Greg Monroe has apparently been doing anything and everything he can to escape the Detroit Pistons.
Accepting Detroit’s qualifying offer—like he’s supposed to do—reeks of doubt and distrust and potential disgust. Rather than secure his financial future, he’ll likely play through next season at a ridiculous discount so he can explore unrestricted free agency in the summer, at which point he’s free to leave Detroit for any team he wants that also wants him. That’s a perk he doesn’t have in restricted free agency. The Pistons could have, and would have, matched any offer sheet he signed.
But that doesn’t mean he didn’t try to leave anyway, because he did. According to The Washington Post‘s Michael Lee (special thanks to Daily Thunder’s Royce Young), Monroe and his agent tried to orchestrate sign-and-trades with the Oklahoma City Thunder and Portland Trail Blazers, among other teams:
Monroe and his agent, David Falk, never sought an offer sheet from another team but pursued sign-and-trade proposals with at least five other teams, including Portland and Oklahoma City, according to person familiar with the discussions. Monroe denied receiving a reported five-year, $60 million offer – or anything close – from Pistons and would’ve been unlikely to accept either way.
One of the other three teams, for those who care, was reportedly the Indiana Pacers:
Lots of chatter about Greg Monroe today. Pacers shopping Hibbert and a source tells me they have called the Pistons about him. All I know.
— Matt Dery (@DerySpeaks) August 10, 2014
Dare to dream, Indy.
Both Portland and Oklahoma City would have been intriguing destinations. Pairing him with LaMarcus Aldridge would have given the Blazers one of the NBA’s most dangerous frontcourts in addition to solidifying their offense as one of the most potent attacks alive.
Who would provide the defensive impetus? That all depends…on whether you’re optimistic/ignorant/foolish enough to believe that Blazers team would actually be playing defense.
It’s tough to see who the Blazers would have given up in any deal, but if it included Robin Lopez (RoLo) and/or Thomas Robinson, it wouldn’t have been pretty defensively. Not within the starting five, not within the second unit.
Landing with the Thunder would have been the better, more interesting option. A starting five of Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook, Serge Ibaka, Greg Monroe and “Who the hell cares?” would have been a top-three lineup. Monroe can play alongside Ibaka—who, unlike him, protects the rim—and he’s a far more dangerous offensive weapon than Kendrick Perkins, Steven Adams and Nick Collison…combined.
Same question applies here, though: What would that trade have looked like?
Adams would have been included without question, and Perkins’ expiring deal likely would have needed to exchange hands to help the money work. But if that’s all the Thunder were slinging—assuming they were even interested—it wouldn’t be enough. There needed to be incentives for the Pistons to move Monroe. Perkins and Adams wouldn’t cut it.
All of which has left Monroe in Detroit, for a least another year, playing alongside Josh Smith, trying to excel within a disjointed offense, hoping that next summer holds a more lucrative payday and, perhaps, a different destination.
Dan Favale is a firm believer in the three-pointer as well as the notion that defense doesn’t always win championships. His musings can be found at Bleacherreport.com in addition to TheHoopDoctors.com.
