Greg Monroe free agency situation

[insidehoops]

Monroe was asked about his contract situation and seemed vague about what could happen.

[Aussie Dunker]

The longer this drags out the more we are burning the bridge with Moose, unfortunately... Sure he is a smart dude and knows it is a business, but he must be feeling somewhat disrespected considering he was ment to be the Pistons top priority, yet the Pistons have made numerous moves and Moose is still out in the dark...

[ZMonkey11]

I'm a bit confused. Have we sent him an offer or not? Why have no teams sent him an offer? Why would us matching another teams offer scare other teams from making an offer? Will that set exactly how much another team must trade in salary back to us and that scares them?

I don't know what is going on with this at all anymore. It's gotten to the point where I think it's starting to be childish on both sides. If he was really a priority, josh Smith would be gone. Screw that equal value crap they are trying to feed us. He hindered us. I don't think SVG really wants Monroe. So we are just looking for fair trade value, but maybe we should see it as take what we can get and such up or losses. We've lost out on some key free agents already. End this saga.

[Nastradamus]

The longer this drags out the more we are burning the bridge with Moose, unfortunately... Sure he is a smart dude and knows it is a business, but he must be feeling somewhat disrespected considering he was ment to be the Pistons top priority, yet the Pistons have made numerous moves and Moose is still out in the dark...

Nah, this is pretty normal stuff. Nobody is alienated or disrespected here. NO bridges burned. A similar caliber player, Nikola Pekovic, signed mid August last year. They both just want to get the best deal.

[Aussie Dunker]

Surely Moose is higher on the NBA hierarchy than Pekovic??

[Nastradamus]

Why? Actually Pekovic is probably better.

[Aussie Dunker]

4 and a half years younger, more complete / versatile low post scorer, higher ceiling as he is still clearly developing, much better passer, can play dual positions...

Don't get me wrong, I love what Pek brings, elite size and power at the C, good to great low post defender, knows what he is good at and sticks to it, seems like a good team player...

I think it is 50/50 in regards to Moose being a max player or not in this league, where as Pek I think quite a few people were surprised to see him get 12 mill per...

But I guess it is definitely debatable,

[Nastradamus]

The age is about all he has going for him IMO. He's a similar style scorer(down low only), and scores more and more efficiently. Similar rebounders and Pek has the edge defensively, though he's only average there IMO.

Gortat got 12 per year, Jefferson got 13, Ibaka got 12, Favors got 11(I like him better than Monroe myself). I just can't really find a market for a guy like Monroe at more than 12 mil per. Especially since people want 4s who can shoot and 5s who can protect the rim these days. He's going to need to find a perfect fit.

[dd24]

Favors isn't even close to Monroe.

Anyway it sounds like Monroe will be gone after next season anyhow. We better trade him before the deadline now. He's going to sign the qualifying offer and become an unrestricted FA next season. It sounds like SVG doesn't want him that bad, and it also sounds like Monroe wants to go to a team with a chance to win. Obviously the Pistons aren't going to be in the thick of things for quite a while so I don't blame him there. We need to move him so we don't let him walk for nothing.

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2077438-greg-monroe-signs-qualifying-offer-with-pistons-latest-details-analysis?utm_source=facebook.com&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=programming-national

[Nastradamus]

I doubt any GM in the league would trade Favors for Monroe.

[Aussie Dunker]

I'd take Favors over Monroe in a heartbeat,

Higher ceiling purely due to his two way potential. Has a chance to be elite of defense, still extremely young and raw and has a lot of room to grow his skillset

[dd24]

It's irrelevant who's better. We still have to trade Monroe at this point. Maybe a contender would throw us a first round pick. I'm not sure what we can get for him anymore. He's not going to have a big contract so it can't bring a big time player unless the Pistons offer someone else too. The team that gets him will want to make sure he signs long term and the main reason they would want to do the trade is for that. It's extremely rare for this to happen. That shows me how much a deal won't get done in Detroit. It looks like the Pistons are committed to Smith at PF.

[Nastradamus]

Its not irrelevant in the context it was discussed.

If he signs a QO, I doubt he ends up traded.

[dd24]

Its not irrelevant in the context it was discussed.

If he signs a QO, I doubt he ends up traded.
You'd rather have him walk for nothing?

[dd24]

Apparently Monroe turned down two max deals this offseason because the other teams didn't have enough to sign and trade and he was scared the Pistons would match.

http://www.thescore.com/news/554726

It seems like he really wants out. I can't blame him. The front court is jammed. It's just a real bummer we're going to lose out on more talent. (By the way since everyone wants to make the comparison, Derrick Favors got 4 years 47 million).

[Aussie Dunker]

Remember how just the other month we were talking about the Ben Gordon deal being the worst all-time for the Pistons because of the domino effect (draft picks lost etc)... Well... In 10 years time when we look back, I think the domino effects of the Smith deal might just trump the Gordon one...

[dd24]

Joe D really did finish up horribly here. When he had money to spend over the past 6-7 years he did a horrible job of it.

[Aussie Dunker]

^^ Couldn't agree more,

Iggy would have fitted our team so much better than Smith, a true defensive SF with an unselfish game, and a better deep shooter than Smith (not good, but still better than smith at 1.2 makes at 36% over his past 3 seasons)...

The best thing about Joe signing Iggy over Smith is that we would not even be having this messy situation with Moose, he would have been signed a long time ago and Pistons moving forward with the twin towers....

