Charlotte Hornets: 2017-18 player grades for Malik Monk

Strengths

The brightest spot surrounding Malik Monk’s rookie season still has to be his potential upside. Despite having an abysmal rookie season, he still has the potential to be a high volume scorer in the league – and he showed that in flashes.

Monk got a chance to prove himself towards the end of the season with the Hornets comfortably out of the playoff race. In the final five games of the season, Monk averaged 20.4 points, 4.0 assists and 1.0 rebounds per game.

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Despite being the best five-game stretch of his NBA career, Monk still only played an average of 24.8 minutes per game. That’s incredible production in that limited of a role. Granted, Monk made the most of the minutes he was given. He wasn’t shy shooting the ball at all. In those five games, Monk put up 15.0 shot attempts per game (including 9.2 3-pointers).

Even more impressive than his volume scoring was his efficiency. As previously noted, Monk shot 36.0 percent from the field and 34.2 percent from 3-point range during his rookie season. In his last five games, Monk shot 48 percent from the field and 41.3 percent from 3.

Now that’s the Malik Monk we all saw in college. The Malik Monk that averaged nearly 20 points per game on 45 percent shooting from the field and 40 percent shooting from downtown.

With the Hornets in desperate need of some help, I’m assuming Monk’s last five games of the season and hopeful offseason development will mean he gets closer to that 20-25 minutes per game range.

Monk showed everyone that when given the opportunity, he can be that high-volume scorer we all hoped he would be.