4 Kings Players who must step up after Malik Monk injury 

1. Chris Duarte

After being one of the main guys off the bench and even starting some games earlier this season, Chris Duarte has struggled to stay in the rotation lately. With Malik Monk, Kevin Huerter, Trey Lyles, and Sasha Vezenkov all sidelined, Coach Mike Brown will have little to no choice other than to play Duarte. 

This is huge for Duarte as well as for the team. He will be playing for his future role in the NBA, and the Kings will be fighting to survive the rest of the season without some of their best players. 

If Duarte is playing but not being a factor on both ends of the floor, things will look bleak for Sacramento from now on. Defense is important. It has been the key to a lot of the Kings’ success in March, and Duarte helped with that. 

From now on, he will have to be at his best offensively, however. Malik Monk can put up anywhere between 15 and 30 points when he is not having a weirdly bad game. That is a whole lot of scoring the Kings are missing now. 

Every once in a while, it is fair to expect Keon Ellis or maybe even Davion Mitchell to put up scoring numbers like that, but not every game. Those two and Duarte, who will most likely be one of the main guys off the bench now—unless Mike Brown decides to give Kessler Edwards a big chance—will have to make up for Monk’s production by committee. 

Mostly, that means hitting open threes for Duarte, but also constantly being aggressive. Someone other than Fox has to look for buckets.