Report: Greg Monroe signing with the Knicks this Offseason is "About as Close to a Done Deal as You Can Get"
By Rob Perez
Pardon me, what did you say?
If this is actually true: this is a first for the New York Knicks. Usually, they just wait until after the season to mortgage their future and overpay a veteran — but, you gotta give them credit … they’re at least being proactive with it this year.
Anyways, Greg Monroe ’s relationship with the Detroit Pistons has been volatile — to say the least…
To elaborate: Monroe was a restricted free agent before the 2014-2015 NBA season started. In the NBA: the difference between an ‘unrestricted free agent’ and a ‘restricted free agent’ is that RFAs are subject to the team they most-recently played for’s First Right of Refusal — meaning that the player can be signed to an offer sheet by another team, but, the player’s current franchise reserves the right to match any offer and keep the player.
Unfortunately, for Monroe, he never received a max offer sheet from another team, nor was able to obtain a long-term deal from the Pistons. In turn, he decided to play out this current season under the terms of a qualifying offer — so that he could become an unrestricted free agent at the end of the year.
From Frank Isola of the New York Daily News:
"Maybe the worst kept secret in the NBA is that Phil Jackson plans to pursue Detroit Pistons forward Greg Monroe in free agency this summer. In fact, one league executive called it “about as close to a done deal as you can get.” A done deal is illegal of course and would open Jackson and the Knicks to tampering charges. A more likely scenario is that representatives from both parties have made their interest known and will proceed accordingly once the free-agent recruiting period begins on July 1st. It happens all the time. … It’s easy to connect the dots; Monroe’s agent, David Falk, is one of the few agents that Jackson has a relationship with going back more than 20 years when Falk was representing Michael Jordan. Falk is looking for a max contract for Monroe and the Knicks, coming off the worst season in franchise history, are happy to oblige."
Oh, and if you care: Monroe is averaging a personal-best 16.1 points and 10.5 rebounds in 31.2 minutes per game for the Pistons this season, while simultaneously posting the second-worst VORP (1.9) and +/- (1.8) of his career.
Tampering and overpaid one-way players who stuff the stat sheet while not actually being good at basketball? LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, YOUR 2015-2016 NEW YORK KNICKS!
P.S. This is the email I got from the Knicks prompting me to renew my season tickets…
Yup, “WE’RE BUILDING A TEAM” alright…a lottery-bound one.