Greg Monroe Done In Detroit?

http://www.sportingnews.com/nba/story/2014-05-14/stan-van-gundy-greg-monroe-pistons-trade-lakers-bobcats-pelicans-nba-free-agency-rumors?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter


Sources: With Stan Van Gundy in, Greg Monroe out in Detroit

Sean Deveney @SeanDeveney Email RSS
May 14, 2014 12:05pm EDT



Even before the Pistons made the bold move of hiring Stan Van Gundy to be their coach and run their basketball operations on Tuesday, there was a growing consensus around the league that whomever was tabbed to replace Joe Dumars in the front office would be willing to let restricted free agent Greg Monroe go.

Now, with Van Gundy in place on an eyebrow-raising contract—five years, $35 million—there is near certainty among league executives that Monroe has played his last game for Detroit.


The fact that Van Gundy opted for the Pistons over the other team in pursuit of him—the Warriors—offers some insight, one league general manager told Sporting News.

“There are two things that made that job better for Stan,” the GM said. “One is the fact that he gets to make personnel decisions, that is a big deal of course. But the other is Andre Drummond. If you want to build your team around a young player, Drummond is the guy.

"You’re not going to build around both him and Monroe, they had too much trouble making that work. You pick Drummond and move on from Monroe.”

Ideally, Van Gundy’s offense will be constructed like the one he had in Orlando, which was innovative at the time—he wants to spread the floor with shooters and create space for a power big man down low. It will be Drummond in Detroit, just as it had been Dwight Howard with the Magic.

The main question now is just how Van Gundy chooses to rid the roster of Monroe, who was the No. 7 pick in the 2010 draft. As a restricted free agent, Monroe is free to sign with whomever he likes, but the Pistons have the right to match.

Monroe’s agent, David Falk, will hit the market seeking a max deal for Monroe, and he could well get it—Monroe is a skilled 25-year-old big man who has averaged 14.0 points and 9.0 rebounds, and those are not easy to find.


A good example is Monroe’s fellow Georgetown Hoya Roy Hibbert. In 2012, Hibbert was a restricted free agent coming off a year in which he averaged a pretty mundane 12.8 points and 8.8 rebounds. Yet he was offered a four-year max deal worth $58 million by Portland, and the Pacers were forced to match it.

Hibbert’s agent is Falk, too. He is supposed to be retired, but Falk is still a strong influence around the league.

“If anyone is going to find a max deal for Monroe, it is David,” the GM said. “They will be aggressive and try to find something in the early stage of free agency. Remember, he was the agent for a guy who is now a team owner. It's just a matter of whether the Pistons can get something back.”

That would be Michael Jordan, owner of the soon-to-be Charlotte Hornets. It’s possible that Charlotte will create enough cap space in the offseason to make a max offer to Monroe and pair him with Al Jefferson up front. That might be a defensive nightmare for coach Steve Clifford, but offensively, it would give Charlotte the East’s most potent power forward-center combo.

The Lakers are the other team most frequently mentioned among league executives when it comes to Monroe. If L.A. does not make any splashy moves around the draft, and if the Lakers are ready to concede that Carmelo Anthony is not coming, then they figure to target young, second-tier free agents—and Monroe is at the head of that list.

A max offer from the Lakers or Bobcats could be trouble for the Pistons, because it forces a stark choice: pay Monroe the max or lose him without return.

Van Gundy’s priority will be to work with Monroe and Falk to find a sign-and-trade deal, allowing Van Gundy to address the big weakness on his team—perimeter shooting, a vital aspect of Van Gundy’s offensive approach. The Pistons shot 32.1 percent from the 3-point line, which was 29th in the league last season.

Multiple league executives said that New Orleans, where Monroe is from, would be on his list, and it is easy to imagine a pairing of Monroe with young star big man Anthony Davis.

Either way, the arrival of Van Gundy means that Monroe’s tenure in Detroit is probably over.



bob
MY NOTE:  Greg Monroe averages a very anemic .7 blocks/36mpg career.  NOT good for a 6'11" player.  By comparison, alligator-armed Kelly Olynyk averaged .7 blocks/36mpg last year, and he's probably only going to get better as he learns the center position and the offensive preferences of the players he's playing against.  For rim protection, Kelly on a rookie contract or Monroe for a max contract?  I'll stick with what we have.


.

Absolutely. And blocks are not even the tip of the iceberg where Monroe's concerned. Note the number of comments in this article deriding Monroe's defense in general.

Sam

Monroe is an underachiever for sure. There is absolutely no reason why he shouldn't be an intimidating presence in the middle.

I agree with BobH, I'll stick with Kelly.



KJ