Locked On Lakers - Daily Podcast On The Los Angeles Lakers - Sacramento Reportedly Wants to Dump Malik Monk. Should the Lakers Inquire?

Episode Date: August 22, 2025

The Lakers are, barring something unexpected, considered to be set for training camp, in terms of the roster. But that said, is there the potential for anything unexpected? Sacramento is trying desperately to unload Malik Monk (a former fave of Lakers fans, if only for a short time) so they can pick up Russell Westbrook. (That's an odd choice, we think, but a bigger question for Matt George at Locked On Kings.) Understanding that the mechanics of a Westbrook deal would be difficult to manage (remember, Sacto is trying to open up a spot, so a 1-1 trade likely doesn't work), would Monk be a welcome addition? More specifically, would Monk be the type of player worth sacrificing part of the flexibility Rob Pelinka so clearly values? It gets down to your POV about roster building... and also about the current team. Are players (and their contracts) worth more than cap space? Do the Lakers have the confidence to acquire players they think will have appeal on the open market, if they need to be moved again? Is it worth sacrificing flexibility later for guys (whether Monk or someone else) who can help win now? This is a conversation that will be happening a lot, especially as the Lakers get closer to this year's trade deadline. In the meantime, we can all enjoy Eurobasket, which is set to start next week now that everyone is all finished up with their warm up games... or at least Slovenia is. They, and Luka, took one on the chin Thursday against Serbia. Luka, who absorbed a tremendous amount of attention from the opposition, again struggled from the perimeter (2-10 from 3-point range) but managed overall to still put up a solid line with 17 points and multiple trips to the FT line. That, by the way, is something to watch. Luka hasn't been as successful getting to and finishing at the rim as he was earlier in his career. Will his physical transformation change that trend?  HOSTS: Andy and Brian KamenetzkySEGMENT 1: Why Luka gets it.  SEGMENT 2: Slovenia takes one on the chin.  SEGMENT 3: Malik Monk? Would that be a good idea for the Lakers?  Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!Monarch MoneyTake control of your finances with Monarch Money. Use code LOCKEDONNBA at monarchmoney.com/lockedonnba for 50% off your first yearGametimeDownload the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONNBA for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Download Gametime today. What time is it? Gametime.FanDuelToday's episode is brought to you by FanDuel. Football season is around the corner, visit the FanDuel App today and start planning your futures bets now.FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN) Files    Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hey everyone, welcome to Locked on Lakers for Friday. Brian Kaminowski, Andy Komeneski, the Sacramento Kings are trying to dump Malik Monk. Should the Lakers oblige? That's next. You are Locked on Lakers. Your daily Los Angeles Lakers podcast, part of the Locked on Podcast Network,

your team every day. Thanks to everyone for making Locked on Lakers your first listen to every day, Monday through Friday, no matter how or where you get your podcast. This one's always free. It is never behind paywall. Locked on Lakers on YouTube, of course.

We can go hang out with over 36,000 subscribers too, channel, all of whom Andy are, they're watching, they're waiting, they're getting ready for the summer to be over so we can get on with this Lakers basketball thing, but still plenty to get into over the course of today's show. We are going to let you know that Sacramento, they're trying to get rid of Malik Monk to,

bring in to Russell Westbrook, which is weird. We'll talk about that in a minute. But we will start with Luca Donchich and Team Slovenia. As soon as we let you know that today's episode is brought to you by GameTime. Download the GameTime app. Create an account, use code locked on NBA for $20 off your first purchase, Andy. It was the final day of preparation for Slovenia ahead of Eurobasket. and they took one on the chin against Serbia on Thursday.

