Does Monroe become a starter this year?

[CFAN38]

At some point he will start


When fully healthy I would like to see the Celtics use the following lineup against teams with traditional lineups (non small ball)

Start

Irving
Brown
Tatum
Horford
Baynes

first sub Smart in for Tatum

2nd unit

Rozier
Smart
Tatum
Morris
Monroe

Larkin is the 10th rotational player who is plugged in through out the game and gets the occasional DNP

When teams play small Baynes gets taken out of the rotation and Morris starts and Semi steps into 2nd unit.

Looking at these grouping its easy to see plugging in a min restricted Hayward or a vet shooting wing ( Joe Harris is an example) into the second unit

[azzenfrost]

Why not? Give him a shot and start him a few games. We're getting a lot of injuries anyway.

[Smitty77]

As long as  he continues to stand around on defense and watch guys drive to the basket without even attempting to challenge them, like he's done during his career so far, there is no way CBS starts him....never mind him even getting a ton of playing time, until he shows effort on the defensive side.

When he played with a team that VALUED defense, the Pistons in 2013-2014, he ranked 14th out of 48 centers in defensive RPM, so he can be decent!!!

http://www.espn.com/nba/statistics/rpm/_/year/2015/sort/DRPM/position/9

Smitty77

[Eddie20]

Starters
Horford
Tatum
Baynes
Irving
Brown

2nd unit
Theis (His minutes would be squeezed the most)
Morris
Monroe
Smart
Rozier


I think the plan is to have Monroe come off the bench and feature him vs second units. I do think it's not too effective, from a minutes perspective, to have him play with the starters where his usage rate would suffer. Instead let's keep those minutes optimal by having the better defensive player (Baynes) continue to start and do some of the dirty work (defense, screens, hard fouls, rebounding, etc.) the first unit needs.

It will be interesting to see how the rotation looks going forward with a possible Hayward return and/or a Tyreke trade. As for the latter, these are the schedule dates for when the post-season rounds are set to begin, with the days to that date from today. Obviously the days are crucial as it gives an idea of the time Hayward has to return.


1st round - April 14 (70 days away)

ECSF - April 30 (86 days away)

ECF - May 15 (101 days away)

NBA Finals - 31 (117 days away)

[hodgy03038]

As long as  he continues to stand around on defense and watch guys drive to the basket without even attempting to challenge them, like he's done during his career so far, there is no way CBS starts him....never mind him even getting a ton of playing time, until he shows effort on the defensive side.

When he played with a team that VALUED defense, the Pistons in 2013-2014, he ranked 14th out of 48 centers in defensive RPM, so he can be decent!!!

http://www.espn.com/nba/statistics/rpm/_/year/2015/sort/DRPM/position/9

Smitty77

Wow. Look at some of the centers he is above: Noah, Howard, Marc Gasol, Robin Lopez & Whiteside.

[chiken Green]

We needed Bench help So I vote No he doesn't start.

  Moving Baynes to the bench does not give us what we need.  We need some kind of offensive attack when KI goes to the bench... Rozier and Monroe Would be perfect. 

[jambr380]

I think there should be a 3rd option:  Will start some games.

I think Brad will use him in a rotation of bigs with Morris, Baynes, Monroe.  There might be games when any one of those 3 gives us the best matchup.  In general I think he will be a bigger asset off the bench to help with bench scoring.  He will have a lot of mismatches off the bench.

I think people on the first page who said he will start some games due to injury (and probably answered ‘yes’)are misunderstanding the OP’s question. Anybody on any given night might start here or there, but I believe what wdleehi is asking is will Monroe officially take Baynes’ starting spot?

I think the answer to this is ‘no’, but he will get a good deal of playing time and should give Stevens more options moving forward. I am a little worried this will cut into Theis’ minutes who I think has been playing wonderfully as of late. I suppose a trade of Baynes could always occur, but there is no reason to search one out unless we are getting someone back even more useful.

[Rosco917]

The signing of Monroe will spell relief for Horford more than anyone. He'll give Al the rest he requires to continue to play at an all-star level. Something he'll need to do in the playoffs if we're going to make any noise at all.

With Theis expanding his range out to the 3 point line, Monroe can also pair well with him.

I do feel that Baynes is the better defender, and should continue to start.

[hwangjini_1]

As long as  he continues to stand around on defense and watch guys drive to the basket without even attempting to challenge them, like he's done during his career so far, there is no way CBS starts him....never mind him even getting a ton of playing time, until he shows effort on the defensive side.

When he played with a team that VALUED defense, the Pistons in 2013-2014, he ranked 14th out of 48 centers in defensive RPM, so he can be decent!!!

http://www.espn.com/nba/statistics/rpm/_/year/2015/sort/DRPM/position/9

Smitty77

Wow. Look at some of the centers he is above: Noah, Howard, Marc Gasol, Robin Lopez & Whiteside.

so....is the point that we should not take defensive RPM very seriously??   

[KGs Knee]

As long as  he continues to stand around on defense and watch guys drive to the basket without even attempting to challenge them, like he's done during his career so far, there is no way CBS starts him....never mind him even getting a ton of playing time, until he shows effort on the defensive side.

When he played with a team that VALUED defense, the Pistons in 2013-2014, he ranked 14th out of 48 centers in defensive RPM, so he can be decent!!!

http://www.espn.com/nba/statistics/rpm/_/year/2015/sort/DRPM/position/9

Smitty77

Wow. Look at some of the centers he is above: Noah, Howard, Marc Gasol, Robin Lopez & Whiteside.

so....is the point that we should not take defensive RPM very seriously??   

Nobody should ever take RPM seriously, it's a junk statistic.

[Bobshot]

Different schools of thought, and both make sense. He could start next to Horford, or he could be points and rebounds off the bench.

He has spent the best part of his career as starting center for the Pistons. Before Drummond. And one of the better ones in the league. Big scorer and rebounder, but not a shot blocker. In Milwaukee and Phoenix, he was mainly a bench player. I think he was better in Detroit as a starter.

The surprise is his age--he's only 27--which means he has a lot of prime years left. I don't know where Ainge and Stevens see him--that will play out. But I think he's a tier above Baynes as a player--especially on offense.

[Vox_Populi]

Since Monroe's third season in the NBA, his MPG have gone down every year. Milwaukee has no good centers but they began to play him less and less - although that might be a product of him not being able to keep up with Kidd's much decried trap-heavy scheme on defense. Regardless, I doubt he ever consistently starts here either.

[Sophomore]

Since Monroe's third season in the NBA, his MPG have gone down every year. Milwaukee has no good centers but they began to play him less and less - although that might be a product of him not being able to keep up with Kidd's much decried trap-heavy scheme on defense. Regardless, I doubt he ever consistently starts here either.

A few people have made a very good point that putting Monroe on the second unit will allow Al to play more of his minutes with Kyrie. That sounds like a win for both lines.

I’ve recently seen footage of Monroe from college, when he was in an offense with a lot of screen actions and showed he was a pretty good passer from the high post. He might really flourish in Brad’s system after Stan and Kidd failed to get the most from him.

[nickagneta]

If the bench 5 consists of

Monroe
Theis
Morris
Smart
Rozier

I wonder how many teams out there have worse starting fives to our bench 5

[Kuberski33]

No idea.  Let's see how he does. Working him in this late is going to be a challenge in that they don't have a ton of practices and obviously no training camp so it's going to take some time to integrate him. That all said, Baynes has stunk recently so maybe he does start.