Malik Monk (SG, SAC) - Fantasy Basketball Waiver Wire Pickups for Week 7

BALLER MOVE: Add in 14+ Team Leagues

ROSTERED IN: 9% of leagues

ANALYSIS: The Sacramento Kings have arrived and are sitting pretty in the postseason run at least through the first quarter of the season. There are multiple reasons for that, of course, and that list probably doesn't start with Malik Monk at the top, but the Kings can be thankful for having signed the young veteran.

Monk is excelling in a completely different role from the one Sacto originally envisioned. He's coming off the pine (reasonably) with Kevin Huerter playing absolutely out of his mind as the starting SG. Monk, though, is still averaging a healthy 25 MPG in November (12 games) and he boasts the largest usage rate among Kings reserves (25.2%) as the leading man of the second unit.

Although Monk has not started a single game of the 18 he's played, he ranks fifth in total FP among reserves (<50% games started) with 18 or fewer games played through Saturday. Only elite players coming off the pine (Russell Westbrook, Bobby Portis, and Christian Wood) and rookie Bennedict Mathurin rank above Monk. All of those four are rostered in at least 57% of ESPN leagues at least, though.

Monk still has room to improve as he's been averaging worst shooting percentages than he's done career-wise (from the field and the charity stripe) though he's outperforming his prior 3-point shot average hitting 35.5% of his attempts beyond the three-point line. Monk is scoring 1.9 3PM per game while averaging 13+ PPG, 2+ RPG, and a career-high 4+ APG a pop.

Over the full season, Monk (22 MPG) is the only player averaging 1.9+ 3PM and 4+ APG in fewer than 25 MPG clearly benefiting from playing in a second unit instead of the starting one.

In the last six games he's played, getting back to Nov. 15, Monk has scored at least 8 points in each of them hitting double figures in three and 26+ in two. He dumped 10 treys in those five games shooting 51.4% from the floor. He put up averages of around 2-3-1 in the rest of cats.

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