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http://www.freep.com/article/20130311/S ... 1051/rss16

He might have been talking about players like Stuckey and Max/Will but someone needs to start calling out Monroe and his horrendous defense(not to mention his disappearing act on offense whenever he faces athletic/strong bigs).

I am not sure how interested he is in being a part of Pistons in the future(after his agent spoke last week or so) but if the Pistons are serious, they need to move Monroe while stock is high.

monroe needs to show 100% effort on D regardless of the state of the game.

^
Monroe spoke the truth 100%. Monroe made a good effort last game offensively and man to man D. Unfortunately for him, he is terrible when he faces long athletic bigs like Deandre Jordan and he's a terrible help defender. Greg Monroe simply doesnt have the athleticism to battle with freak athletes like Griffin and Jordan. I didn't see a lack of effort on his part, he was simply outmatched 100% as he has always been against athletic players.

Sadly this team is saddled with guards like Bynum, Calderon, Stuckey and wings like Singler along with PFs like Jerebko, Max, CV that are also consistently outmatched on defense. Greg Monroe should not be to blame for a collective failing on defense.

We need a complete overhaul in the offseason. And we need to get Knight/Monroe/Drummond some help. We have looked a lot worse defensively since the Prince trade, IMO. And, even worse since Drummond is down for the count. And, the fact that our FO and coaching staff some how felt that offense and not defense was our biggest issue, is galling. We need better individual defenders and team defenders.

We cannot afford to start Knight at SG, or start guys like Calderon/Singler/Maxiel period, or give Charlie V, Will Bynum, Rodney Stuckey significant PT if we want to win more than 30 games a season.

Unfortunately, I see Dumars taking another approach - and I hope I'm wrong.

Instead of gutting this team and building around Monroe/Knight/Drummond - he's going to re-sign guys like calderon and Maxiell and try to quick-fix the lineup by throwing MAX money at a guy like Iggy thinking that will be the solve-all, end-all. Yes, it will make us better. But it will lock us into mediocrity and not be anywhere good enough for us to compete for championships, let alone Eastern Conference crowns.

And the worst part about it, is if we don't improve the team around our young core the right way, we're gonna lose the youngsters. Monroe is already making his displeasures public, and Knight is likely not far behind.

princeofpalace wrote:We have looked a lot worse defensively since the Prince trade, IMO. And, even worse since Drummond is down for the count. And, the fact that our FO and coaching staff some how felt that offense and not defense was our biggest issue, is galling..

We've looked a lot worse since the Prince trade because it coincided with Drummond going down. We were a top 10 defense for most of the year and last in like every offensive category, so they were 100% right that we needed help on offense more than defense. The problem was when your best defensive player, who happens to be top 5 in the league in Drtg goes down, you're defense is going to look like it needs help too.

When Drummond gets back we will be vastly improved on defense. And because we added a difference maker on offense like Calderon, we could actually be a pretty good team with both of them. I'm sure that was the plan when the trade was made. Unfortunately they haven't gotten a chance to see it on the court yet.

I agree though the pieces around Drummond need to drastically change. I just think Calderon is as good of a PG as we're goin to find anytime soon. Sure he may be poor on defense, but how many of the top PGs today aren't poor on defense? Its an offensive position, and most are poor defenders. Its your bigs that you need to be great defensively to cover. Drummond is great on defense. I've been telling everyone, Monroe is going to be an issue on defense going forward. If he were Dirk on offense, I'd be ok with his D. But he's just not THAT great on offense to make up for what he gives up on defense, to me. I'm really starting to think we could get the same thing on offense from Josh Smith, but also get a great defender, and someone who actually fits the PF position of today. We don't even know if Monroe can play PF or not. He's too weak to play Center, but he might also be too slow to play PF.

What I don't understand is if the plan is to start Monroe at PF the rest of his career, then why isn't he playing PF right now?

Just because Drummond can't play, doesn't mean you can't play Moose at PF now to at least speed up his transition, so he will be more ready when Drummond does come back.

They should be starting Slava at Center, for the sole purpose that it allows Monroe to get accustomed to playing PF.

Can they really say at this point that Maxiell still gives them the best chance to win games? Really?

It doesn't look to me like they are even trying to win games anymore, so why can't you lose with Slava starting, so you can at least start developing Monroe into a PF, if thats the plan longterm?

To me, if you are using these games to experiment to see what you have going forward, Monroe at PF should be the #1 priority. It should've been the #1 priority all season. They've been saying since before the season that they want Monroe to play PF, yet he played the entire season at Center again!

An entire season of development for him at PF completely wasted, as he's no more closer to being a PF now than he was in the summer.

I remember complaining the 1st week of the season, ironically during the first West trip, that Monroe needs to be moved to PF. I really can't believe that we are at the end of the season now and I'm still complaining about the same thing, as they've done literally nothing all year to address this issue.

Wow Monroe, as a leader he shouldn't play the 'blame game'...He's right about our team not coming out to play but Monroe allowed a couple of easy lay-ups himself...If we end up trading Monroe it better be for Cousins...

Jodi wrote:Wow Monroe, as a leader he shouldn't play the 'blame game'...He's right about our team not coming out to play but Monroe allowed a couple of easy lay-ups himself...If we end up trading Monroe it better be for Cousins...

