes than the man who's been here over the past three and a half seasons.
But the Kings head coach said that he simply playing it game by game and that Monk could be back in the rotation as soon as their Sunday night clash against the Houston Rockets.
“That doesn’t mean he’s out of the rotation. He could be in [the rotation] very well tonight. We’ll see,” Christie said, per Tristi Rodriguez of NBC Sports California.
The Kings are a ticking time bomb
It's borderline coaching malpractice for someone like Monk to be playing zero minutes in 2025. He's not washed up; he's shown when he gets minutes that he can still fill up the scoring column and be a spark plug for a Kings team in dire need of some energy and winning basketball.
Monk is a not a superstar, but considering how well he's played for the Kings over the past few seasons, one would think that he would be getting more respect than he has thus far this season. He's a prime change of scenery candidate who should flourish once more when he gets traded away.
