Sacramento Kings’ Malik Monk season ended by MCL sprain. What now?

As if things weren’t already problematic for the Sacramento Kings after the loss of Kevin Heurter to a season-ending operation. Indeed, it was Malik Monk who was meant to offer cover for the missing guard and now he will join Heurter as another player whose season has been ended by injury.

Kings lose Malik Monk for the reason of the season

According to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, the Sacramento Kings are set to be without Malik Monk for the rest of the season. Regarding what happened, it was during Friday night’s 107-103 loss to the Dallas Mavericks, when

Monk suffered a sprained right MCL. While attempting to contest a Luka Dončić layup, Monk took a blow which led to him falling awkwardly, only to have Dončić fall on top of him. He was removed from the Game almost immediately. As a result, Monk is now looking at a minimum of four weeks on the sidelines i.e., it’s quite possible he won’t play again this year unless the Kings make a decent run in the postseason.

To say this is a blow to the Kings would be stating the obvious. Having recently lost the services of Kevin Heurter following a season-ending operation on his shoulder, the Kings were already looking at some tough circumstances. Monk has been more than impressive off of the bench this year. With his average of 21 points in 29.5 minutes on 57.6% shooting, his name has become synonymous with the Sixth Man of the Year award. Now in the final year of his two-year, $19.4 million deal, he will enter free agency this summer.

This of course brings to the question of what happens now. With Monk’s recovery timeline projected at anywhere between four and six weeks, the best-case scenario would see Monk playing in the first round of the playoffs, assuming the Kings can make it there. If his rehab should take the maximum amount of time, or encounter setbacks, then we’re talking Western Conference semifinals before he can step on the court once more. Again, that’s assuming the Kings can get that far. Where the team itself is concerned, the Kings’ loss on Friday dropped them to 42-31 with nine games left in the regular season. Currently sitting at 8th in the Western Conference and now minus two key players, it’s going to take something special to avoid the play-in tournament.