Report: Greg Monroe has scheduled FA meetings with 4-5 teams, none the Pistons
It's looking increasingly unlikely that Detroit Pistons power forward Greg Monroe will be back in the Motor City next season.
Here's the latest on Monroe's impending unrestricted free agency, courtesy of Bleacher Report's Jared Zwerling and Vincent Ellis of the Detroit Free Press:
Hearing that Greg Monroe has four or five meetings for free agency. East and West teams. One is the Knicks, a strong candidate.
— Jared Zwerling (@JaredZwerling) June 26, 2015
None of these teams the #Pistons. https://t.co/YSzNOwvIbm
— Vincent Ellis (@Vincent_Ellis56) June 26, 2015
The Knicks have been in on Monroe for a while, so it's not surprising they're one of the teams he plans to meet with. It's also not totally surprising that the Pistons aren't on the list.
After failing to come to terms on a long-term extension as a restricted free agent last summer, Monroe signed Detroit's one-year qualifying offer, allowing him to re-enter free agency a year later, but this time in the driver's seat.
He did himself a favor by producing arguably his best professional season, averaging a team-high 15.9 points and a career-high 10.2 rebounds per game. But he's a bit of an awkward fit in a frontcourt with young center Andre Drummond, and Pistons coach and president Stan Van Gundy has long coveted more shooting and better spacing - a system more akin to the one he ran in Orlando with Dwight Howard in the middle. It's no accident he traded for stretch four Ersan Ilyasova and is preparing free-agent pitches for floor-spacing wings.
During the season, Van Gundy estimated that there was a 99.9 percent chance the Pistons would bring Monroe back. At that point, though, they hadn't had an opportunity to see what the team would look like without him; until a knee strain sidelined him for 11 straight games in the season's final month, Monroe had missed just two games in his near-five-year career.
The Pistons went 7-4 in that 11-game stretch, and Drummond and point guard Reggie Jackson - who was acquired at the trade deadline - both went bonkers in a more open, breathable offense. Perhaps that's why Van Gundy's recent comments are far less optimistic about Monroe's return.
Monroe is a good player - a reliable post scorer, heady passer, and strong rebounder - and he'd be a nice get for a number of teams who could stand to beef up their frontcourts. But "fit" is the key word here, and five seasons worth of evidence suggests Detroit isn't the right one for him.
- With h/t to PBT