Charlotte Hornets: Analyzing Malik Monk’s potential All-Star quality offense
By James Bu
All about that pace
If Borrego is too deeply entrenched in his vision of Malik Monk as an SG, and unwilling to give Monk proper minutes running the point, a simple way to increase Malik’s usage AND increase the team’s overall pace would be to let Malik initiate fastbreaks every time he grabs a defensive rebound.
Monk is almost a complete transition player; he is so hard to stop with momentum(which is part of the reason pin downs are used frequently for Malik in half-court sets) so whenever he pushes the pace good things happen; but Monk is also great at attacking half-set defenses in semi-transition, creating for others and leaking out himself.
Overall, Malik is growing offensively. He’s strangely surrendered the pull-up jumpers that made him a can’t miss prospect, whilst improving his finishing and poise by leaps and bounds.
This offseason, the clear objective for Malik Monk offensively, is to finally improve his jumper; Monk with an improved jumper can certainly surpass the Monk that finished the 2019/2020 season averaging 17 points per game.
But because of his rare deceleration ability and his efficacy at the basket, there may be untapped potential in Malik Monk as a primary ballhandler, as a point guard, which could help him reach the all-star team.