Why do you want Cousins? He does nothing that Monroe can't do and Monroe is far less of a headache.

ADflight1 wrote:

Jodi wrote:Wow Monroe, as a leader he shouldn't play the 'blame game'...He's right about our team not coming out to play but Monroe allowed a couple of easy lay-ups himself...If we end up trading Monroe it better be for Cousins...

Why do you want Cousins? He does nothing that Monroe can't do and Monroe is far less of a headache.

I look at it like this bro...If we're going to trade Monroe I want yonug talent...Why not shop for the best young talent that gives us similar production?..Just like you said, we're getting back a player who basically puts up the same stats as Monroe, but Cousins has a Piston attitude...

I didn't know where to post this, but looks like Brandon Knight should have just let Jordan dunk unopposed.

Jodi wrote:

ADflight1 wrote:

Jodi wrote:Wow Monroe, as a leader he shouldn't play the 'blame game'...He's right about our team not coming out to play but Monroe allowed a couple of easy lay-ups himself...If we end up trading Monroe it better be for Cousins...

Why do you want Cousins? He does nothing that Monroe can't do and Monroe is far less of a headache.

I look at it like this bro...If we're going to trade Monroe I want yonug talent...Why not shop for the best young talent that gives us similar production?..Just like you said, we're getting back a player who basically puts up the same stats as Monroe, but Cousins has a Piston attitude...

Cousins has a piss poor attitude and is an immature baby that never takes responsibility. That's not Piston-like at all.

Why do people want this inefficient "cancer" on the Pistons? Makes zero sense.

I get the feeling Monroe is starting to check out. I understand this team sucks but the guys have to at least give effort. I just don't see it right now from them. I think it's time for a big change and I feel Joe D has to go now.

Monroe for #1 pick
draft McLemore
Overpay drastically for Josh Smith or Millsap
use #8 on bpa

BadMofoPimp wrote:I didn't know where to post this, but looks like Brandon Knight should have just let Jordan dunk unopposed.

If you type 'Brandon Knight' on google, the search "Brandon Knight dead" is the 2nd most searched term that comes up. lol

I think there's ppl out there who think Knight actually died last night, lol

The ironic thing about Monroes comments regarding teammates lack of effort, is that because of his own lack of effort on defense guarding his man Jordan, one of his teammates is now the laughing stock of twitter.

Goldtop wrote:The ironic thing about Monroes comments regarding teammates lack of effort, is that because of his own lack of effort on defense guarding his man Jordan, one of his teammates is now the laughing stock of twitter.

I agree with this, although it wasn't lack of effort it was just crappy defense on his part. He was off in no mans land while his guy (Jordan) strolled into the lane behind him completely unnoticed.

If anybody should be frustrated after last night's game it should be Knight. Obviously he handled the situation a lot better than Moose did. Monroe may be speaking the truth about effort, but it's better to keep your mouth shut when talking to the media, especially when your plus/minus for the game is -26.

This off-season is make-or-break. If Joe D doesn't improve the team without locking us into mediocrity, it will be time to replace him. I know he's built a championship team before, but he's also made many absolutely brutal mistakes...

I am so tired of watching this team. Especially without Drummond.

Pistons NEED to do something this summer. They cannot afford another losing year. Otherwise, they risk losing players like Monroe and Knight for nothing. They won't stick around a losing franchise. And, that will reflect upon Drummonds future also. Desperately need to develop a winning mentality here.

So now both Knight and Monroe have come out and blasted the team for lack of effort and garbage defense. I'm fine with it because they are completely right. Knight has a nonstop motor but it seems like it is all for nothing because other guys can't guard anyone to save their lives. Monroe is already not a good help defender but it's so much worse when he is playing along Maxiell. His man defense is actually pretty decent usually. Like PoP said, he just struggles against legit centers. Knight, Monroe, and Drummond are the only ones who should have a future with this team and Dumars now has even more reasons to completely gut this pathetic roster. I want all our expirings plus Stuckey and CV gone without question. Bringing any of those guys back should be a firable offense and that also goes for out old, defensive sieve of a PG. Get some guys in here that play defense for crying out loud. If Joe fails again it could end up costing us Monroe.

Jodi wrote:

ADflight1 wrote:

Jodi wrote:Wow Monroe, as a leader he shouldn't play the 'blame game'...He's right about our team not coming out to play but Monroe allowed a couple of easy lay-ups himself...If we end up trading Monroe it better be for Cousins...

Why do you want Cousins? He does nothing that Monroe can't do and Monroe is far less of a headache.

I look at it like this bro...If we're going to trade Monroe I want yonug talent...Why not shop for the best young talent that gives us similar production?..Just like you said, we're getting back a player who basically puts up the same stats as Monroe, but Cousins has a Piston attitude...

No, he doesn't. Joe Dumars has said at the last few drafts that Detroit is only looking at high character individuals. Cousins doesn't fit that, therefore he doesn't have a Piston attitude.

That said, I hope Stuckey is gone asap, because is a bitch. Not a high character person at all.

When I saw the team a week or so ago in DC, Stuck definitely seemed like the odd man out. While the rest of the team joked on the sideline and rushed toward the tunnel with excitement after the sealed the win, he just sulked behind the rest of the group, looking disconnected and disinterested. I'd be amazed if these recent references aren't mainly directed at him.