The Detroit Pistons want to keep Greg Monroe, but the restricted free agent may rather have a trade go down, as his agent reportedly looked for a number of sign and trade deals, including with the Portland Trail Blazers, Oklahoma City Thunder as well as other teams like possibly the LA Lakers, NY Knicks and Chicago Bulls and now he may look at trying to be an unrestricted free agent in the summer of 2015.
According to Pro Basketball Talk, Monroe's reps have been shopping and looking for sign and trade deals and this comes as reports say the Pistons offered Monroe a long term contract. ESPN.com reported last week that Monroe would sign the qualifying offer from Detroit, which would make him a free agent next summer, but that has not officially happened yet. The PBT report says that Monroe has not received a $60 million offer for five years from Detroit, with the player saying that he denies that it was offered.
Monroe likely would not sign that deal anyway, as he is not sure about what the team will be like next year and may want to wait. Monroe could get big money as an unrestricted free agent and that would come next summer. Kevin Love likely will be off the market next summer once he heads to the Cavs and then re-signs, while names like Marc Gasol and LaMarcus Aldridge will also be on the market as competition.
Monroe remains one of the top free agents on the market with Eric Bledsoe and those two are both restricted players. Detroit and Phoenix have expressed interest in keeping their players and that has kept teams from making offers to them, since those teams likely would match them. The Pistons want to keep Monroe, but reports say he is weary of signing long term just to deal with more rebuilding after having five head coaches already in his career.
The Pistons have tried hard this summer to trade Josh Smith and the Sacramento Kings were interested in that for a time, but it did not go down. The Pistons have Andre Drummond to build around and they see Drummond and Monroe as cornerstones of the franchise, but it's tough with Smith also there occupying space and playing sometimes where Monroe thrives. Stan Van Gundy is a good head coach and now he is getting the chance to play executive as well and this is his first major test, since Monroe has the potential to be one of the best young bigs in the league.
The Pistons have a long way to go, but the team has a talented core and if Monroe stays, he will be among that group with Drummond, Brandon Jennings and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope. Detroit plays in the toughest division in the league now with LeBron James coming home and that will make building even tougher for SVG. Last season Monroe was very impressive with over 13 points per game and nearly 10 rebounds and he should only get better, as he is just 24 years old. Monroe was dominant at Georgetown and now he is developing into a dominant power forward.