[dd24]

I wasn't big on giving Iguodala a big contract either though. He's a hybrid SG/SF. He's not really a true SF. He would have needed a ton of money to come here. I doubt he even would have at that. Golden State is a much better opportunity right now for someone. Iggy would have been a much better fit though. I would have been happy if we could have just drafted a guy like McDermott this year. Now he's in our conference on a contending team.... That trade worked out great for us.....

[Aussie Dunker]

Yeah the more of McDermott I watched, especially through summer league, he was the clear cut choice for us if we had that lottery pick I think. Seems to be an elite level shooter even at this level, and definitely a floor stretcher / spacer... And I also think he is a pretty good / determined /good locker room presence kind of dude...

[Nastradamus]

You'd rather have him walk for nothing?

Its not about what I prefer, but I might be wrong. He has trade veto power for the whole year if he signs the QO though. If the right team offers a trade that we like and Monroe is willing to sign there long term, we might get a little something like a late first.

[Nastradamus]

^^ Couldn't agree more,

Iggy would have fitted our team so much better than Smith, a true defensive SF with an unselfish game, and a better deep shooter than Smith (not good, but still better than smith at 1.2 makes at 36% over his past 3 seasons)...

The best thing about Joe signing Iggy over Smith is that we would not even be having this messy situation with Moose, he would have been signed a long time ago and Pistons moving forward with the twin towers....

He wasn't coming here over GS though.

I doubt Smith is looked at as worse than Gordon. I think Smith can still play and I wouldn't be surprised if SVG gets the most out of him, especially without Monroe in the way.

Losing Monroe rather than paying him a ton might be looked at as the pragmatic move to make in the end. Ideally we get some value in return though.

[Nastradamus]

Yeah the more of McDermott I watched, especially through summer league, he was the clear cut choice for us if we had that lottery pick I think. Seems to be an elite level shooter even at this level, and definitely a floor stretcher / spacer... And I also think he is a pretty good / determined /good locker room presence kind of dude...

Adding Dougie would have been awesome. Perfect fit.

[dd24]

Losing Monroe rather than paying him a ton might be looked at as the pragmatic move to make in the end. Ideally we get some value in return though.
I think we could have got more value in return had we given him a long term contract around 50-60 million dollars. Then we could have traded him for a very good player. Now we might get a draft pick if we're lucky.

[dd24]

Its not about what I prefer, but I might be wrong. He has trade veto power for the whole year if he signs the QO though. If the right team offers a trade that we like and Monroe is willing to sign there long term, we might get a little something like a late first.
True, I think for him to get a true max deal it would have to be a sign and trade though. Not sure what we would get for that. I guess it depends on how much space the team he wants to go to has or needs to make.

[Nastradamus]

I think we could have got more value in return had we given him a long term contract around 50-60 million dollars. Then we could have traded him for a very good player. Now we might get a draft pick if we're lucky.

Maybe, but its more likely you would have been dumping him for cap space and a draft pick in that situation too.

[Nastradamus]

True, I think for him to get a true max deal it would have to be a sign and trade though. Not sure what we would get for that. I guess it depends on how much space the team he wants to go to has or needs to make.

Bledsoe for Monroe makes more sense than I originally thought. I'd love to take that gamble personally.

[dd24]

Bledsoe for Monroe makes more sense than I originally thought. I'd love to take that gamble personally.
Yeah it does sound like a much better deal now. I'm not sure what we would do with Jennings then though.

[Aussie Dunker]

If we were fortunate enough to turn Monroe into Bledsoe, I would literally trade Jennings away for next to nothing... Maybe include Jennings into the Suns deal as they were pretty hot on having 3 starter level PG's to rotate through their back court...

Dre / Gray
Smith / Jerebko
Butler / Singler
KCP / Meeks (other way around to start the season perhaps)
Bledsoe / Augustin (Whilst developing Dinwiddie at this position)

This is a team I could get behind quite easily - A little weak in the frontcourt off the bench, but other than that a great athletic young team with plenty of defense and shooting...

[insidehoops]

Monroe has until Oct. 1 to sign the deal and would essentially flip the tables on the Pistons. He would then have the right to veto any trade but would sacrifice his Bird rights in the process, making it more unlikely that he will move on before next summer. If a player wasn

[Nastradamus]

Yeah it does sound like a much better deal now. I'm not sure what we would do with Jennings then though.

Cut him, dump him on the Sixers, whatever.

[dd24]

Jennings actually had a pretty decent season last year (for as much as we rip on him). The main problem I see with him is his game just doesn't gel well with Drummonds. He works pretty good with Smith and Monroe, but Drummond is obviously the future. Drummond thrives in a pick and roll especially when he starts at the high post and rolls. That's not what Jennings is good at. Bynum was good at it. I think Augustin will be too. With signing Augustin I actually think that Jennings is not in SVG's long term plans.

[Nastradamus]

Jennings really didn't have a good season. His FG% and TS% were atrocious and so was his defense. He ranked as the 81st best PG in the NBA via real plus minus

[Aussie Dunker]

The most frustrating thing is - Jennings has all the tools to be am a,azimg fit with Drummond, such quickness and agility, has incredible passing skills (he really, really does) and loves running the break...

But, and this is a huge but - he prefers to just jack up shots and it doesn't appear he is interested on cashing in on all those other facets of his game... He has more talent than most the league - seems like he is such a waste though...

[Nastradamus]

Yah, his playmaking skills are great. He was 7th in the NBA in assist opportunities created, or something like that.

Gotta hope SVG can do the trick with him.

[Aussie Dunker]

Good luck SVG - I really am hoping he can - but I wont be holding my breath!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qB_XfZiYnKQ