The Brooklyn Nets have most likely made all of the moves they’re going to make this summer outside of re-signing guard Cam Thomas to a contract that works for both sides. Brooklyn’s biggest move this offseason was trading forward Cam Johnson to the Denver Nuggets for forward Michael Porter Jr. and a 2032 first-round pick, but should the Nets make another move?
“The Sacramento Kings have been “trying very hard” to trade Malik Monk this offseason, but they haven’t found a taker, an NBA source told Grant Afseth,” Ashish Mathur of Dallas Hoops Journal wrote. As Mathur pointed out, Afseth reported that the Sacramento Kings have been trying to trade away guard Malik Monk, the kind of player that Nets general manager Sean Marks and the front office could take a chance on.
“The Kings offered the shooting guard to the Golden State Warriors for restricted free agent Jonathan Kuminga, but the Warriors declined the offer,” Mathur continued. “The Kings have been trying to trade Monk to open up a spot for Russell Westbrook, who is an unrestricted free agent.”
Assuming that Afseth’s reporting checks out, it’s curious that the Kings would be trying to trade Monk a little over over one year after signing him to a four-year, $77.98 million deal with the last year being a player option. The fact that Sacramento offered Monk in a trade offer for Golden State Warriors forward Jonathan Kuminga could show that the Kings are looking for something different at the point guard spot.
While the Nets have made their decision about their point guard of the future by selecting BYU guard Egor Demin with the eighth overall pick in the 2025 NBA Draft, it’s clear that Brooklyn is going all-in on the ball-handler skill set. Not only is Monk, 27, under contract for the next three seasons, but he is coming off the best season of his career after averaging 17.2 points, 3.8 rebounds, and 5.6 assists per game while shooting 43.9% from the field and 32.5% from three-point land.