Speculation about Detroit Piston big man Greg Monroe has been going on for sometime now, and it looks like he will be heading to the Atlanta Hawks pretty soon, according to people close to his situation.
Marc Stein pointed out months ago that Atlanta General Manager Danny Ferry has some ties with Monroe's agent, so Monroe, who is a free agent this year, and wants to escape the dysfunctional Pistons, could be in talks with the Hawks, among other teams. Monroe nearly averaged a triple double last year, even on a team that never really came together as a solid unit.
At 24, the 6'11' 250 pounder still has some potentially great years ahead of him.
According to Yahoo! Sports analyst Adrian Wojnarowski, the Hawks are one of three teams that discussed sign-and-trade possibilities for restricted free agent Greg Monroe with the Detroit Pistons. According to Wojnarowski, Monroe does not "have a great interest" in returning to play in Detroit. The other two teams were Portland and Phoenix, but according to Wojnarowski those talks have stalled out.
You can listen to Wojnarowski's remarks regarding Monroe on Aime Mukendi Jr.'s podcast.
"Detroit has tried to help [Monroe] with some sign and trade possibilities around the league. Monroe doesn't really have a great interest in going back and playing with the Pistons," Wojnarowski said. "If they're going to move him in a sign-and-trade, they've got to get value for him. They've got to get back some significant talent to compensate for that loss."
You have to believe that new Detroit man-in-charge Stan Van Gundy doesn't want a player who does not want to be there. That doesn't mean he lets Monroe go for nothing though.
To get Monroe to Atlanta, the Hawks would have to offer him a max contract, and would have to part with a few players. Some believe the front runners to go are Paul Millsap and Kyle Korver. According to Hawks Hoop, the combined salary of those two players would match the money needed to get Monroe, and leave the Hawks with some cap space to play with.
