On February 7, Beijing time, Lakers youngster Malik Munch updated his social media and posted a group of photos of the birthday party a few days ago, in which Munch was wearing a red jacket and a pair of red graffiti pants, which looked particularly festive. It is worth mentioning that in the game against the Knicks after his birthday night, Munch once again became the "thigh" of the team, in the 39 minutes of playing time, 11 of 20 shots, very efficient cut 29 points and 2 assists, he and James, thick eyebrow trio cut 86 points, in one fell swoop to help the Lakers stop the decline, won the game.
However, on the night of Munch's birthday, many Lakers teammates also attended Munch's birthday party and sent blessings to the "thigh" teammate with the basic salary, even Howard and Ariza, two big men who were more than ten years older than Munch, also came to support their little brother. In addition to Howard and Ariza, we also saw Horton Tucker, Reeves Jr., and Kendrick Nunn, who has not played a game this season. It is worth mentioning that Munch and Little Reeves have established a very deep friendship after joining the Lakers, and both of them are "fellow countrymen" born in Arkansas.
In fact, as early as high school, Munch was already famous, he was a true basketball genius, in his senior year of high school, he could average 28.6 points, 7.6 rebounds and 4.4 assists per game. In the 2014 Nike Basketball Summit, 16-year-old Malik Munch became famous, scoring 59 points in a single game and being voted Mr. Basketball of Arkansas. After entering the University of Kentucky, Munch quickly became the team's absolute starter, and scored 30+ in 4 rookie seasons, setting a new record for 30+ points in a single season for the university of Kentucky's freshman history.
In the 2017 draft, Munch entered the eyes of Jordan Joe's boss, and was picked up by the Hornets with the 11th pick in the first round, and in those years of playing for the Hornets, Munch was once a young player that Joe's boss focused on cultivating. However, Munch, who has an unruly personality and even a little eccentric temperament, will always cause Jordan all kinds of trouble, and in early 2020, Munch was also suspended indefinitely by the NBA for violating the drug prohibition regulations, so last summer, the Hornets did not choose to provide Munch with a qualification offer, and the 23-year-old talent became a complete free agent.
At Munch's lowest point, the Lakers threw an olive branch to Munch, and they only paid a one-year basic salary contract worth $1.79 million to bring Munch to the Purple and Gold Army. At James's side, Munch's unruly personality has also been well suppressed, just like JR Smith at that time, he began to focus more on the court, and gradually became an indispensable member of the Lakers. Munch's annual salary is even less than half of Wei's junior salary compared to the $44.21 million annual salary of Wei Shao, but in the course of the season, Munch has been able to deliver a 13-point, 3.3 rebounds and 2.5 assists in the limited playing time of 27 minutes per game, and in many key battles, Munch, who has a three-point shooting rate of 41%, has become the team's third-placer.
However, for the Lakers, whose salary space is stretched, it is not an easy task for them to keep Munch this summer, according to well-known salary expert Bobby Marks, in the absence of bird rights, the 6.3 million mini middle-class contract is the largest contract that the Lakers can offer for Munch, unless they find a way to clear their salary space. However, for Munch, he has already played his own value in the Lakers, and with his current ability and state, teams in the NBA league that are willing to provide Munch with a tens of millions of contract offers abound, and it is worth mentioning that so far in his career, Munch has never received a decent big contract. Therefore, if the Lakers want to keep Munch in the offseason, it may not be an easy task, unless they find a way to clean up the premium contracts of Westbrook or Tucker Jr.