04-23-2021, 03:54 PM
(04-23-2021, 02:32 PM)HanspardsShowerVoice Wrote: On this train of thought again, I overlooked who might be the obvious answer ... Malik Monk, who has suddenly resembled the same kind of shooter we remember from Kentucky and is now currently 42+% at 3P%. Wonder what kind of offer he is going to get as an unrestricted free agent. He's a bit of a one hit wonder work in progess, but he's still just turned 23 years old a couple of months ago.
The Ringer had a good write up on Monk recenty, and go into the deeper issue of how teams handle player development. Especially for 19 year old kids who come in the after a 1 and done year in college and need a ton of patience and support on and off the court, and how teams with playoff and title aspirations have hard time finding the minutes to let them take their lumps. And it's even worse for young kids today who live on social media where the criticism and pressure is in their face everyday.
The question of how to properly develop a player is tricky. Every team has their own approach for getting guys up to speed, as well as their own timeline. Oklahoma City, for example, is letting its young, inexperienced roster play through mistakes as part of a rebuild, while the Warriors have struggled with how to incorporate no. 2 pick James Wiseman as they’ve tried to compete. (Wiseman is now out for the rest of the season with a meniscus injury.) Then there’s the fact that no two players grow and learn the exact same way.
“I had a head coach on a different team telling me that for a top-10 pick, the best thing they could have done was put them in the G league,” the scout said, referencing the fact that some young picks don’t get enough in-game experience early in their NBA careers. “But there was too much pressure. He was a top-10 pick in the draft, so it’s also about how the player handles it. … I think the best teams know how to make the G League a vehicle for development.”
https://www.theringer.com/nba/2021/4/20/...opment-nba
I doubt the Mavs will touch Monk after what happened with Odom.
Suspended June 8th 2020 for cocaine, probably entered rehab in the extended off-season and is now clean. Seems a pretty straight forward explanation that has little to do with developing his basketball skills. Just getting his nose clean and his head straight.
I was a huge fan of him before the draft. While it is far from an exact science and we get it wrong a lot, his initial failure shocked me.
Hopefully he can stay on the right path.