Detroit Pistons Head Coach and General Manager Stan Van Gundy has had a busy summer with the draft and off-season moves.
One move that has Coach Van Gundy uneasy was the decision to not offer a max contract to now Milwaukee Buck Greg Monroe.
Van Gundy spoke on the handling of Monroe with ESPN and Grantland’s Zach Lowe.
“I’ll be honest. I go back and forth on it. I really do. Because I think Greg is an outstanding player, and I think he’s a high-character guy as well, and I think that those are the guys that you generally want to build around.
But I don’t think that he and Andre Drummond are the best fit. Not saying you couldn’t make it work, but certainly not the best fit. First of all, I think the game is moving smaller and quicker as it is. The teams that have continued to play with two big guys, at least one of them is, at least one, if not both, are guys who can step away and make shots. Indiana played with David West. Memphis plays with Zach Randolph. Those guys can all go 17, 18 feet and make shots.”
Though Van Gundy makes great points, Drummond is an athletic beast but far from a finished product on the offensive end. Monroe can score in the post, knock down mid range jumpers and is a great passer from his days in Georgetown’s Princeton offense.
Furthermore, Van Gundy’s understanding of teams going small and planning ahead for the big contract Drummond will command seemed to be in consideration as well.
“Basically, what we were trying to do is play with two centers. And if you’re going to max Greg out – which he’s certainly worth the max; there’s not a question with that – then you’re going to try to do it with two centers.
And as much as it was a little bit tough on the offensive end, the real problem was at the defensive end. I mean, it’s just really tough. We put Greg in some tough situations, and he did a good job, as good a job as he could. But you’re asking him to guard stretch fours likeKevin Love and things like that.
You can’t sign him to a max, you can’t sign Drummond to a big contract eventually and then just say they’re going to share the center spot. That doesn’t make any sense. So, I went back and forth with it on Greg, and I still do. Part of me is wondering whether we made the right move, quite honestly, letting him go. Because he’s a talented guy. But the other part of me says we were never going to have the fit that we needed to move forward.
And I think from Greg’s point of view, I don’t think there was much doubt – certainly we didn’t feel much doubt – that Greg was gonna leave.”
Monroe didn’t travel too far, and will still be playing in the much improved Central Division.
The Bucks will play the Pistons four times, so will see if Van Gundy feels the ill effects of Monroe leaving.