Of course, Serbia led by Nikola Yokic. They've got a Bogdanovich on there. There's like players all over the NBA who are playing for Serbia as well. Not necessarily unexpected, but Slovenia loses Luca, though, despite receiving a, I think, Andy, you could argue, an enormous amount of attention from Serbia's defense. in the game on Thursday. Some might say all of it. Yeah, they were like up 30 and still double teaming him, you know, picking him up full

court. Like they were not screwing around when it came to Luke. In a relatively short minutes, Lucas still looked good, played pretty well. But his squad was certainly not up to the task of taking down Serbia on Thursday. He finished with 17.7 rebounds for assist. as you said, did not play a ton of minutes, got to the line nine times, made seven of them. The outside shot is still behind everything else right now. He was two of ten from three against Serbia.

We mentioned the last game against Great Britain. I believe he was two of eleven. That being said, though, the other stuff is what is more significant to me right now, insofar as Luca getting back his basketball timing and sort of what we're looking for, in terms of results from the skinny Luca transformation. He has looked well everywhere else, and the three-point shot, A, is going to be better than it's been this offseason once the regular season rolls around.

And B, three-point shooting is the area of Luca's game, but obviously he is a good three-point shooter, and at times he can be a deadly three-point shooter. But that's never been, I think, among the stronger parts of his game, stronger being relative because he's offensively, arguably the best all around a player in the game just on that side of the ball. So it's all very relative. But there are other areas in which Luca has been looking like himself. I expect that to continue. Plus, we should mention because I think people found this delightful. The tweet went viral. Luca was spotted out

by someone named Gabriel Gabatelli, I believe, and tweeted out this morning, Slovenian Auto Grill, me and my friends, going to get a refill of Lasco beer. There you go. At the bar, there's a really tall guy in flip-flops. He's drinking a coffee. Very important, drinking a coffee because everybody monitors Luca's beer intake.

He's with another man. I look closer. It's Donchich. I almost didn't recognize him. 15 kilograms. super fit. I say Luca and he smiles. He gestures for me to step outside in the parking lot. He greets me and my friends, takes photos with me, says the injury from the friendly match. This is referring back to earlier in the friendly period. No big deal. Super pumped for the Europeans.

Says goodbye in Italian, chow. Thank you for clarifying. And leaves. Life is really strange. One day you're training with the Lakers in Los Angeles and heading back to your villa in Beverly Hills. Another day you're in flip-flops at an auto grill, chatting with complete strangers in Italy and look at this photo of skinny Luca dare I say look at that face he looks thinner everything looks great that's really awesome it's it's a good thing you know I think this was from a day or two go ahead of the of the game um on on Thursday but yeah I mean like look there are a couple things about this now I want to elaborate a bit on a point that you made before one of the things that is real has really stuck out to me.

Luca, not only like, we spent a lot of time this week talking about his understanding of the importance of playing for his country. And a bunch of people in the comments of the YouTube section pointed out like Slovenia is very little. Like we're not

talking about 15, 20, 30, 35, 40 million people in this country. It's like two. It's a very little country. And to be involved in to be on this stage and have a player of Luca's caliber, it's a really, really big deal.

And so Luca gets it. The other thing he gets, and we've seen this over and over and over again since he joined the Lakers, is he gets like what it is for people to see him and meet him, be around, you know, whether it's Luca, Janus, Yokic, like, does the opportunity, like, you and I have been doing this for a long time, it can be, you, you, you, You are literally trained to not make a big deal and fan boy out when you're like standing in the scrum or in the locker room or something like that.

You're talking to these. It's like it's your job to like be cool, man. But it's easy to forget like. And after a while too, I mean, to be honest, as much as I mean, you and I have both said many times over the years and on this show, like the opportunity to speak with Kobe. outside of like a scrum asking him a question, but like have a conversation with him to the side or sometimes just BS with him about movies or other stuff. Like that is really cool in the sense that Kobe was a really interesting person. Right.

And a really smart guy with a lot of different interests. So it's interesting to talk with him in the way that it would be interesting to talk with any interesting person. But after a while, it really does become very normal for us to have a conversation. Yeah, I will say the conversation with Powell. Like it's normal after a while. It's normal. It's still, it's like it's your job. It's a really cool job.

