De’Aaron Fox on Malik Monk’s uncertain future with Sacramento Kings: ‘This is a business’

One of the biggest questions facing the Sacramento Kings this offseason is the uncertain future of guard Malik Monk as he enters unrestricted free agency this summer.

Sacramento suffered a season-ending 105-98 loss to the New Orleans Pelicans in the play-in tournament Friday at Smoothie King Center. The loss highlighted Monk’s importance to the Kings after their bench was outscored 34-12.

Monk finished second in the NBA this season in points and assists per game among all bench players.

“Obviously, I think he was extremely big for us,” Kings point guard De’Aaron Fox said. “People that watched us play know that he should be Sixth Man of the Year. But at the end of the day, this is a business, and I feel like what he gave to us in his two years that he has been here, I feel like he showed his value, what he can do for a team.”

The Kings are somewhat hamstrung when it comes to retaining Monk. They only have his early Bird rights and the most they can pay him is roughly $78 million over four years. It’s likely he could command more on the open market from another team.

“I’m happy for him regardless if he’s with us or if he isn’t. He knows that,” Fox said. “But at the end of the day, this is a business. You can only play basketball for so long.”

Monk had the most productive season of his career before an MCL sprain knocked him out for the remainder of the season. He suffered the injury when Luka Doncic fell on his knee during a March 29 loss to the Dallas Mavericks. He missed the final nine games of the regular season and the two play-in games.

Monk averaged a career-best 15.4 points and 5.1 assists while playing 26.0 minutes per game.

His injury was reportedly expected to keep him out four to six weeks. Friday’s game marked four weeks since the injury, which means there was a chance he could have returned to the lineup had the Kings won Friday and advanced to the playoffs against the Oklahoma City Thunder.

“Malik’s another playmaker on the court with Foxy,” Kings center Domantas Sabonis said. “When you have two of those guys on the court at the same time, it makes it really difficult for defenses to guard. So he was definitely missing (Friday), especially for me as a big man.”

Fox and Monk have played basketball together since childhood. They were college teammates at Kentucky and reunited before last season when Monk signed a two-year $19.4 million deal with the Kings in the summer of 2022.

Fox was asked if he would try to get Monk to stay.

“Definitely, for sure,” Fox said. “(But) money talks. Like I said, you can’t play this game forever. You have such a short window to play basketball. Obviously, not everyone is going to be ‘Bron or CP (LeBron James and Chris Paul) and play 19, 20 years. You have to be able to get paid whenever you can, obviously. That’s what Vince Carter told me and he played 21, 22 years. So Malik was great for us. Obviously, I would love to have him back, but I don’t know what the future holds.”