Greg Monroe is 25 years old, which is surprising, considering it feels like 25 years since the Joe Dumars regime drafted him No. 7 overall out of Georgetown in the 2010 NBA Draft. After five frustrating, uneventful seasons in Detroit, it seems Monroe will finally get the chance to start fresh somewhere new when camp breaks this fall.
On Thursday the Detroit Pistons acquired forward Ersan Ilyasova from the Milwaukee Bucks in exchange for forwards Caron Butler and Shawne Williams. Ilyasova, 28, was due $7.9 million this season and next, and was due $8.4 million in 2016-’17. Butler and Williams are on non-guaranteed deals, and team officials anticipate Milwaukee will cut ties with both players this summer.
Ilyasova couldn’t be a more different power forward in relationship to Monroe. At 6-foot-10, 235 pounds, Ilyasova is a modern look at the position — a career 37-percent 3-point shooter. In seven up-and-down seasons in Milwaukee, Ilyasova was often injured, never graduating above a fringe-starter level. He failed to secure a permanent spot in Jason Kidd’s rotation, even after rookie Jabari Parker was lost for the season in December.
Monroe, meanwhile, is a blast from the past — a big-bodied, wide-framed bruiser who operates exclusively within 18 feet of the basket. At 6-foot-11, 250 pounds, Monroe owns career averages of 14.3 points and 9.2 rebounds per game. He has the misfortune of not being a spectacular rim protector (0.6 blocks per game) or perimeter threat — he’s never hit a 3-pointer, not once — but is an obviously skilled player Detroit failed to properly build around.
Stan Van Gundy is hitting the ground running in his second summer as team president and coach, as we seldom see significant deals of any kind made before the conclusion of the NBA Finals. The timing of this deal says all you need to know: Monroe, an unrestricted free agent, is done in Detroit.
Dumars famously stacked the Pistons’ frontcourt with Monroe, Andre Drummond and Josh Smith in 2013-’14, in a last-ditch effort to create a winner. The trio of forwards simply could not make it work together, and by April 2014, Dumars and Detroit officially parted ways after a rocky tenure that included an NBA championship but also a number of ghastly missteps over the past several years. Six straight Eastern Conference finals (2003 through 2008) are a very distant memory in Motown.
Given full rein to run the franchise in an attempt to restore it, Van Gundy is unabashedly rebuilding the Pistons around Drummond, who might just be the best rebounder in basketball, and has averaged 13 points and 13 boards each of the past two seasons.
The Ilyasova move is yet another desperate attempt by Van Gundy to add perimeter shooting to a roster Dumars had allowed to go dry beyond the arc. Ilyasova comes with a price tag, and the Pistons need to hope their latest investment can stay on the floor. Van Gundy gave ex-Laker Jodie Meeks $20 million last summer for much of the same reason, and Meeks missed 22 games.
In order for Detroit to remain active on the market this summer — and all indications are that they intend to — the Pistons will have to renounce Monroe’s cap hold come July.
May not be relevant, but Ilyasova's salary means DET can't get max cap room while also keeping Monroe's cap hold on the books.
— Zach Lowe (@ZachLowe_NBA) June 11, 2015
Flip side, of course, is that DET could still have max room by letting Monroe walk and (if really necessary) waiving Tolliver.
— Zach Lowe (@ZachLowe_NBA) June 11, 2015
Milwaukee is ridding itself of a plus-salary it no longer needs. Ilyasova figured to lose most of his minutes next season to Parker upon his return. Parker rejoins a young core that turned some heads and unexpectedly made the postseason in 2015.
Monroe has long been rumored as an intriguing free agent target for for the Los Angeles Lakers and New York Knicks. These inklings have always rubbed me the wrong way — they are passive-aggressive jabs at Monroe and his old-man back-to-the-basket style of play. “Only the Lakers or Knicks would be dumb enough to pay Monroe on the open market,” these rumors suggest.
Quite the contrary, Monroe is a weapon, a creative big man with vision and a bonafide post game. He’s not the graceful athlete Pau Gasol is, but somebody could build around his offensive skills in a similar fashion — so long as they surround Monroe with a legit No. 1 scoring option and a collection of shooters and defenders. His free agency will be as fascinating a spectacle as any on the market this summer.
WHO WANTS GREG MONROE?
— Tas Melas (@TasMelas) June 11, 2015
