Report: Greg Monroe will sign one-year deal with Boston Celtics
By John Buhler
It didn’t take long, NBA big man Greg Monroe has found a new team after being waived by the Phoenix Suns, the Boston Celtics.
We’re not even at the NBA All-Star break, but power forward/center Greg Monroe will be playing for his third NBA team this season. After playing five games at the start of the year for the Milwaukee Bucks, he was traded to the Phoenix Suns in early November in the Eric Bledsoe trade.
After only a few months with the rebuilding Suns, Phoenix waived Monroe on Thursday after agreeing to buy him out. Two teams were reportedly very interested in Monroe’s services, but now it looks like he’ll be taking his talents to the Boston Celtics.
According to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, “Monroe will sign a one-year, $5M deal with the Celtics.” The other team that was reportedly in the running to land Monroe was the New Orleans Pelicans. Wojnarowski reports that New Orleans “could only offer $2.2M” for Monroe’s services.
It’s a tough move for the Pelicans, as they are looking for ways to offset DeMarcus Cousins’ blown Achilles’ in the frontcourt. They did trade for Nikola Mirotic to help out on the wing, and getting off Omer Asik’s contract in the process. However, Monroe could have in theory been able to better offset the Cousins injury in the low post. He could have played the five next to power forward Anthony Davis.
Now that Monroe is going to the Celtics, look for head coach Brad Stevens to get really creative with his usage. Monroe could work marvelously playing next to undersized center Al Horford down low. Horford would be more comfortable at the four anyway but could anchor the Celtics defense at the five in a rotation with Monroe.
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This is a big pickup for the Celtics, as they push for a deep run in the NBA playoffs. Monroe has ample experience guiding it out in the Eastern Conference with the Bucks and the Detroit Pistons before that. He seems to have found a better situation in Boston than Phoenix. Maybe Monroe is the missing piece that gets Boston over the top and into the NBA Finals in June?