But it's, it's still your job. But like it can you, you can lose touch of the impact that it can have to be around professional athletes, these guys like that that are so admired. And, you know, for whom may a lot of people, you know, they, they wear the jerseys. They watch the games. They do all these things. It is always impressive to me when a globally recognized star like Luca gets it. You see him outside hotels.

He signs, I mean, basically everything. He signs before games. He will take a picture with random dudes, you know, in Italy, you know, and their friends. He understands the impact that he has. He is very giving to the, you know, the fan base and all that kind of stuff. And in addition, you know, it's if you have to choose between the guy who can lead your team to titles and the guy who's just, you know, great in the community and, you know, we'll sign all the autographs and all that kind of stuff, most people, if they have to pick one, most fans will take the guy who will bring him titles.

That's just being honest. But when you have an opportunity to have both, and that is what the Lakers have in Luca Donchich, it is a very cool thing. It is a reason when the Lakers talk about building around him and how excited they are and all these kinds of things. They are not, it's not just blowing smoke. Like, he is legitimately great with fans.

There's a really interesting dichotomy that, you know, neither one of us knows Luca well at all. He has not been with the team. No, no. We have not had many, opportunities to speak with him even in a formal setting, much less anywhere else. But one of the things that I do find, you notice this right away with Luca, and it's really interesting, he is perfectly polite with media, you know, cordial enough.

It's very just very straight ahead, short-worded answers. It's not rude. It's certainly not combative the way, say, the exchanges off with Russell Westbrook were. But Luca clearly does not like the media portion. of his job. He will do it. He will do it professionally enough, but it's not something that he enjoys, but he loves a stage. He loves being on a stage, being in the spotlight. I don't think he necessarily from a basketball standpoint. Right. That's what I'm saying. I was just about to say, I don't think he necessarily loves being a star, like in terms of being famous, like with the idea of

relishing fame or wanting to, I mean, he obviously wants to capitalize it on it. He does commercials. He does other stuff. But the idea of being famous in and of itself, I don't get a sense appeals inherently to Luca. But if being famous is part of what gets him on that stage, that part of it he loves. So one more thing that you mentioned in terms of actually looking at Luca's game on Thursday that I want to get to about what's important, specifically with his stat lines. We'll do that. And then we'll answer the question, should the Lakers kick the tires with Sacramento and Malik Monk since they seem so determined to get rid of him? We'll do all that next. Lockdown Lakers brought to you by game time. We've all

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Download the GameTime app today. Last-minute tickets, lowest price guarantee. Real quick, before, Andy, we get back into the one last thing for Slovenia that I actually am kind of interested in with what Luca looks like. You know, you talk about the shooting and things like that. Quick overview of what the schedule looks like when the games, the real games begin. It starts on the 28th at 1130 Pacific against Poland. That's a week from today.

Poland, of course, hosting Eurobasket, one of the hosts. And then on the 30th, it's France at 8 in the morning Pacific time. If you really want to see Belgium versus Slovenia on Sunday the 31st, set an alarm. That's 5 a.m. on Sunday the 31st, Tuesday the 2nd of September, 8 a.m. against Iceland, finally against Israel on the 4th of September. Again, 8 a.m. So got to get up early if you want to watch these games.

The one thing, there is one thing, I agree with you. I'm not worried about how many three-pointers he makes and this and that, whatever. The thing that I am most interested in seeing is how much he is drawing foul, how easily he can get to the rim, stuff like that, because if there is a trend that people have been looking at with Luca over the last couple of seasons, that they find a little bit shaky, it's that he is finishing less at the rim now than he did when he was younger.

