People say he's a bad defender, but he's already put up a DBPM of 3.1 this year (Johnson has only put up .7), he's actually just as good of a shot-blocker than Amir Johnson at 2.1 % to Johnson's 2.2%. To get stops on defense we need to eliminate 2nd chance points and being a good defender means that you also need to be a good DRB. Johnson's DRB% is 12.1% to Monroe's 27.4%. Neither is a floor spacer, but Monroe is more versatile as a big man. He has dramatically improved as a passer as well. Monroe has put up an fantastic 20% AST% as a big man! That's better than Pau Gasol and KAT both considered versatile/good passers. That's more than 2 times better than Olynyk too who's often considered a savvy passer. So for those of you arguing about the fact that he's not a good defender or floor-spacer, he would be a significant improvement over Amir Johnson and would take his role in the starting lineup.
He's averaging 17.5 PPG, 13.1 RPG, 4.7 APG, and 2.5 STLs per 36. On a winning team those are All-Star numbers. Considering the lack of depth of this upcoming FA class and the fact that Monroe can be had for pennies on the dollar we better capitalize. This is a perfect Ainge situation. He's better than every big that we have, besides Horford, and I would love to have a player like him on our team. Steven Adams just received 25 mil per year and there are very few statistical measures that portray Monroe as worse all around player than him, so technically he's kind of a steal based off the market.
If he opts out we really don't lose out on much because we gave up almost nothing to get him. If he opts in we essentially add FA that we wouldn't have probably grabbed next year and for a solid price. We can then use Brooklyn's 1st and the addition of Zizic and Yabusele next year to get team even better and deeper in the frontcourt.
All-in-all it's a win-win situation for the Celtics and I think we become an even more dangerous playoff team.
Starters:
PG: Isaiah Thomas
SG: Avery Bradley
SF: Jae Crowder
PF: Greg Monroe
C: Al Horford