New York Knicks Going All out for Greg Monroe Would Be the Wrong Move

Phil Jackson and the New York Knicks are carving a future out of failure, publicly selling fans on an offseason turnaround forged from free-agent and draft-day triumph worth the strain and struggle 60-plus losses incite.

This apparently means the Knicks are preparing to roll out the red carpet for Detroit Pistons big man and free-agent-to-be Greg Monroe. And that, in turn, apparently means the Knicks are still traveling in the wrong direction.

Per the New York Daily News' Frank Isola:

"

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.' ...

Still, the talk among scouts and executives who attended the Portsmouth Invitational is that Monroe is Jackson’s primary free-agent target. 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.

"

Nothing is etched in stone at this point. Free agency is still months away and Monroe cannot sign a contract the Knicks aren't offering. 

To that end, Monroe himself is already pumping the brakes on this chatter.

"You write it's a done deal, there must be another Greg Monroe around here that I don't know about," he said, according to MLive.com's David Mayo, "because I haven't agreed to anything."

Monroe is, without question, an upgrade over anyone the Knicks have playing up front at the moment. He's averaging a career-high 16.0 points and 10.3 rebounds per game, and he passes well for a big man, making him an attractive fit for the famed triangle offense New York is attempting to mimic. He's also never posted a player efficiency rating below 18.

Or made a three-pointer.

Or been viewed as a strong defensive presence.

Or made the playoffs.

Or effectively proved he's worth the max contract his agent is after.

That's the confusing part of the Knicks' purported interest in Monroe—the mixed messages it's sending.

Mark Duncan/Associated Press

Jackson is first downplaying New York's draft position, drumming up the importance of free agency and an immediate renaissance, according to the New York Post's Marc Berman. But then news breaks that he's in the market for younger players, per the Sporting News' Sean Deveney.

And then he starts de-emphasizing the triangle.

“Part of why the whole idea of the season became convoluted was everyone wanted to discuss the triangle," he said, per the New York Daily News' Peter Botte. "The triangle, forget about the triangle. The triangle happens after all that is over. It’s the end result that everybody has to play together.”

Even if Jackson remains enamored with the triangle, as Isola posits, Monroe falls somewhere in the middle of the pictures being painted. He's only 24, but he's been in the NBA for five years, and it doesn't reflect well on him that the Pistons have yet to reach 35 victories during that time.

Nor does he project as the post presence the Knicks need, irrespective of whether they're still bent on implementing the triangle.

More than 41 percent of Monroe's offensive touches come in the form of post-ups, and he ranks fifth in total back-to-the-basket possessions. But he's shooting just 43.6 percent in such situations, and his 0.86 points per post possession don't even crack the 60th percentile.

For comparison's sake, players like Kevin Love and LaMarcus Aldridge rank inside the 80th percentile. The idea that the Knicks would be getting a superior post player is sorely mistaken.

Things don't get any better on pick-and-rolls. The Knicks admittedly don't run them much, but if your power forward or center isn't going to space the floor, you want him to be a lethal pick-and-roll finisher. Monroe, however, isn't even in the 50th percentile there.

As for potential floor-spacing snafus, they matter. The Knicks don't shoot nearly enough threes, and they seldom run smaller lineups with stretch 4s, but the NBA is trending in that direction.

Older teams like the San Antonio Spurs balance pounding the rock down low with faster, three-point-friendly lineups. The league-best Golden State Warriors are a positionless masterpiece. Monroe, meanwhile, doesn't shoot treys, and just 7.8 percent of his total shots come from outside 10 feet, of which he's hitting just 34.4 percent.

Equally underwhelming, Monroe isn't an elite defender. Opponents are converting buckets at above-average clips when Monroe guards them, and he cannot protect the rim at all.

Of the 121 players contesting at least four point-blank opportunities per game, Monroe ranks 101st in opponent's field-goal percentage. That puts him behind noted non-rim protectors such as Kelly Olynyk, Kenneth Faried, Dirk Nowitzki, Zach Randolph and Love, among so many others.

The Knicks don't have the necessary defensive stopper to cover for Monroe. Their main building block, Carmelo Anthony, is a spotty defender at best, and they have just four players under guaranteed contracts for next season, per Basketball Insiders.

Committing to Monroe is, by extension, a commitment to awful defense or the search for complementary pieces who hide his shortcomings—none of which is ideal, as Adi Joseph writes for the Sporting News:

"

Monroe is an excellent offensive player, even though the Pistons wasted his passing ability. He'd be a good fit in the triangle offense. But his defense is a major issue, and the Knicks already have a defense-impaired superstar in Carmelo Anthony. Throw in a rookie — guards D'Angelo Russell and Emmanuel Mudiay also are potential Knicks picks at the top of the draft — and the defense could be historically bad.

Beyond that, which position does Monroe play? Ideally, he would be paired with an athletic and aggressive power forward. Put him next to Thunder big man Serge Ibaka, who keeps the post open with his rangy offensive game but flies in to block shots on defense, and Monroe would thrive. Pelicans star Anthony Davis can play a similar role. Those players are not easy to find, though.

"

This list goes on. And on.

Monroe would eat up a hefty chunk of the Knicks' available salary-cap space, he could prove redundant depending on whom they draft, and he ensures Anthony will never return to power forward, where he is statistically better off, according to 82games.com.

In the simplest of terms, Monroe just isn't what the Knicks need. And tying hopes to players they don't need—as they did with Amar'e Stoudemire and everyone who came after him in 2010—is what helped put them here in the first place, collecting losses and hoarding cap space, without a clear-cut core to speak of.

Mary Altaffer/Associated Press

Recovering from a franchise-worst season and seeking to put a lasting foundation in place, the Knicks need transcendent talent capable of altering their fortunes for years to come. They rank in the bottom three of offensive and defensive efficiency and are trying to acquire players, trying to land current or future stars, who allow them to strive for more than lottery berths and short-lived postseason prowls.

That kind of player may be available to them in free agency. Paul Millsap, Goran Dragic, Love, Aldridge and Gasol, while long shots, could all reach the open market.

If the Knicks fail to find that kind of player, if they swing and miss on their long shots like they did in 2010, restraint becomes paramount. They cannot invest precious cap space and years in an expense-laden, pitfall-packed contingency plan like Monroe.

They've been there.

They've done that.

And they're still paying for it.

*Unless otherwise cited, all stats are courtesy of Basketball-Reference.com and NBA.com and accurate heading into games on April 14.