Malik Monk's potential future consumes Kings exit interviews

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You never know how exit interviews are going to go following a Sacramento Kings season. Oftentimes it’s an afterthought. Players who had checked out weeks earlier are dragged in front of a media group that they likely have grown tired of. It’s a lot of canned answers with players already packed and ready for an extended vacation. 

This year felt different. It wasn’t a wake or a funeral, but there was a certain somber mood to the room. Everyone was disappointed about the loss to the New Orleans Pelicans. No one was happy that the team was bounced before the playoffs started. But there is also the situation with Malik Monk and his impending free agency.

The Kings are a tight group. They were last season as well, and then management decided to run it back with many of the same players. That group is now faced with losing a member of the group who they not only all hold in high esteem as a man, but who also helps them win games. 

No one knows how this will all play out, but the Kings are fighting an uphill battle. We went through some of this conversation on Saturday, including a complicated breakdown of the finances. It doesn’t look good for the Kings, but a lot can change over the next couple of months leading to free agency.

“I can go somewhere else with a lot more money and be in a worse situation,” Monks told a packed house of media in Sacramento. “You never know. Like I said,  I’ve got a great agent, that’s going to do his job. I think my job is done. I think I did what I needed to do this year. It’s going to play out, I think it’s going to play out the right way.”