Monk's fourth season in the NBA was an exceptional one, as he matched a career-high in assists per game and set a new career-high average for points. The 23-year-old averaged 11.7 points, 2.4 rebounds, 2.1 assists and 0.5 steals in 20.9 minutes of action. One of the biggest improvements for the young guard was his three-point efficiency, as he made a career-best 40.1 percent, increasing his percentage from the year before by over 11 percent. Monk hit a career-high nine three-pointers against the Heat on Feb. 1 and also sank a career-high 36 points in that game. While the guard only played in 42 games, he posted double-digit scoring performances in 23 of those games and scored 20 or more points in eight of those 23 games. One of the former Kentucky star's best games of the year came in a matchup with the Rockets on Feb. 8, where Monk scored 14 points to go along with five assists, four rebounds, two steals and two blocks. In Monk's play-in debut, Monk logged 13 points in 19 minutes, making 50 percent of his shots from the field. The 6-foot-3 guard was also able to match a career-best 43.4 percent of made shots from the field. Monk made an impressive 81.9 percent from the charity stripe while attempting 1.7 free throws per game. Overall, the guard made a lot of improvements in his game, including lowering his turnovers per game and improving his shooting efficiency, especially from deep.

Monk appeared in 55 games for the Hornets during the 2019-20 season. The third-year guard set new per-game career highs in points (10.3), rebounds (2.9) and assists (2.1) in 21.3 minutes per game. He also shot a career-high 43.4 percent from the field, 28.4 percent from three and 82.0 percent from the free-throw line. Monk set new single-game career-bests of 31 points, 10 rebounds and three steals. His other single-game season highs were seven assists, four threes and two blocks. The Kentucky product had one double-double on the year. Monk had six games with at least 20 points, 11 games with at least five rebounds and four games with at least five assists. He also had 20 games with at least one steal and 14 games with at least one block. Monk's longest streak of double-digit scoring games was eight contests from Feb. 1 to Feb. 22. During that stretch, he averaged 17.8 points on 13.5 shots, 4.3 rebounds and 2.1 assists in 28.8 minutes.

In his sophomore campaign, Monk came off the bench for all of his 73 appearances. He was brought in to to provide a scoring spark via outside shooting. Monk took 4.5 three-pointers in his 17.2 minutes per game. He made 33 percent of them, raising that mark to 40 percent during the month of March. He also seemed more comfortable at home, drilling 38 percent of his attempts from distance in the Spectrum Center. Increased usage from his rookie season resulted in Monk seeing his points per game rise from 6.7 to 8.9 per contest. The shooting guard also averaged 1.6 assists per game. Monk started the season hot, as he had double-digit points in 10 of his first 12 games, including two 20-point outings. Across 16 games seeing at least 24 minutes, Monk averaged 14.9 points, 2.9 rebounds and 1.8 assists. Arguably his best game of the year occurred on Dec. 31 in a 25-point home win over the Magic, with Monk dropping 21 points on 7-of-14 shooting, four assists, three rebounds, one steal, one block and just one turnover. Overall, Monk recorded 31 games with at least 10 points, five games with five-plus rebounds and four games with five-plus assists. Defensively, he recorded a steal or more in 29 games and recorded at least one block in 16 outings.

After a terrific freshman year with the University of Kentucky, Malik Monk was drafted 11th overall by the Hornets in the 2017 Draft. He'd appear in 68 NBA games during his rookie season and one contest with the G-League's Greensboro Swarm. In that one G-League game, Monk dropped 25 points with eight rebounds and four assists. At the NBA level, he averaged 6.7 points on 36 percent shooting. He saw 13.6 minutes per night and knocked down threes at a 34.2 percent clip. His first of 16 double-digit scoring games came on Oct. 25 with 17 points versus the Nuggets. That started a stretch where Monk recorded five such games over an eight-game span. During the same span, he averaged 12 points, three assists, and 2.1 rebounds. That run also included two of his five games with at least 20 points. The guard ended the season with six straight double-digit scoring games, including three consecutive 20-point performances and a season-high 26 points on Apr. 6 at the Magic. Monk would go on to average 19.8 points on 46.7 percent shooting across those six contests.