Yeah. I can't believe people are so high on Monroe. I'm very glad we didn't sign him to a max deal last summer.
Yes because having a 24 year old center who hasn't been injury prone and who has averaged over 15.5/9.5 the last 4 years would be a horrible thing.
I'm really hoping Monroe averages something like 18 pts 10 reb 3 ast 1 stl 1 blk as a full time center with the Bucks and becomes a multiple time All-Star. Always liked him as a player. Bummed the Celts couldn't get him this summer (and no, I don't at all buy that the Celts weren't interested).
I don't know it was said that the Celtics weren't interested in him at all shockingly enough.
It really doesn't surprise me all that much. I mean I'm sure they did their legwork, got an idea of how much he wanted and what other teams were considering offering him and just decided the price was too high for a guy like him.
If there's one thing we know about Stevens it's that he values versatility and defense. Monroe isn't a very versatile player, and he struggles mightily on D. He's a very good low-post scorer, one of the best in the league. He also is a plus rebounder and excellent passer for his size. He's just a smidgen below what I pray Sully becomes without a jump shot. But that's about where it ends for him.
He has to be a 5, because he's too slow on defense. His best skill, low post scoring, basically necessitates he play there because his lack of any kinda jump shot and rebounding skills mean you always want him near the basket. And the guy you want playing next to him needs to be both an automatic mid-range shooter (at the very least, I'd prefer he also be at least respectable from deep) and a plus defender with shot-blocking ability and high athleticism. Players matching that description are seriously hard to come by and are almost always 4's (see: Serge Ibaka). For a newly signed Monroe to be most effective, he needs to get a lot of PT, so that guy you match him with has to as well. That can really limit how you can best utilize your bench, your ability to tailor your line-up to exploit weaknesses or to develop younger players.
I get why people like him and they wanted him. He's a really good post scorer and rebounder, he fits our team age wise and you can realistically say that in a better situation he could make an ASG one day. But even if he does, signing him is just too constraining to your versatility. You have to tailor a team around his strengths and weaknesses to justify big money, but he's just not good enough overall to make you a contender if you do. I think Stevens and Ainge just didn't want to do that, especially at this point in the rebuild.
Perhaps even more importantly, I don't think Ainge wanted to sacrifice a large chunk of his flexibility for a guy as limited and constraining as Monroe. That flexibility is the key to our rebuild and I really don't think Ainge was gonna give anyone short of the top-tier guys near max money unless he believed they were could contribute to the next Celtics championship contender unless they took a short term deal like Amir did. If things regress for us this year, Ainge is reserving the right to go for a total youth movement with a few new lottery picks. It's a lot harder to do that with Monroe.