Monroe may come off the bench in Detroit, with Smith and Drummond starting
On Tuesday night, new head coach Stan Van Gundy backed up his offseason claim that the frontcourt trio of Josh Smith, Greg Monroe and Andre Drummond probably weren't set to play together.
In the team's exhibition opener, it was Monroe coming off the bench in support of a Smith-Drummond starting pair, with veteran Caron Butler sliding into the starting small forward position. Last season, Smith would play the three, where he's somewhat ill-suited, with Monroe and Drummond inside.
It's possible Van Gundy will experiment with different pairings throughout the preseason, but Monroe coming off the bench makes the most sense in terms of investment. Smith is under contract for three years and $40.5 million, Drummond still has two seasons before restricted free agency and Monroe is playing out the season on a one-year qualifying offer ahead of unrestricted free agency this summer.
"I don't have to handle it, I just have to play," Monroe said Tuesday. "Whether I start or whether I come off the bench is not going to change the way I play."
It can be tough to draw conclusions from preseason action, but the look seemed effective on Tuesday against a Chicago Bulls team with equally impressive interior depth. The team struggled some with Smith on the floor and Drummond's defense wasn't where it's expected to be eventually but, offensively, each player was solid:
| Player | MIN | FG | PTS | RBS |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Smith | 27 | 4/11 | 9 | 5 |
| Drummond | 28 | 6/13 | 13 | 5 |
| Monroe | 32 | 9/14 | 24 | 9 |
The biggest issue with playing the three bigs together is spacing. By staggering their playing time, each has more room to operate and should warrant a few additional touches.
What's more, since Monroe and Drummond can both play center, all three players could see 32 minutes a night without having to play all three together (theoretically – the numbers will never work out that cleanly). Last season, lineups with just two of them performed far better than those with all three, according to data from NBAWowy.com:
| Unit | O-Rating | D-Rating |
|---|---|---|
| Smith-Monroe-Drummond | 105.6 | 112.7 |
| Smith-Monroe | 109.4 | 105.4 |
| Smith-Drummond | 109.1 | 108.8 |
| Drummond-Monroe | 112.5 | 109.8 |
Van Gundy is an intelligent coach and isn't afraid to get creative to get the most out of his teams. Improvements to the schemes on both ends of the floor are surely coming and staggering the usage of his three talented frontcourt options should go a long way to improving the on-court product.