If Monroe bolts, he'll be difficult for rebuilding Pistons to replace
AUBURN HILLS -- Stan Van Gundy is building a young Pistons roster designed to contend in the Eastern Conference next year and for years after that, but there is one obvious problem.
He's almost certainly going to have to build that team without one of his best players, Greg Monroe. Seemingly fed up with years of losing and the bad roster that Van Gundy inherited from Joe Dumars, Monroe left several million dollars on the table last summer in order to become an unrestricted free agent this year.
If he leaves, and that seems likely with the Pistons about to miss the playoffs yet again, he is going to be hard to replace.
At just 24, Monroe is 6'11" with a good offensive game -- he averages 16.0 points a game -- and he's one of the best defensive rebounders in the league. He has come within one rebound of averaging a double-double in each of the past three seasons, and is on pace to do it this year, pulling down 10.4 a night.
Monroe has flaws -- he's not athletic, he barely blocks more shots than Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, and he doesn't have the outside-shooting range that Van Gundy prefers from a power forward -- but you don't find players with his talent on the street.
And, of course, with Monroe currently sidelined by the first serious injury of his career, a knee strain that has caused him to miss the last seven games, the Pistons have gone 5-2 without him. With three-point shooters Anthony Tolliver and Tayshaun Prince playing power forward, defenses have been stretched, opening things up for Reggie Jackson's penetration and Andre Drummond's inside game.
Jackson has averaged 22.6 points and 11.4 assists with Monroe on the sidelines, including a 20/20 game and the first two triple-doubles of his career, while Drummond has put up 18.0 points and 14.6 rebounds.
That's great, but it has also come at a cost. All season, the Pistons have been one of the NBA's best teams at cleaning up missed shots on defense, thanks to Monroe and Drummond's combined prowess. They've struggled badly at times without Monroe, including Sunday's loss to Miami, where the Heat grabbed 37 percent of their own misses, even with Chris Bosh and Hassan Whiteside in street clothes.
In the other loss in this stretch, Monroe was missed at the other end, as the Pistons shot just 26 percent in the paint in an embarrassing defeat in Philadelphia.
There's an easy solution, at least for the fans. They want Van Gundy to sign Michigan State star Draymond Green to a massive offer sheet that the Golden State Warriors won't match. That would bring Green home, and give the Pistons a power forward who can fill Monroe's shoes.
It's a lovely idea on paper, but Green has been a huge reason why the Warriors are having one of the best seasons in franchise history, and certainly aren't going to be interested in letting him walk away. Also, while Green loves his home state, would he want to leave the NBA's most exciting team for one that is about to miss the playoffs for the seventh straight season?
After Green, anyone else on the market this summer that could fill Monroe's shoes is likely to be looking for an immediate contender. The Pistons hope they will contend soon, but they don't have much on paper to show a player and his agent.
Van Gundy knows all this. He has talked several times in recent days about people overrating Detroit's success during Monroe's injury.
"We're obviously not a better team with Greg," he said. "Having Anthony on the floor is a nice option against certain teams, but there are players that he can't defend like Greg, and there are things that he can't do offensively that Greg gives us.
"We're better off having both of them to give us that versatility, and we would love to have Greg back."
So that's the goal, but as Dave Dombrowski said all winter about Max Scherzer, if you can't sign a star player when you are the only team able to negotiate with him, your odds aren't good when you have to compete against the rest of the league.
Van Gundy has done some great things as an NBA coach. Bringing back Monroe would be his first big accomplishment as a team president.
