Summer basketball preview: Made for Monk
One could make a case that Malik Monk will Kentucky's most important guard for the upcoming season.
He won't have the ball in his hands as much as De'Aaron Fox and Monk likely won't provide the leadership or defense that Isaiah Briscoe will, but there is one part of Monk's game that separates him from the other five-star guards.
Shooting.
Senior success: Monk was a priority for John Calipari and Kentucky for quite sometime. The Cats initially offered the 6-foot-4, 185-pound shooting guard back in the summer of 2014.
Around this time many analysts believed UK could have back-to-back guards named Malik for the 2016 and 2017 seasons. Kentucky was all-in on class of 2015 guard Malik Newman, who picked Mississippi State over UK, and has since transferred to Kansas.
And depending on who you listened to there was chatter that Newman was more likely to end up in the blue-and-white than Monk. Living in Bentonville, Ark., and having a brother that was a student-athlete for the home school many pegged Monk to be a Razorback.
As Monk was dominating AAU basketball, having some 40 and 50 point performances, UK stayed active in his recruitment. When Monk started his senior year of high school it was clear, although he didn't say as much, he was down to the Cats and Arkansas.
There were times during his junior year where several members of the Arkansas basketball team took advantage of its proximity to Monk and traveled to games. Once, the entire team showed up to support Monk.
But Monk made sure not to waste the Hogs time and surprisingly committed to UK in the early signing period.
Just weeks after officially visiting Arkansas he signed his LOI with Kentucky in mid-November, ending his recruitment and giving Calipari another five-star guard.
With his recruitment out of the way Monk could focus strictly on basketball where he stockpiled accolades during his senior season. He was named to the McDonald's All-American game along with the Jordan Brand Classic, earning a co-MVP honor with Fox. In Chicago for the McDonald's All-American game he won the three-point contest and finished second in the dunk contest.
He finished No.7 in the final Rivals.com rankings, just behind Fox. He concluded his high school season with a state title loss, averaging 28.6 points, 7.5 rebounds and 4.4 assists per game. Monk was thought to be one of the best scorers in high school basketball, having the ability to burst out for 50-point performances.
But it wasn't all rainbows and butterflies for Monk during his senior year, despite the awards and ridiculous numbers. Monk was at times criticized for a lack of effort and lazy play.
Monk disputed the claims that he would take games off, instead saying he at times would just have off nights.
Monk's freshman impact: It's clear at Kentucky Monk won't be able to take games off, if he indeed did in high school.
And whether he did or didn't, don't expect effort to be an issue in college. His worth ethic had never been questioned until a few games in the winter, and playing against Arkansas high school basketball night-in and night-out may be underwhelming for a star athlete.
It will be something to keep an eye on, especially against weaker opponents, but Calipari will likely get the most out of Monk.
And that's important because Monk is significant to UK's success.
He provides UK's backcourt with something it's desperately missing-- shooting. And shooting may be Kentucky's biggest weakness next season.
But there's a catch, Monk isn't a Doron Lamb or Devin Booker like three-point shooter. He won't finish his freshman season in college, likely his last season before the NBA, shooting 45 percent from deep.
It's unlikely he shoots above 40 percent from deep. But it may be the difference between a second weekend NCAA Tournament team and a National Championship team if he can consistently be above 35 percent from behind the arc. Anything less than 35 percent and it will be strictly the Derek Willis show from the perimeter. 35 percent or better, with hopes that Fox could be around 30 percent, and opponents would have to play UK out at the perimeter.
And despite Monk being a streaky three-point shooter in high school and AAU, if John Wall could shoot just under 33 percent from deep in college, it's not asking too much from Monk to be higher than that clip.
However, it won't just be shooting for Monk. His athletic ability and speed will make him a nightmare in transition for opposing teams. He will be Kentucky's best player attacking the basket and you can expect him to be on Sports Center Top Plays a couple times.
Defensively, when Monk is locked in he's tenacious. You will be hard pressed to find a player quicker laterally than Monk, allowing him to stay in front of anyone he's guarding, but he has a knack for anticipating where the ball is going to be, allowing him to steal the ball.
A defensive backcourt featuring Monk, Fox and Briscoe will make UK tough to score on, but with Fox and Briscoe being inconsistent shooters, Monk will need to help the trio on offense from deep.