PARIS — Fashion is a passion for Malik Monk. He’s into designing apparel, even already creating a T-shirt that was sold in the Hornets’ team store in Spectrum Center last season.
Unsure what to expect in his first visit to France, he was taken aback by the stark contrast in one particular aspect regarding the apparel.
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“Everything out here is crazy,” Monk said. “It’s plus-size everything over here. Plus. Whatever it is in the States, think of that times two. It’s just a great experience that I was able to come out here and see everything.”
That includes watching the ball fall through the net just about whenever he hoisted a shot, which nearly single-handedly kept the Hornets within striking distance of one of the best teams in the league for three quarters.
Picking up where he left off on Monday when he posted a team-high 20 points, Monk was a virtual flamethrower in the Hornets’ 116-103 loss to Milwaukee in the NBA’s first regular-season game here. He tossed in a career-high 31 points to go along with five rebounds, five assists and an acrobatic block that got a rise out of the sellout AccorHotels Arena crowd.
While he still has to string more outings like that together, at least it’s a start for an enigmatic player whose talent and athleticism aren’t necessarily questioned. For Monk, it’s all about consistency and improving his basketball IQ. It’s something he’s working on, and he insists he’s finding the formula for success.
“Like I’ve said, I’ve just got to grow up and continue to put in my mind to get downhill,” Monk said. “When I finally get a grasp of that, I think everyone will see who I am.”
An aggressive version of Monk especially aids Devonte’ Graham and Terry Rozier. They can actually breathe.
“It just opens up stuff,” Graham said. “It makes the defense have to shift towards him. It gets me and Terry open, and then he can get downhill and make plays.”
The Bucks certainly noticed Monk doing just that. He was a force.
“He’s athletic, he plays fast and he’s still a young player,” Milwaukee’s Khris Middleton said. “You can see he has the confidence to be great in this league. So hopefully he continues to do it.”
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Not flashing it frequently enough, though, could be his ticket out of town. As the Hornets reshape the roster, Monk might potentially be used as a chip and wind up on the move before next month’s trade deadline.
While the team was overseas, a report from SNY suggested the New York Knicks — who coincidentally come to Charlotte on Tuesday for the Hornets’ next game — could be interested in dealing for him.
Monk was unaware of that report until informed by The Athletic.
“Nah, I ain’t hear that,” he said. “I ain’t hear nothing. But yeah, man, I’m going to continue to work. I’m a Hornet right now, so whenever that changes, I’ll start talking about that. But I’m still going to continue to do what’s best for me and the Hornets.”
So does he still want to be here?
“Oh, yeah,” Monk said. “All I want to play is basketball, man. For sure, anywhere they welcome me. But I just want to play basketball.”
If he can harness the way he’s looked this week, it benefits just about everyone.
“Yeah, it helps a lot,” Cody Zeller said. “We all know that he’s capable of having big nights and shooting it well, getting to the rim, making the right plays. So he’s shown flashes of it. It’s good to see him doing it, and hopefully he can do it more regularly.”
Bruce Bowen is thrilled for JB
There’s a part of Bruce Bowen that can’t help but flash back to his days in San Antonio, when he was a key cog in the Spurs’ championship wheel. Especially when he sees the guy roaming courtside for the Hornets, that familiar face he was around so much in Texas.
James Borrego was merely a young assistant doing the grunt work under Gregg Popovich back then, and Bowen is thoroughly pleased Borrego made the leap, spearheading the Hornets’ commitment to player development.
“I’m so proud of JB,” Bowen said. “It’s a situation where I knew JB when he was back cutting film, and so we were spending a lot of time (together) during that time. And when he started the process of doing things coaches do as far as coming up with a scouting report, he’s not a loud guy.
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“So I had to really hold back when he was giving out information about the guys that we were going up against. And you just saw him continuing the process. And with his mind and his knowledge of the game, it’s going to help him continue on in the process.”
Looking back, Bowen was convinced early on that Borrego was destined to be at the head of the bench. In his mind, never was there any doubt.
“I felt like he would be a coach at some point, given an opportunity,” Bowen said. “You can’t judge a book by its cover, and so people got to know JB and know who he is. I think that’s when they realized he’s not just somebody from the Spurs organization. He’s someone with a mind of his own and with the ability to communicate with younger players as well.”
