Greg Monroe, the new Rodney Stuckey?

As I continue to watch Greg Monroe put up decent numbers in games we lose I can't help but think that he very well may be the 2nd coming of Rodney Stuckey. His inability to shoot is just like Rodney, his inability to finish is just like Rodney. Both have gaping holes in their respective games and we sit around thinking, "He's going to be really good IF_____" Rodney was also a guy who we used the word IF a lot with, and those IF's never materialized. In Rodney's 3rd season he averaged 16.6 ppg and 4.8 apg, we thought he would turn the corner, he didn't. I fear Greg Monroe may very well be the same type of player, Paul George is in his 3rd year, he's made it absolutely clear that he's an All-Star caliber player worth a hefty extension. I'm not convinced that Greg Monroe will be the kind of player that we should pay $12M/yr

Yeah he's not a max guy, and we shouldn't pay him as such. He's a solid player, but not the max extension guy people were projecting him to be last year. He's also got a near 1 to 1 ast/tov ratio, and for a big man who doesn't bring the ball up the floor every possession that's unacceptable. I like him as a player, but he's not the guy to build around, same way Stuckey wasn't. Imo, that guy more likely will be Drummond.

I have hope for Moose. Unlike Stuckey, he actually has shown that he can improve his game. I also see him taking more and more jumpers and when he hits them they look very good. He just needs a good big man coach. We need to pay Olajuwon whatever he wants to come and work with the twin towers this summer.

Overall, I think his rookie season will end up being 2-3 years shorter then Stuckey's.

Assist to bad pass ratio is good. But his ball handling tovs are ruining things for the team. He needs to cut down on them.

Not a chance.

Stuckey never put up a PER over 20, much less over a whole season.

Against the Knicks tonight we had like 12 turnovers. 5 from Moose. That wasn't the problem :(

Come on, Monroe is no all star, and he has problems with really good, athletic defenders ( Chandler, Noah, Gortat...) but he is a really good basketball player, and he can be a great 2nd, 3rd option in the future. Someone like Bosh in Miami

I was hoping Monroe could get his PPG average up in the 17-18 area. If this is what he scores on a bad team, then what would he average on a good one?

His stock is as high as it will ever be most likely.

I'm not in the Greg Monroe fan club or anything but I see very little similarities between him and Stuckey.
Greg's a 6-10 double-double PF/C who's shown some growth and improvement during his brief career. I believe that his ceiling is a little higher but if he simply stays at the level that he's at, he'll get somewhere between 10 - 12 million per year.
Stuckey's an overpaid dime-a-dozen shooting guard who dribbles with his head down and can't shoot. Despite being handed the keys to the franchise, he's remained extremely average on the floor and a malcontent off the floor.

The only thing that these two guys have in common is that they will both end up being overpaid Pistons.
Thing is, one sorta deseves it while the other absolutely does not.

I made my thoughts pretty clear when Joe decided to pony up $9 mil per year for Rodney.
I'll be sorta ok if Joe shells out $11 mil per year for a walking double-double.

...and whoever uses the words "max contract" and "Greg Monroe" in the same sentence should be suspended from the forum for 10 days.

I ask this because it's relevant to how Joe spends the available cap money he will have. We could waive Stuckey and amnesty BoT and essentially have over $30M to spend in free agency, but if Joe is concerned about having the ability to re-sign Greg Monroe we may pass on guys who can actually get you 16.5 ppg, 9 rpg, 4.0 apg AND play defense! AND WIN! My point, Josh Smith is a better frontcourt mate for Andre Drummond than Greg Monroe, now if Greg got you 16.5ppg via dumping the ball to him in the post with his back to the basket I'd say keep him, but the truth is.......he kind of sucks as a pure post player when you give him the ball and say, "Go to work". I dunno, if I'm Joe I'm not totally against entertaining a Cousins/Drummond front court, as I would listen to trade offers for Greg Monroe.

Which is why you trade him!

Great post. This is why Monroe will never be a top-tier center. His lack of athleticism will always be exposed by the top 1/3 big men. He is a nice piece to have, but you have to be careful using too much of your team salary structure on a role player.

Smith/Cousins/Drummond sounds pretty exciting to me.

Keep in mind that Gores would probably have to toss $20M/year to Phil Jackson to keep it all together.

I'd love to see Westbrook/World-Peace/Smith/Cousins/Drummond. That would be worth the price of admission.

In reality, though, Monroe is already an above-average center. He lacks athleticism to be a focal defender (a la Ben Wallace) and the hands to be a great post player, but he is a hard-worker that is currently being asked to do too much. It's been said before, but where his ceiling lies is in whether he does two things - 1) develops a mid-range shot that forces defenders to close on him (he's effective in the post in a one-on-one situation, but only a blind idiot would think that he's consistently capable of driving into double-teams without losing the ball and/or missing layups), and 2) becomes a more heady position defender (he's already shown that he's difficult to post-up against - he's 8th in the league among centers and power forwards in steals per game). Pair his drive-and-score-against-a-lone-defender ability (already strong) with the elbow-shooting ability of someone like McDyess, and you have a top-10 player. Pair those both with a guy that can already pass like Chris Webber or Vlade Divac (and is utilized as such) and can defend in the post like Sheed could (limited athleticism, high basketball IQ) and you have a top 5 big. He's never going to be a shot-blocker, but with Drummond (and Josh Smith? ) you don't need that. He just needs to keep doing the things he does well and stop trying to do the things he does poorly until/unless he gets better at them.

I believe the jumper thing will come with increased confidence and repetition, and I'm hopeful that his defense will improve. Remember, too, that his first two years in the league were about him learning to play in the post, and now Drummond comes along and everyone's like "no, you need to start mid-ranging more." He has to learn, but you don't trade a guy that is already good, wants to get better, is currently an inexpensive piece of the puzzle, and still has clear, obtainable upside. He's worth $8-10 million a year right now, easy, and if I'm Joe, I lock him down to a reasonable long-term contract before he actually develops those other skills that make him so much more versatile and increase his asking price. It's really hard to get players of his skillset and attitude in this league, so you make sure you keep them when you can.

Why do people keep implying that Rasheed's athaleticism is on par with Bill Laimbeer and Greg Monroe? He is in the top 1% of the most athaletic players to ever play in the L.

If Rasheed is a limited athlete then Greg Monroe is a corpse.

...athlete!

Compare these two videos:



I don't see a significant difference in speed and/or ability to run and jump.

Sheed wasn't the player he was because he was a Blake Griffin-like athlete, he was a player that had some great mid-post moves (including a turn-around jumper that was one of the most unblockable shots in history), played good defense and had an outstanding basketball IQ.