Malik Monk
- Thread starter kmjcats24
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No he's not. Monk is a pull up shooter – and a good one. But he’s not a good player at this point in his career. He’s actually the worst player of the guys who get substantial minutes. He doesn’t do anything other than shoot. Nothing. His shot selection is not good. He doesn’t even pretend he’s going to try to block out or go for any rebound. He allows offensive rebounds in bunches. He doesn’t put any effort into defending. He is simply a liability on the floor.
Some great shooters and scorers never become anything else. It would be crazy to say that about Monk at this young stage of his career. I know he can and likely will eventually become a much better player. But, if he is going to be satisfied with just pulling up and rising above his defender for shots – if that’s all he’s going to bring – then at best he’ll be a journeyman NBA player inserted to hit some shots and then pulled quickly before he hurts the team too much.
Have to agree about Monk. Thought he was going to develop faster. Maybe if he was playing behind a good upperclassman 2G, and having to earn his minutes based on playing smarter and harder, and doing all the things winning players do in addition to scoring, then he would develop faster.
That's a pretty interesting thought. Monk appears to have all the talent and athleticism to be a much more complete player. But, I have to keep reminding myself that he’s a freshman, so in no way am I thinking he won’t get there. I just don’t have a lot of confidence that it will be in a UK uniform.
I don't blame Monk I blame Fox. Fox is great at getting to the rim but he doesn't know how to run a team. He's the first person that needs to set Monk up.
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16 post in 2 years, and your complaining about Monk. There is Absolutely No reason you have only 16 post in 2 years.
Tyler Ulis would get Monk 30pts a game and feed Bam all day too.
It's a process. It's January. Not March.
Talk to me about these two in Mid March heading into the Dance. That's about 7 weeks from now.
Talk to me about these two in Mid March heading into the Dance. That's about 7 weeks from now.
I watched Josh Jackson tonight and I couldn't help but be envious. He defended our 4 the entire night. Drove the lane and always made the right decision on whether to pass/shoot. Played within the offense, and never forced anything outside the first 5 minutes. Plus, he was a beast on the boards.
Oh btw, he shot better from 3 than Monk did. KU got the best freshman. Monk, Ball, and Porter are just trying for 2nd.
Oh btw, he shot better from 3 than Monk did. KU got the best freshman. Monk, Ball, and Porter are just trying for 2nd.
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anon_q409idbs5m40a
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All Monk wants to do is shoot, period. Wont' give the ball up on the fast break and tries to make the difficult play instead of being fundamental. We were down 5 with 3 minutes to go and instead of driving to the basket he takes a step back three. Not smart basketball.
Monk has been the best player on this team from day one. I would take a bad shot from him over any open jumper from Fox and Briscoe. Keep Shooting Monk, and I don't get the complaining with Monk because he's the least of this teams problems!!!
He's a guard how much blocking out do you expect he's our best player and where's the argument.
He makes better passes to Bam than anyone else rewatch the game.
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anon_q409idbs5m40a
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Right, and what's his over/under on turnovers? Five at UT last week and I haven't seen the box score tonight but I know of twice he threw the ball away.
You just saw and replied to my argument. As I’ve said, Monk’s a good spot-up and pull-up shooter. Love his talent, and UK is very lucky to have him. But he’s so far from a great player at this point that it’s not even funny.
You seem to want to define a great player as anybody who has the athletic ability to get off tough 3 point shots and hit a good percentage of open 3 point shots. And Monk can certainly do both of those things pretty well even as a freshman. But that’s all you get at this point. And to me, if a guy at that stage of development is your “best” player, you ain’t got much to look forward to.
The best players beat you in a lot of different ways. Right now Monk can only hurt his opponent in one way – but at the same time he’s hurting his team in a multitude of other ways. Scoring and playing the rest of the game are not mutually exclusive things.
I agree the players have to help get shots for Monk. He’s the team’s best outside scorer. But even on the offensive end he’s deficient right now. He doesn’t drive or get to the line enough (although to be fair to him, I think he is doing better at that). He doesn’t offensively rebound despite superior athletic ability. And in my opinion he hurts the team way too much on the defensive end. And it would be one thing if Monk just didn’t have the talent to be any more than he’s showing now, but we all know he does. I believe that it is just a matter of when he puts it all together, and I’m hoping at least a little of that happens before he leaves UK.
You do realize there are two ends of the floor don't you? I love Monk but he needs to work as hard on defense as he does on offense! And he needs to start rebounding the ball too!
Yes there is but my goodness man, he's a 6'3 shooting gaurd and if anyone needs to rebound better it's our bigs especially Bam.... His defense isn't as bad as many think, and all I know he looks like Gary Peyton out there compared to Fox....
Yea he would have had a lot more points tonight and we would have maybe won the game if he didn't go that 7 or 8 min stretch without a shot .. Hell even Cal brought it up first thing in the post game. Our guys especially Briscoe and Fox have got to give in and get him better shots.....
Maybe this will remind fans that a ranking means nothing when you're a freshman at the next level.
We shouldn't expect next years class, much less revered, to not struggle.. but we will. And we will do this all over again.
I said this at the start, I'm not entirely convinced that Fox, Monk, and Briscoe all leave like everyone thought. I think one comes back. These three really struggle to coexist, and I think someone will be the odd man out. Probably Briscoe, but you never know.
We shouldn't expect next years class, much less revered, to not struggle.. but we will. And we will do this all over again.
I said this at the start, I'm not entirely convinced that Fox, Monk, and Briscoe all leave like everyone thought. I think one comes back. These three really struggle to coexist, and I think someone will be the odd man out. Probably Briscoe, but you never know.
Agreed, but this is the current state of the game whether we like it or not. I think it's easy to go 7-8 min without a shot when you are 18-19 years old. It's frustrating to watch 'kids' with so much talent, but not the mental fortitude to use it effectively all the time.
Yep our fans do this every single year... Hell watch this team end up the final 4 like 2 other previous UK team's did that struggled a lot more than this team has.... I'm just glad it's still January and with plenty of time to peak!!!
Defending our 4 is a breeze. No open set shots from 3. No worries about driving by them, blocking out or shooting over them.
Exactly. I'd rather lose a couple of games in Jan/Feb to humble our guys than having them think they are unbeatable in Mar/Apr.
Both of our programs measure themselves by F4 and NC. And rightfully so. Your team is fine and will be one of the favorites to win it all.
Monk is our best shooter, feeds the post well, better defender than Fox, Gabriel, or Willis. He could rebound better. Him and Bam should be our keys on offense. There is no reason he should go for long stretches without a look. Shot clock starts running down, the ball needs to be in his hand. It was early in the year. We've got away from that. Monk is not our problem.