Greg Monroe A Bad Fit … And We Should Have Known It
By Phil Watson
The Milwaukee Bucks last summer made perhaps their biggest free-agency splash ever when they got Greg Monroe to sign on the dotted line. But it’s been a disaster and we should have seen it coming.
I admit I was star-struck to the point of being blinded.
When the Milwaukee Bucks signed free-agent center Greg Monroe—who chose Milwaukee over the bright lights of New York and the sunshine of Los Angeles—last summer, I was so captivated by the prospect of the Bucks winning a free-agency battle over the likes of the Lakers and Knicks that I didn’t think the thing through.
As the Bucks struggled with three straight losses—two of them lopsided—out of the gate, there was something there that didn’t look right. As they have stumbled through their schedule since, with two steps forward almost immediately being followed by three or four steps back, there was this nagging thought in my head.
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As the Bucks head into February at 20-29, it hit me. Monroe was a huge signing for the franchise. But he was the wrong one.
The Bucks are coached by Jason Kidd, a point guard during his playing days and a great one. He will waltz into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame immediately upon becoming eligible in three more years.
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And if you look at his career—from college through all of his various stops in the NBA and into the head coaching ranks immediately upon hanging up his kicks—there is something that we should have all seen.
He never had success with a classic low-post center that needed a heavy dose of touches on the block. That’s because he never played with a classic low-post center.
At the University of California, Kidd spent two years playing with Alfred Grigsby, a freshman at the time who averaged only seven shots a game, and Ryan Jamison, a serviceable big who filled in for an injured Grigsby in 1993-94 and averaged six shots a contest.
In his first stint with the Dallas Mavericks, Kidd played with big men Lorenzo Williams and Eric Montross, both afterthoughts at the offensive end.
In four-plus seasons with the Phoenix Suns, the center spot was occupied at various times by out-of-position forward Hot Rod Williams, out-of-position Antonio McDyess, space-occupier Luc Longley and offensive non-entities Jake Tsakalidis and Chris Dudley.
Sensing a pattern here?
Fast forward to Kidd’s prime years with the New Jersey Nets and you find the center position again manned by big guys who never needed the basketball, never needed plays called or designed for them. It was a rogue’s gallery that included Todd MacCulloch, Jason Collins, Mikki Moore and Nenad Krstic.
Upon his return to Dallas, Kidd teamed up with centers Erick Dampier, Brendan Haywood and Tyson Chandler, whom he also played with in his final season with the New York Knicks.
And here’s where it gets interesting … and also when we should have figured something out.
For the first time in Kidd’s basketball life, he got the opportunity to work with a classic center when he took over as head coach of the Brooklyn Nets in 2013.
Brook Lopez was the starting center for the Nets when Kidd took over. But Lopez was limited to just 17 games that season, during which the Nets were 7-10 before Lopez was shelved for good on Dec. 21, 2013, with a recurrence of the broken right foot that also sidelined him for most of the 2011-12 campaign.
Kidd toyed with using Andray Blatche at center for a bit, using him as a starter seven times (during which the Nets were 1-6).
So that is an 8-16 mark while Kidd tried going with the traditional low-post big.
Kidd went small, used Kevin Garnett as his center and Paul Pierce as his power forward much of the rest of the way and the Nets were 36-22 in games not started by a traditional center.
Last season in Milwaukee, Zaza Pachulia got the bulk of the work at center after Larry Sanders was ineffective, injured and quit (in that order) and led the Bucks to a 41-41 mark one season removed from a 15-67 season.
Enter Greg Monroe and the Bucks are struggling on both ends of the floor.
Offensively, they lack the shooting and spacing for today’s pace-and-space game and defensively, the Bucks really, really miss the steadying presence of Pachulia, who seldom missed a rotation and was never afraid to give someone a whack to the chest, head, neck or some other vital body part (in lieu of being able to be a more traditional rim protector, blocking shots and such).
Per NBA.com, the Bucks in 2014-15—without Monroe—were 25th in the NBA in offensive efficiency, getting 100.5 points per 100 possessions, and second-best in the league in defensive rating, allowing 99.3 points per 100 possessions.
Those numbers with Monroe in 2015-16? The offense has improved to a rating of 101.7, tied for 20th in the league, while the defense has collapsed to 106.4, tied for 27th in the Association.
Let’s be clear—defensively, the problem really isn’t Monroe. He won’t evoke memories of Bill Russell for his work on that end of the floor, but Milwaukee’s biggest problem is that teams are shooting 36.6 percent against them from the 3-point line and they are allowing their opponents to get to the foul line 24.9 times per game.
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But the Bucks don’t shoot the 3 well (34.6 percent and only 15.6 attempts per game, the second-lowest in the league) and don’t get to the line as often (22.6 attempts a night).
The Bucks have plenty of problems and a playoff run seems unlikely without a major paradigm shift both in Milwaukee and the Eastern Conference.
They are currently 13th in the East and 5½ games behind eighth-place Detroit with 33 games to play. The problem isn’t so much catching the Pistons at this point as it is the need for the four teams between Milwaukee and Detroit in the standings not to do it at the same time.
Monroe is in the first year of a three-year, $50 million deal that includes a $17.9 million player option for 2017-18. He is averaging a career-best 16.4 points per game and also grabbing 9.6 boards a night.
He could be a solid contributor for a lot of NBA teams.
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Just not one coached by Jason Kidd, something we all should have been able to recognize much sooner.