Post#20 » by HeroicKennedy » Mon Jan 13, 2014 6:43 am
I forgot you shouldn't quote that long and I think it got deleted, so I'll just post it this way:
"Half-way through Monroe’s rookie season, one thing was apparent about his offense— he got his shot blocked constantly. People questioned if, because of the deliberate appearance of his game, he would ever be able to handle the modern defenses of athletic NBA centers. In time, and within that first season, he adjusted and improved and was able to score around those types of players with much higher efficiency.
At the time, it would have been short-sighted, foolish and (in hindsight) just plain wrong to suggest that he “can’t score on athletic centers”. And not-yet a half season into his first season at power forward, it’d be short-sighted and foolish to make bold declarative statements about Monroe’s defense at the position.
Especially since they’re based on falsehoods. The areas where Monroe has struggled at power forward this season aren’t about being slow footed, they’re about missed rotations and assignments— learnable mistakes, just like his rookie season. Now, I’m not just pulling this out of thin air, it’s based on some significant supporting evidence. Specifically:
The area where Monroe struggles most on defense is with spot-up shot attempts toward the perimeter. This is the opposite of last season, as spot-up defense on the wing was what he did best (with post-up D being his worst last year, now it’s his best). The reason his man is scoring so well on these shot attempts (39.4% 3-point shooting) is not because Greg is slow-footed, it’s because he’s moved elsewhere during the play. It’s a conscious decision on his part to adjust in another area in the middle of the play, leaving his man open outside the long line.
It’s the same thing Josh Smith is struggling with. It’s just that Greg isn’t struggling as bad as Smith, and it’s only happened on 33 three-point attempts so far this season for Greg. And Greg Monroe’s spot-up defense, his worst performance this season, is better than Josh Smith’s was last season. He’s allowing 0.93 points per possession, while Smith allowed 0.94 points per possession last season.
Now, what Monroe is doing above-average is isolation defense. That’s an area where “slow footed” players get ankles broken against “mobile” players. But Monroe is allowing 0.81 points per possession there.
Monroe’s pick-and-roll defense is good when he sticks to his man, holding the rolling PF to 1.24 points per possession, but the problem is that when the center rolls and Greg adjusts to defend him, it leaves the PF open for a spot-up attempt (as discussed above).
Last, there’s where Greg is excellent, a complete surprise to me. He was bad, downright horrible on post-up defense last season. It was his worst problem. This season, it’s his best, rated at 10th in the league regardless of position, holding his man to 0.60 points per possession.
Greg is great at defending post-oriented big men on post-ups, good at defending them when they are the roller in pick and rolls, average at defending isolation and poor at spot-up D. But he’s not having problems because he’s slow-footed. He’s having problems because he’s making bad decisions. He’s being pulled away from his man, and it’s going to take him time to correct that.
But Greg has always been a quick-study, learning how to adjust to issues like these and doing what is necessary to correct. He did it in his rookie season when it looked like he wasn’t going to be able to handle the athletic defenders in the NBA. He worked at it, adjusted, and thrived. Only a fool would have counted him out then, and only a fool would count him out now."
. Instead we just need to figure out a way to get a solid 3 that can play both sides of the ball. That's probably going to be easier said than done but a three big rotation if used PROPERLY really is a lovely luxury. Also Monroe is to good and young to just give away and I can't see us getting equal value back. Smith despite his IQ is one of the more talented players we've had in Detroit in a while, So we shouldn't just give him away either. Worse case it fails and in 4 years it will be over anyways and we will be rebuilding again with a more experienced Drummond and KCP on fresh new contracts 
.
