Sources: Malik Monk to stay with Kings on 4-year, $78M deal

Free agent guard Malik Monk intends to sign a four-year, $78 million deal -- including a player option -- to return to the Sacramento Kings, sources told ESPN on Thursday night.

Monk, the NBA's Sixth Man of the Year runner-up, had a career-best season, averaging over 15 points and five assists, and he avoids free agency with the maximum deal available to him to stay in Sacramento.

His agents, Jeff Schwartz and Marcus Monk of Excel Sports, were able to begin negotiations Tuesday with Kings general manager Monte McNair and assistant GM Wes Wilcox, and Monk intends to sign the new deal once the league's moratorium ends July 6, sources said.

Keeping Monk allows the organization to continue building out the roster with confidence now that he has been retained.

Monk, 26, has resurrected his career with the Kings and keeping him became a major offseason priority. Monk led the NBA in points and assists off the bench last season and became one of only two players in the past 25 years to have 1,000 points and 300 assists as a reserve, according to ESPN Stats & Information.

Monk helped bring the Kings back to the playoffs and play-in in consecutive seasons, ending a 16-year postseason drought. A knee injury cost him the final nine games of the 2023-24 regular season and the play-in tournament. Monk had nine 25-point games off the bench for the Kings, the most since Eddie Johnson did it for the Kings in the 1986-87 season, according to ESPN Stats & Information.

Monk was the 11th pick to Charlotte in the 2017 NBA draft, spending four seasons with the Hornets before signing a free agent deal with the Los Angeles Lakers for one season in 2021.