I'm not talking about dunks. I just mean layups, you know, finishing on those kinds of plays. Less of that over the last couple seasons than earlier in his career. So what you do want to see is, is Luca getting to the rim, drawing fouls, things like that, getting himself into the paint effectively. So, you know, the last two games that he's played in this preparation has been in the line over 20 times. So that is a good sign, even if the free throw, I'm sorry, the three pointers aren't going down. All right, Andy. Really, really quick, just for a little bit of

clarification. When you're talking about getting to the line and finishing, are you talking purely about the ability to draw files? Are you talking about and one stuff like that? Like when you say finishing, do you mean through the contact? Getting into the paint, you know, finishing around the rim, being in any position where they need to foul you because you're otherwise you'll have a layup, things like that. But just like the, you know, stuff that makes you more likely to be going towards the basket and finishing at the basket as opposed to settling for a, uh, a step back three-pointer or, you know, settling for the mid-range because you can't quite get, you know, where you want to be. So that aspect of Luca's game, I think that's probably if there's one thing that people are most interested in seeing if the weight loss makes a difference and the, you know, the get a little more explosiveness and stuff like that, regaining a little bit of or at least stopping some of that downward trend that we've seen over the last couple of years in terms of how much he is at and finishing at the rim. So that's something I'm interested. Russell Westbrook. Sacramento really, really, really wants Russell Westbrook. The way they appear ready to go get him is by trading Malik Monk.

That they have decided is the route that they need to take. Now, like they've had Malik on the block for most of the summer. So this part isn't new. but they really seem determined to unload Malik Monk's contract for reasons I am not entirely sure as to why. But of course, haven't been able to do it, but I'm wondering like, you know, Lakers, Malik Monk, bench scoring, good guy, likes it here, all that stuff. Yeah, according to Grant Aftseth of Dallas Hoops Journal, quote, the Sacramento Kings have been trying very hard to trade Malik Monk this. offseason, but I haven't found a taker. NBA source told Grant Aftseth. And this is to specifically trade Monk so they can open up a roster spot for Russell Westbrook. I is not clear from the

reporting at least that I've seen whether or not this is motivated more by offloading Monk's salary. he is under contract through 2028 with a player option for that final year. All the years are somewhere between around 19 million and 21 and a half. So it's a pretty reasonable contract, certainly not onerous for a productive player. I don't know if that they also just think Russell Westbrook will be a better fit for what they want to do than Malik Monk, which I find bizarre. Of course, but the flip side is it's hard to know what they're wanting. want to do. Right. Well, it's, that is an open-ended statement about the Sacramento Kings. Basically, since roughly the heyday of C-Web and Vlade and Mike Bibby and down the line,

without getting too into the weeds about this, because if the kings are looking to move Monk to open up a roster spot, it means that like a straight one-for-one deal, I don't think would be doable for them. For the best of my knowledge, they only have one player who might, Terrence Davis might not be fully guaranteed for this season, but it could be complicated to make a type of deal that opens up that spot for Monk. It could involve a third team, yada, yada, yada, yada. But without getting into the weeds, just more a discussion of, do you think the Lakers

should try to find a way to get Monk to the Lakers? would it make sense? Also, should the Lakers theoretically be willing to take on the contract of someone like Malik Munk, which could go through 2028 if Munk isn't good enough, who is, because we've talked before about the reports that they really want to maintain that flexibility with their books and maneuverability, which could mean someone like Munk would not make the cut for an exception? I find that to be like, you know, that's with whether it's Malik Monk or really anybody. This is the question that I just find most intriguing.

Like we've seen enough. I know I know you've been skeptical of how dedicated they might be at least to the 2027. Part of this, you know, not the summer of 26, but like really trying to keep. maximum flexibility into the summer of 2027, the hypothetical Yokic, the hypothetical Yonis summer, and so on. And I think, you know, too much is going to happen between now and then to really say definitively what the Lakers are going to do. But I think it's pretty clear at this point.

