Everything Greg Monroe

[GLF]

Okay maybe not elite.. His per36 rebound rate is 12 per game and he had a TRB% 18 last year which is good. Neither are elite.

Very good is good enough for me. Not far off from JV who is an elite rebounder.

[Truth Teller]

I like the move. Don't underestimate big bodies. We have a team that can field multiple lineups. Now it is on Nick Nurse to make it all work.

[white men can't jump]

For upside, I'd try to buy low on Skal from the Kangz, ideally for Norm.

I think the only upside additions we'll be able to make are guys like Boucher and Wood (if they decide to offer Wood anything).

Loyd has a two-way deal, right? Boucher has a camp invite and probably has a good chance to get a two-way deal. Those would be our 2 guys on two-way deals.

Brown has a partially guaranteed deal, I think, and would bring us up to 14 roster spots filled, not counting two-way deals. I think he probably sticks as our 4th PG and once again spends a lot of time in the G-League.

Still a spot for one more depth piece. I would still be ok with giving Wood a similar kind of partially guaranteed deal to Brown. Basically, we could still assign Wood to the G-League as needed, and he'd be our 5th big.

Though at this point, I could see them leaving that last roster spot open. If for no other reason than to keep from adding to the tax bill.

[MixxAOR]

Glad that free agents still considering Toronto even though Masai is a snake

[planetmars]

The one thing that has me nervous is that Monroe seems to be a negative player. Last year with Boston for example he had a +/- of -2.3 in 26 games.. and Boston was a good team. He had an RPM of -1.76 and was 66 out of 79 centers (part of that includes stints in Phoenix and Milwaukee though).

He probably won't get too many minutes, so it's probably not a huge concern. He is going to be like the 11th or 12th man unless another trade happens. If he plays with the bench, I wonder how he'll do considering the bench loved to run last year.

[DanH]

I'd be shocked if they filled 15 spots. No reason for it (already an extraordinary amount of depth), and it would cost them something like 6M for that 1.5M salary.

[white men can't jump]

$2.2M is the vet minimum.. which means for tax purposes it costs only $1.5M. Great deal.

In terms of fit.. we have a true backup center for JV in case JV ever gets injured. And he's an elite rebounder.. something we lacked when we had Poeltl and Siakam on the bench.

Would have preferred to seen a guy that can play with JV.. but you can't really complain about Monroe for the minimum.

Great job Bobby!

He generally can't play alongside JV, but we can still use him for very specific matchups like against Detroit. I have no problem putting any combination of JV, Ibaka and Monroe against Drummond and Griffin.

Griffin is still athletic enough to get by them, but JV and Monroe are both strong enough to handle him in the post. Just try to force him into the high post and give him space and dare him to shoot. The plus side would be if they try to run a Griffin-Drummond p'n'r you can switch or just have both guys sag. Gives you good options to box out Drummond, and again try to turn Griffin into a shooter by giving him space and having guys he can't bully. Griffin can get hot as a shooter, but generally isn't great and rarely beats you that way.

Not sure it applies for any other team, at least not with any significant matchups (ie start two strong big men). Still not a bad option to have.

[white men can't jump]

I'd be shocked if they filled 15 spots. No reason for it (already an extraordinary amount of depth), and it would cost them something like 6M for that 1.5M salary.

Meh, they can still give camp invites and sort things out in the preseason.

As of now I think that's all Boucher got. They could bring Wood in and make them compete for a two-way deal.

I know we have plenty of bigs now, but it's still the only area we come close to lacking depth in.

[Hotshot]

Glad that free agents still considering Toronto even though Masai is a snake

At the end of the day Monroe took a discount price to be on a winning team. Winning solves everything.

[golden]

Glad that free agents still considering Toronto even though Masai is a snake

lol. That whole "guys won't sign here because of how you treated poor DeMar" narrative was way overblown. It could maybe possibly apply to a few tier 1 free agents like Durant, but we never have a shot at those guys anyway. Money, winning and opportunity trumps pretty much everything.

[planetmars]

lol. That whole "guys won't sign here because of how you treated poor DeMar" narrative was way overblown. It could maybe possibly apply to a few tier 1 free agents like Durant, but we never have a shot at those guys anyway. Money, winning and opportunity trumps pretty much everything.

