Although the Lakers who are mired in the mire this season are not smooth, but there are also a few shining points in the team, Malik Munch is one of the most eye-catching new faces of the Lakers, as of now the position can be said to be the Lakers' most successful offseason reinforcements, this season so far Munch averaged 27 minutes per game, averaging 13 points, 3.3 rebounds and 2.5 assists per game, shooting 47.3% from the field, with 40.9% shooting. With 2.3 three-pointers per game on three-point shooting, Munch is now the Lakers' most reliable three-point shooter on the perimeter. And many times in the team's key moments Munch will stand up, if it is not Munch hit a super far three points, the Lakers' record will definitely be worse than now, Munch has become a knife guard around James.
Munch's last 20 games, averaging 17.5 points, 4 rebounds and 2.7 assists per game, shooting 49.6% and 45.6% from three-point range, which is the third scoring point for the Lakers, and Munch got 400,000 votes from fans in the All-Star voting stage, Munch got 6 votes in the player vote, while Wei Shao, although the number of fan votes was 1.13 million, but the player votes were only 3 votes, according to the weight calculation, the player and the media voted for 25% each, and the fan voting ranking accounted for 50%. Munch is 12th on the West guard, ahead of Westbrook. And Munch is only 1.79 million this season, putting Westbrook and Munch together, it's hard to think of Westbrook as the player with the third highest salary in the league through the performance of the two, and it looks like Munch made the right decision in the offseason.
And Munch's recent outstanding performance has also received him a lot of praise, not only from head coach Vogel, but also from the team stars James and Davis, who all praised Munch. Speaking about his teammate Malik Munch's great performance this season, James said: "He's played more freely in every game, he understands what he's capable of and what he's bringing to the team, he's bringing a killer punch, and honestly, it's something I haven't had in our squad since I came here. He's the kind of guy who can score 2 or 5 shots in a row with just one goal. His scores are in tandem. He's a big heart scorer. And head coach Vogel said: "Munch's game is reliable, he is one of our most reliable attacking players and it is very interesting to watch him play. ”
Munch is also a representative of the prodigal son in the league, to be honest, Munch is really very similar to JR Smith, JR was also a thorn in the team, a tumor in the locker room, but JR completed the redemption around James, he brought Cleveland the first championship trophy in team history, without JR's consecutive three-pointers that year, the Cavaliers are difficult to block the Warriors' offense, and Munch now has the same career trajectory as JR. Munch's starting point is not low, he entered the University of Kentucky in the name of the first high school student in the United States that year, Munch in college also played a famous name, and finally in the first round of the 11th pick was selected by the Hornets, Munch is also a solid high pick rookie, but the Hornets Munch did not play a good performance at the beginning, but he has been improving every year, just in the third year of his career Munch has a stable rotation time, but he was banned indefinitely for violating the drug prohibition regulations. At that time, Munch averaged points per game, playing time, assists, rebounds and other statistics were career highs.
Although Munch finally returned to the court, the 22-year-old Munch also played the best performance of his career in the fourth year of his career, but the Hornets did not choose him to renew his contract, Munch himself admitted: "At that time, except for the Lakers team, there was no phone call to me, only this one choice." No team was willing to accept Munch as an undisciplined player, and Munch panicked, and many lottery shows besides him were abandoned that year, including Josh Jackson, Nilikina, Zach Collins and Dennis Smith, when Munch was only 22 years old and had only been in the league for just four years. Munch chose to accept the Lakers' basic salary contract, as he himself said: what he lost must be taken back by his own hands, and he did respond to the questions and contempt that people once questioned and despised him with his performance this season.
Kentucky alumnus Daron Fox has become the absolute core of the Kings, with a five-year, $163 million top-salary contract that allows him to dedicate his best time to Sacramento, while another of his alumni, Adebayor, has also become the Heat's most reliable interior player and was named a first-time All-Star, and the Heat also left Adebayor on the West Coast with a five-year, $195.6 million top-salary extension. At that time, only Munch was the most depressed of the Kentucky Three Musketeers, he was still struggling on the edge of the team, and even the rookie contract was directly abandoned by the team, but in terms of Munch's performance this season, I am afraid that Munch will no longer be just a basic salary player next season, the Lakers want to stay only afraid of not being able to keep this "microwave", Munch is likely to get a tens of millions of annual salary, many teams need a player who plays the role of a scorer in the substitute lineup, and Munch is the puzzle that many championship-winning teams need.
Six years ago, Munch was influenced by Nick Young not to tattoo his right hand, he left his right hand just for shooting, and he finally used his head basket to win him the best chip in the free market next year. There will always be times when you make mistakes, but it lies in whether you can have the courage to correct, everything is your own choice, and Malik Munch has made many choices on the basketball road, there are right and wrong, but when he is really desperate, he finally chose the right path, no matter which team Munch will be in the future, the Los Angeles Lakers This is the most important option on his basketball road, he did not hesitate to fill in the Lakers in the summer, and now it turns out that Munchmon is the right answer.