At the very least in the short term, they are not adding anyone that's taking them past at the very least you know at the most next season certainly not two years like they just for me I I am buying really quick real quick to the best of our knowledge though certainly in the reporting or anything

either one of us have heard behind the scenes or whatever they have not had the opportunity to obtain somebody as good as Malik Monk maybe that may be true but look I mean I who do we

had this conversation last week. Would you oh, it was extending Rui? Like would you extend Rui at you know, three years between $20 million based on its current production, all that kind of stuff, understanding that it would eat into some of that money and some of that flexibility. My answer to that was yes, I would do that. I, would I acquire if I could figure out how. would I acquire, you know, Malik Munk and make it work? No.

that I'm going to have probably at the very least I have to be willing to pay him for two more summers. Yes, I would do that. And the reason is because I think it is a better way to build a team to have players than to have space. And these guys are not prohibitively expensive. I don't think they are, although apparently Malik Monk is harder to trade than maybe you might think. But they're not, they're not prohibitively expensive. They're good players. They are young, both of them under 30.

So I just, I prefer to have people rather than maximum cap space, especially for free agents that I just don't think are going to be around and available. Janus, maybe, but Yokic isn't going anywhere. I'd just be, I'd be stunned if Yokic leaves and they let him go. A couple of, a couple other things about this, you know, sort of the hypothetical. And then we've got to talk a little bit about the whole Rust part of it. But we'll do all that next. I just, I think Andy, the Lakers are, they're really, they've been burned.

I think the Lakers very aggressively re-signed players after getting, you know, after being able to trade Westbrook, the Lakers liked what they saw. They went on a Western Conference Finals run. It looked like they had this, this core that was worth bringing back. And it just hasn't worked out. It had, they haven't been able to. have the type of flexibility with the contracts in a way that I'm talking about. Like it is it is fair to say like that was kind of the idea.

This is what we were talking about. You have players in different slots. You can trade them. You bring in Gabe Binsey, you're this guy, you've that guy. And it just hasn't worked to where the players they have have the type of value and haven't played well enough that you could use them to, to acquire the players you need rather than than doing it through free. agency. That said, it is really important in defense of what the Lakers are doing to remember

cap space when you have that much of it is not just about signing free agents. When you have that much of it, you are one of the teams that can trade, you know, players into your cap space. You can absorb guys. You can make runs at a restricted free agent. Like look around the league this year and see what's happening. I'm not saying you want these guys specifically, although maybe you do. you know, a guy like Josh Giddy, a guy like Cam Thomas, the Kaminga thing, if that's your particular taste. And so you have a lot of optionality when you have that space. And I can see why the Lakers would say, you know, that's what we want, we want the maximum amount of flexibility.

I get it. I just think it never quite plays out the way that you want. The other question I want to ask you real quick, in theory, the guy who would make it so Malik Munk wouldn't necessarily feel that necessary to me is Dalton like if you had a lot

of confidence in Dalton as a bench score, a floor spacer, a bench score, a little bit of a different player in some ways than Malik, but they would serve similar roles. Similar-ish. I don't, I'll get into why. I don't find them quite as similar as the way

you're laying out, but continue. Okay, well, that's kind of one of my questions is like, do you, if you had more confidence in Dalton as a, sort of as a prospect and as somebody who's going to be able to produce for you this year, would you be less inclined to try to, you know, bring in Malik Monk's 15 to 18 points of game? Not necessarily because, not necessarily in terms of making it Dalton versus Monk, just because there's elements of Malik Monk's game that, for the. the time being Dalton doesn't replicate, and I'm not sure that he will. For example,

Malik's turned into a pretty good playmaker. Like for somebody who is not a point guard, the last couple of seasons, he's averaged five to six assists a game. Yeah, I agree. And Dalton is way off from that. Like we've seen a bit of putting the ball on the floor from Dalton, you know, a little bit of playmaking stuff like that. And to be fair, to Dalton, it took Malik Monk a few years before he could do that. He really actually started of blossoming his one season with the Lakers along these lines. I think that's when he really started to come into his own a bit as a playmaker, and then it really started to flourish with Sacramento.