The only guy I'm worried about is Kawhi at this point. Is this loyalty crap that all these players are spewing (Rudy Gay just came out with his two cents on the matter recently) going to get into Kawhi's head?

From all I've read about Kawhi this summer.. it seems trust and loyalty are really important to him. DeMar and his whining might affect our relationship with Kawhi. And that would really, really suck.

[Bendit]

I would add that GM is a good character/team guy as well ... have never heard anything negative about him and pushes back on the physicality as well. Remember he got into a relatively minor spat with someone on the Raptors a couple of years ago (thinking it may have been JV).

Does anyone know why he did not latch on back with Boston?

[Hotshot]

I would add that GM is a good character/team guy as well ... have never heard anything negative about him and pushes back on the physicality as well. Remember he got into a relatively minor spat with someone on the Raptors a couple of years ago (thinking it may have been JV).

Does anyone know why he did not latch on back with Boston?

My guess, they like their centre's to be able to play small ball as well as shoot the 3. Much more successful team when Horford plays centre.

[white men can't jump]

The only guy I'm worried about is Kawhi at this point. Is this loyalty crap that all these players are spewing (Rudy Gay just came out with his two cents on the matter recently) going to get into Kawhi's head?

From all I've read about Kawhi this summer.. it seems trust and loyalty are really important to him. DeMar and his whining might affect our relationship with Kawhi. And that would really, really suck.

Hopefully it has no impact. Trades are not the same as the crap Kawhi dealt with, which is having a team question your motives and willingness to play when you're injured. That's why it's a big deal that Green was apparently playing through a misdiagnosed injury as well. Teams not looking out for your well-being should be a big deal. Teams willing to trade to improve should not.

Lets not forget that Gay is now a Spurs player and is also probably bitter about how his time played out in Toronto because they tried to make him "the guy". If I recall correctly, Masai and Casey took him to a dinner in the offseason and told him that they would need him to play like a star if the team would be successful. He didn't, they weren't and they traded him. That's not "loyalty", that's business. Same thing with DeMar. He needed to be a better player, and more importantly a different kind of player than he was, and he never grew that way while an opportunity to get a guy who's much better came along.

The media just keeps feeding off this story like the bunch of leeches they are.

To me, the only thing that should matter in terms of loyalty and trust is does the organization do everything they can to look after your professional and personal well-being while playing for them? We definitely did that with DeMar, and seem to do that with all our guys.

[planetmars]

Hopefully it has no impact. Trades are not the same as the crap Kawhi dealt with, which is having a team question your motives and willingness to play when you're injured. That's why it's a big deal that Green was apparently playing through a misdiagnosed injury as well. Teams not looking out for your well-being should be a big deal. Teams willing to trade to improve should not.

Lets not forget that Gay is now a Spurs player and is also probably bitter about how his time played out in Toronto because they tried to make him "the guy". If I recall correctly, Masai and Casey took him to a dinner in the offseason and told him that they would need him to play like a star if the team would be successful. He didn't, they weren't and they traded him. That's not "loyalty", that's business. Same thing with DeMar. He needed to be a better player, and more importantly a different kind of player than he was, and he never grew that way while an opportunity to get a guy who's much better came along.

The media just keeps feeding off this story like the bunch of leeches they are.

To me, the only thing that should matter in terms of loyalty and trust is does the organization do everything they can to look after your professional and personal well-being while playing for them? We definitely did that with DeMar, and seem to do that with all our guys.

It's not just Gay.. Lillard and Wall spoke out as well recently. NBA players (and some of its stars) are insinuating that Masai and the Raptors treated DeMar unfairly. We as fans know that's not true.. but these guys are saying it.. and Kawhi is part of that brother hood.

It may be nothing, and we do have a full year to convince him that the trade was just a business transaction.. but it could be something that eats at Kawhi too especially if the media continues to paint Masai as some evil slum lord.

Kawhi is really fragile. And we know he doesn't want to be here long term. So anything that continues to push him away, even if its minor, can be a bad thing.

And right now everyone is making it seem like we did DeMar wrong.. and all the love the organization gave him while he was here went down the toilet because Masai "lied" to him.