About that trip to the Louis Vuitton store
Nic Batum used his pull to get some of his teammates time inside one of the most famed — and expensive — stores along the glitzy Avenue des Champs-Élysées.
That would be the Louis Vuitton store.
And one player couldn’t have been happier.
“Shit, the shopping is way better,” Terry Rozier said of Paris in general. “Yeah, Nicco, he set us up with the Louis store, set us up with dinner under his name. I wish he would’ve paid for it.”
From the sound of things, there could be a bunch of melted plastic in the wallets of a few. Those debit/credit cards apparently were getting a serious workout.
“Man, we did a lot of shopping. I ain’t get nothing from the Louis store,” Graham said. “I was there. But nah, we were just going with each other out in France. We didn’t want to sit in a hotel room. We do that in the States. So yeah, we were just bonding, going to team dinners and stuff like that.”
Borrego said that was one of the main takeaways from the three-day excursion across the pond.
“I think the biggest thing is it continues to help us grow as a team and stay together,” he said. “It’s a long season. We understand the challenge that this season presents. But a trip like this has the ability to unite us, keep us together and gives us a boost as we move forward. So the experience has been fantastic. I think it’s been great for the guys to connect, to bond and grow as a unit.”
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Even if some didn’t necessarily opt to empty a portion of their bank accounts.
“Oh, let me stop you right there,” Bismack Biyombo said when asked if he was with the group along with Batum. “He went to the Louis store. I did not go there. I did not spend one dollar. Not one dollar. I’ve seen enough of the Louis store. I’ve been to enough Louis stores — I’m good. But I heard they had a great time and it was fun. It was fun.”
Don’t expect to see Zeller rocking the latest Louis Vuitton fashion anytime soon, either.
“Not quite,” he said. “Didn’t quite make it. It looked fun, though.”
Going streaking
Remember when the Hornets were hanging just outside the playoff picture in the Eastern Conference?
It kind of seems like light-years ago now.
With Friday’s defeat by the Bucks, the Hornets’ losing streak ballooned to eight games, and they’ve fallen to 12th place in the conference. They haven’t won since that spirited comeback in Dallas three weeks ago. But they aren’t walking around miserably, lamenting these recent struggles.
Anyone who follows the team closely understands this was expected.
“Yeah, we are not worried about winning or losing streaks,” Borrego said. “Right now, we are worried about development and competing every single night. That’s the goal every single night. Our player development program is at the top of our list right now, trying to get those young guys better and grow. For us, we’ve obviously got a big picture in mind, and that’s the No. 1 goal. Obviously, we don’t want to be in that area of losing streaks. Our goal right now is to win a game, but ultimately be competitive, and player development. That’s the most important thing.”
With the next five games heading into the All-Star break taking place on the road, it doesn’t get much easier over these next three weeks.
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“We knew that it would be kind of a learning curve this season,” Zeller said. “We’ve got a lot of younger guys, and we’ve had a tough stretch. Obviously, playing out West, the trip here. I thought we’ve played well. Just some of those games, we just couldn’t come out with a win. So we’ll stick with it, and hopefully we can turn the corner.”
Europe, meet Charlotte
Consider the trip here a twofold operation. The game itself was the main event, but that was a bit of an appetizer for Hornets COO Fred Whitfield and some of those on the team’s business side.
Using it as an opportunity to showcase the Queen City to the masses across this continent, the Hornets teamed with the Charlotte Regional Visitors Authority, Bank of America and Honeywell to host a large community summit Thursday. Whitfield said CRVA invited about 150 European companies to come and listen to a panel discuss how Charlotte is a great community to live, work and thrive in.
Owner Michael Jordan and Charlotte mayor Vi Lyles were also present, and NBA commissioner Adam Silver gave the opening remarks, doing his part to explain the job the city did hosting the All-Star Game festivities a year ago.
“It’s not that often that you can take Charlotte and take it global,” Whitfield said. “We are doing everything we can to earn our way as a good community partner in Charlotte. And we felt like this could be a great partnership between us and the alliance and the city.
“The NBA has been incredibly supportive of everything that we’ve tried to do.”
(Photo of Monk: Catherine Steenkeste / NBAE via Getty Images)