At the end of the regular season, I asked Stan Van Gundy what his plans were regarding free-agents-to-be Greg Monroe and Reggie Jackson.
“We want Greg back, we want Reggie back,” he said. “Again, they all have decisions to make in the whole thing. Our decision process will obviously be what to offer and all of that, but we want those guys back. And then we’ve got to talk about all of our other guys, too.”
It seems as though Monroe’s decision is to look around to see what other teams have to offer before considering a return to the Pistons.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
Monroe has been linked to the Knicks since the middle of last season, and with Phil Jackson potentially looking to turn things around sooner rather than later, New York may come calling with a strong offer that Monroe would be foolish to refuse.
Keep in mind that the salary cap will be spiking in advance of the 2016-17 season, so free agents this summer will likely be overpaid. That might be especially true in Monroe’s case, considering he takes the vast majority of his shots within a few feet of the rim, but shot less than 50 percent from the field last season.
Still, he averaged 15.9 points and 10.2 rebounds last season, and those numbers make him a strong inside presence that plenty of teams could use to upgrade their respective rosters.
