humanrefutation wrote:JimmyTheKid wrote:Aaron It Out wrote:Call me crazy but I'm shocked people want to get rid of Monroe. I guess if you think he's going to opt out and get paid more elsewhere. I don't see a reason he can't stick around on a deal similar to what he makes now. He's a good player to have. I think we're still caught up on the fact that we gave him a max deal, even though we all knew the cap was going to skyrocket.
Monroe has really surprised me this year. Came in lean, gives max effort, took the new role in stride. That all said, he's not a guy I want to watch play for my favorite team for another year or more. Still a really bad defender and overall frustrating player. Sell "high" right now.
I think I'm on the same boat. I definitely give him a ton of credit for the way he's worked his ass off to become a better fit. He's not the same plodding center who sits in the paint and waits to get the ball - he's leading fast breaks and working his ass off and trying like hell on defense. He's a good teammate.
If he was about 10% better at finishing around the rim, I'd even consider giving him a similar contract again because that would make him an elite offensive player - with the caveat that I'd expect Kidd, or whoever replaced him, to implement a defensive scheme that isn't so dependent on Monroe closing out shooters. I could see him leading the second unit.
But right now, he's not a good enough finisher, and he is a massive liability on defense when you already have to cover for Jabari. He's also going to want a huge contract that I'm not giving him.
So, I'd definitely try to move him.
I think that's optics of him appearing slow, confirmation bias, or guilt by association leading people to believe Monroe is a bad defender at center. Earlier on in the season before our defensive scheme was totally figured out, he had a good defensive on and on/off, just as he did his final season in Detroit at center. Lately teams are pretty much scoring at will against us, whoever is on the court, but that has little to do with him. They're bombing threes and getting a lot of penetration. If you actually pay attention to him individually on the defensive end, he does his job pretty well. He's closing on shooters, getting a lot of deflections, recovering adequately, and on drives altering shots by positioning, length, and rerouting.
He's just not a center like Gobert who is going to cover for a lot of deficiencies of his coaches and teammates, of which there are many right now between Kidd/Sweeney, Jabari, Beasley, Telly, etc. They just don't have the awareness and/or mobility to get sucked in to the paint and then recover to the corner, if anybody does. This must have worked for Sweeney in the past with different personnel, and it did his first year here of course with Dudley and co. Then it was either figured out or the personnel changed so it didn't work anymore. But Monroe is one of the least problems with that, really. I think Kidd and Sweeney should be ditched first, along with some of the fringe rotation guys like Telly and Beasley, and then we can see if it works here with Monroe, Parker, and co. That would be a nice little project the rest of the season, with the upside being maybe making a surge to the playoffs, and regardless beyond we'd know if the plan that includes Monroe should continue. We wouldn't have to re-sign him if it doesn't work out. Nothing wrong with "just" a clearance for a player. We could spend that money on a player who'd project to bolster us more or save it for a rainy day.
