Report: Van Gundy hiring spells end of Greg Monroe in Detroit

The second-tier free agents that will be available this summer is substantial, and while the class could lack marquee names depending on who makes what decision with their contracts, there will be a good number of solid contributors to bid on.

Of those second-tier names, perhaps none is more intriguing than Detroit Pistons center Greg Monroe, who will be a restricted free agent at age 24 when free agency opens.

And, according to a report from The Sporting News, Monroe also ranks as one of the names most likely to switch teams now that the Pistons have hired Stan Van Gundy as coach and president.

From the report:

There is near certainty among league executives that Monroe has played his last game for Detroit. The fact that Van Gundy opted for the Pistons over the other team in pursuit of him—the Warriors—offers some insight, one league general manager told Sporting News.
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“There are two things that made that job better for Stan,” the GM said. “One is the fact that he gets to make personnel decisions, that is a big deal of course. But the other is Andre Drummond. If you want to build your team around a young player, Drummond is the guy.

"You’re not going to build around both him and Monroe, they had too much trouble making that work. You pick Drummond and move on from Monroe.”

In short, Monroe is about to get expensive, perhaps earning a contract close to or at the maximum, and he'd eat up a good portion of Detroit's cap space this summer. In addition, the team has another young big in Drummond, who himself will become expensive as soon as 2016.

Van Gundy seems unlikely to favor a team with two traditional bigs, and while Monroe's high-post passing is often a thing of beauty and his work on the low block an effective weapon, the pairing did not have success together this season. The Pistons were outscored by 6.4 points per 100 possessions when the pair took the floor together and just 2.9 when one or neither was on the court. Part of that was due to roster construction with Josh Smith alongside them, but Smith is on a long-term deal and seems well-suited as a power forward in Van Gundy's system.

Monroe, meanwhile, should have an appreciable market for his services. In his fourth year in the league this season, he averaged 15.2 points, 9.3 rebounds and 2.1 assists while posting an above-average 18.1 player efficiency rating. If a team thinks they could tap into his even more efficient 2011-12 and 2012-13 production, say by playing him in a system that better suits his talents and keeps him at the pivot rather than the four, then he has 18-10-4 potential.

With that said, the trade market for him was reportedly cool in February, though that was true across the league.

The Sporting News report indicates that Van Gundy will likely work with Monroe's camp to create a sign-and-trade situation, whereby the Pistons could add an asset in return and Monroe would be able to expand his market beyond teams with cap space.