Should Detroit Pistons explore Greg Monroe trade?
By Kyle Neubeck
A glance at the Detroit Pistons roster will leave you with a distinct thought — this team is weird. They threw Monopoly money at Jodie Meeks in the offseason. Their top haul from this year’s draft (Spencer Dinwiddie) is a talented guard coming off an ACL tear who may end up the steal of the draft or a non-entity. At the center of all the madness is a trio of frontcourt players that don’t appear to fit together, whose success may only be facilitated by a Greg Monroe trade.
Long before he accepted the qualifying offer to stay in Detroit this summer, Monroe was a favorite of many dedicated NBA observers. He has considerable problems on the defensive end — namely containing pick-and-rolls, a considerable flaw in the current league climate — but he just about makes up for his slow-footed tracking with his input on the offensive end. Monroe is a creative passer and a back-the-basket force, the latter increasingly rare given the emphasis on floor spacing.
Next to an athletic partner in Andre Drummond, whose deficiencies lean more toward the offensive end, Monroe and the Pistons would appear to have a partnership that could be the core of a successful team. Unfortunately, Pistons management never gave it the proper time to blossom, and the infusion of Josh Smith created a train-wreck of monumental proportions last season.
In theory, Monroe, Drummond and Smith in the same rotation is a coach’s dream, with the pairing permutations providing flexibility to throw at teams depending on the matchup. In practice, it’s a hoard of assets with overlap issues, on court and in the financial ledger. Nearly every lineup that featured the big-man triumvirate last season was a net negative, and that failure was the onus for change from the top down in Detroit. A new group led by Stan Van Gundy now have a riddle to solve — how do we make this work? The simplest answer is to trade away one of the big men, and Monroe would appear to be the man fit for the task.
In the wake of what may have been his worst season since 2005-06, Smith is close to an immovable piece. While he’s always been a frustrating player for his mix of talent and bad habits, Smith’s fit into last year’s Pistons exacerbated his flaws. Prone to fading back to the three-point line even when he was a lone post threat in Atlanta, Smith settled for jumpers at an alarming rate in Detroit’s super-big lineups last season. 3.4 attempts from deep per game set a career high, and cashing in at a 26.4 percent clip only made opponents provoke him into letting it fly.
Drummond, on the other hand, is unlikely to be moved unless the Pistons were blown away with an offer. Two seasons deep into his NBA career, Drummond only just turned 21 years old, and the body of work for a player in his infancy is staggering. His free-throw percentage is alarmingly low and he exhibits a few traits that will need to be worked out — specifically chasing blocks too much — but he projects as an elite defensive force going forward, and the Pistons still have him on the cheap up for a couple seasons until he hits restricted free agency. Detroit’s FIBA World Cup representative is by far their most valuable asset, but it’s unlikely they’ll let him blossom elsewhere.
That leaves Monroe, a capable player who is still growing in his own right. At face value, trading Monroe just to alleviate a lineup issue is silly; he’s only 24, and treating him as the odd man out because of Smith’s terrible contract would be a major mistake. Individual issues are there on defense, but he and Drummond were solid together on that end in the latter’s rookie year. The Pistons have to rely on cuts more than most teams due to their poor three-point shooting (second to last in the league last season), and Monroe’s capability to operate from the elbows in helps alleviate that issue.
There’s reason to believe the trio can work now that a capable coach is at the controls. Staggered lineups could help draw the best out of all parties. Financially, however, is where the Pistons will find themselves in a corner. Having accepted the one-year qualifier to become an unrestricted free agent next season, Monroe will have total control of his future next summer. Detroit will have to make a competitive offer with the benefit of matching offer sheets now behind them, and his accepting of the QO indicates that the two sides don’t exactly see eye-to-eye.
Monroe will command big bucks, and with Smith already on the books and the Drummond extension clock ticking, the Pistons must consider whether it’s worth it to potentially tie up $40 million-plus in players who don’t fit together. Common sense would lean toward getting value while they can, and Monroe is easily the most valuable of the obtainable expiring players on the market. His cheap-ish one-year deal is especially appealing to capped-out contenders looking for a rental upgrade, given the sparse salary needed to be sent back to make a deal work. Monroe would benefit by moving to a higher-profile team as well, as a strong performance could mean more suitors in free agency.
That’s important, because appeasing Monroe in any deal is required due to the terms of the collective bargaining agreement. Moving to another team would require Monroe’s consent, and even that would come at the cost of leaving his Bird rights behind in Detroit. That limits Monroe’s ability to resign with a cap-strapped team for the type of money he’s looking for and hinders his earning potential as well. Selling Monroe on an idea that primarily benefits the Pistons is a long-shot, particularly after their negotiations battle this past summer.
There are obstacles aplenty framework for trades can even be theorized, but it’s an option the Pistons have to pursue. Preparing to pony up the cash and worrying about the rest later isn’t an option for a non-destination franchise. Tough as it would be to swallow, a Greg Monroe trade would clear the logjam in Detroit and give the Pistons more options moving into the future.
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