If a good player on a rookie contract wants out of a situation badly enough, he has an option — he can keep playing on his rookie pay scale for five seasons, then he is an unrestricted free agent.
Guys don’t do it because if they are offered a healthy extension to their rookie deals it is a massive pay increase and to keep playing for less is a big risk (notice all the big names that forced trades or left like LeBron James, Carmelo Anthony, Dwight Howard and Kevin Love all still took at least three years of the extension before leaving). But the option to play for less and leave unrestricted is there.
Greg Monroe may take it.
Unhappy with the offers from the Pistons, Monroe is good with playing for the qualifying offer, reports Vincent Goodwill at the Detroit News.While the Pistons big man has not pursued an offer sheet from another team, he has pursued sign-and-trade possibilities, and Monroe is “definitely” willing to take the one-year qualifying offer worth $5.3 million from Detroit in order to ensure his unrestricted free agency next summer, a source familiar with Monroe’s thinking told The Detroit News.
Part of Monroe’s thinking could be the Pistons’ likely stance of matching any contract offer, even if the max is well above their reported offer of four years and $50-plus million, similar to the deal Josh Smith signed last summer….
While taking the qualifying offer is a risk if he gets injured — he has missed just one of his last 310 games — it’s the biggest leverage he and his agent, David Falk, have.
Monroe isn’t going to sign that right now, he’s not going to sign it until training camp is starting. That gives him about seven weeks.
The reason to leak right now that you would take the qualifying offer is to gain leverage on the Pistons and get them to offer more or to accept a more reasonable offer for a sign-and-trade. Basically Monroe is saying, “you can do better now or you can lose me for nothing next summer.”
Stan Van Gundy is trying to bring stability and an improved roster to Detroit (he will be the fifth head coach in five seasons there). Monroe often hasn’t been used well, but he has a lot of fans in other front offices around the league who see him as a potential All-Star level big man in a few years. They just aren’t going to give Monroe a big offer sheet the Pistons would simply match, nor will they give up a lot in a sign-and-trade when most teams think the Pistons need to move Monroe or Josh Smith because the two of them and Andre Drummond can’t play as a trio. (That is the one thing we did learn last season, none of them can space the floor so it was a bad fit.)
Van Gundy has spoke well of Monroe, but the two sides haven’t been able to reach a number.
So Monroe is threatening to play the only card he has. We’ll see if that leverage gets him anywhere.
Somewhere out West Eric Bledsoe — the other restricted free agent still on the market and in the same situation — sits back and takes notes.