Charlotte Hornets: 2017-18 player grades for Malik Monk
By Luke Askew
Malik Monk had a rookie season full of ups and downs for the Charlotte Hornets. Let’s take a look through his rookie campaign and grade his performance.
Before the 2017 NBA Draft, many experts and fans had Malik Monk as a surefire top 10 pick with potential to be taken in the top six. The New York Knicks disappointed their fans when they infamously passed on Monk in favor of Frank Ntilikina. The Charlotte Hornets made no such mistake.
It was a fairly common opinion among the NBA and its fans that the Hornets got an absolute steal at pick No. 11 when they selected Malik Monk. His rookie season would soon contradict that opinion, however.
Monk played in 63 games (all off the bench) and averaged a mere 6.7 points, 1.4 assists and 1.0 rebounds per game on a poor 36.0 percent shooting from the field and 34.2 percent shooting from 3.
A lot of this was likely due to his lack of playing time, only averaging 13.6 minutes per game. However, the same could be said in reverse. Perhaps the reason he didn’t play much was because he struggled to find his game in the NBA. It was a double-edged sword for Malik Monk that resulted in an extremely disappointing rookie campaign.
Let’s take a look at his strengths, weaknesses and highlights from the season before giving the rookie a final grade for his first NBA season.