Twenty-three-year-old Malik Monk emerged from the locker room in a hot pink tracksuit. Practice finished a little more than an hour ago, but he walked back onto the court flashing the famous Malik Monk smile. Monk had just wrapped up a post-practice pickup game, he and Talen Horton-Tucker against Rajon Rondo and Avery Bradley. He and Talen lost to the vets on a travel discrepancy that was cleared up by the Lakers’ assistant coach, Phil Handy. Malik trusts Handy.
“Phil Handy being on my a**,” as Malik puts it, is key to his consistency from three. He says sometimes he gets a little too relaxed.