But that's something that you would immediately get with Monk, that you're not going to get next season with Dalton. Dalton also, I think, would really have to improve overall as a score to match what you're going to get from Monk, just because beyond the outside shooting, Dalton Connect is a better outside shooter now than Malik Monk has really been his whole career. Malik's had a couple seasons in the high 30s, but for the most part, he's been like a league average three-point shooter. Like his best year, I think, or his best couple seasons as a three-point shooter, one of them has been with the Lakers.

Like for the most part, he's been a mid-30s-ish three-point shooter last season, about 32%. So in that respect, I don't consider them overlapping. quite the same way. I see it in a lot of ways more of a Rui type of overlap, just because despite the difference in positionality. Right, because Rui is a score who is as accomplished as Malik. He is, Malik, I think, is more forceful around the rim, but Rui's a better outside shooter. They're both kind of three-level scores in their own right. Rui's become a very good cutter, stuff like that. And, you know, Malik is a better playmaker, but Rui can handle certain physicality matchups or things like that that Malik can't do. And between the two, Rui's a better

defender, no matter what you think of Rui's defense and- Not good, but he's bad. He's a better defender than Malik. But the question that I think is most pressing in this in terms of, would you sacrifice that type of flexibility for Malik or for a Malik caliber player, maybe somebody you consider 10% better than Malik, is the idea of how much better you want to be right now versus down the road? I also thought it was interesting when you said

that the Lakers have been burned at times with some of these contracts, in particular too. I think that the off-season, the 2020, the off-season heading into the season that just finished the summer of 2024. Right. When everybody opted into their player options,

Jackson Hayes, Christian Wood, Cam Reddish, Angelo Russell, LeBron, the one that they clearly expected and hoped for. I think that is another example of them picturing flexibility that doesn't come. And, you know, other than Cam Reddish, I honestly don't think any of the player options they gave those. those guys were indefensible or pretty strangely. You know, at the time when they got Jackson Hayes, the big man market was really thin. They needed to get him over here for a veteran's minimum.

When they got Christian Wood, it was considered a steal for a veteran's minimum. I just feel like to the point that you were making about being burned and I think kind of risk adverse because of that, I understand that you don't want to box yourself into bad scenarios, but at the same time, you can't in some ways box yourself out of pretty good ones because you're worried that they won't be perfect. And that isn't even so much me endorsing the idea of really trying to find like a third team or whatever configuring necessary to bring in Malik Monk. I just think it sort of supports the idea you're getting out of. You can't be scared to do things because it gets in the way of the utopian. vision that you have that may never arrive anyway.

It's true. And to be clear, I think the inclination, I don't think this is the primary reason, or even close to the primary reason why the Lakers are approaching things the way they are. They are doing this because this is how they do things. This is how they have always done it. They have always prized flexibility and cap space in this way. And sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. But this is the historical pattern. It's not just, you know, I think they're scared because they couldn't, you know,

they've been unable to move Jared Vanderbilt. It's just when you start to put all these things together, I think it's right. And I just think, and we'll go, we'll leave. It's just do all of this. Try to figure it to dump a good, like for Russ. Like, eh, don't get it. Well, but then again, look at their current roster right now, Sacramento. Their foundation is, the,

DeMontas Subbonus, DeMarta Rosen, Zach Levine, Dennis Schroeder, whether the fifth guy is Malik or Russ, it's just a weird hodgepodge of like one-way, one-way offensive B-to-B-plus level players. Like Keon Ellis and Kegan Murray, Godspeed to these guys trying to defend waves, arms around everything you're going to need to with those guys.

It's a weird team because they have too many good players to be objectively terrible, but they have way too many weird pieces to be good. You look at that and you go, I don't understand what you're trying to do other than I guess avoid a rebuild. other than that, I don't understand what you. I don't understand what you're trying to build at all. It's Sacramento, man. That's just how they go. Lockton Liquors on YouTube is where you can go hang out. Forget it.

Forget it, Jake. It's Sacramento. It's Sacramento. Locked on YouTube is where you can go hang out with over 36,000 subscribers of the channel. Hey, you have a great weekend. We'll see you Monday.