Two years ago, the Milwaukee Bucks were the darlings of the NBA. They came off a season as the worst team in the league to vault into the playoffs. Their youth and athleticism made them everyone’s second favorite team.
Last year, things took a much different route. After a free agency period which surprised everyone as they were able to nab Greg Monroe, the Bucks faltered. They won 33 games and came nowhere close to contending for the postseason.
Many things went wrong for the Bucks last year but the easy scapegoat, for numerous reasons, was Monroe. The center had a fine season from a counting stats perspective. However, his defensive deficiencies broke down what was the strength of the Bucks the year before. The scoring punch that he brought was not enough to make his addition a net positive.
So it should be no surprise that Milwaukee has been aiming to trade its prized acquisition.
Following from Gary Woelfel of the Milwaukee Journal Times:
Multiple NBA sources told me the Bucks accelerated their attempts to trade Monroe this summer — even though from a purely statistical standpoint he had a quality season, averaging 15.3 points and 8.8 rebounds.
The consensus among many NBA front office officials was that Monroe wouldn’t be with the Bucks when they report to training camp later this month — even if they couldn’t get fair market value for the big man.
But with training camp less than two weeks away, Monroe is still on the Bucks’ payroll. While that is shocking to many NBA officials, agent David Falk, who represents Monroe, insists he isn’t surprised his client is still with the Bucks.
Greg Monroe’s style of play and the deficiencies that he has make him a hard sell to just about any other NBA team. He is a talented player and could help some teams out through his scoring but he has to be in the perfect situation to be a good contributor to a good team.
If the Bucks really intend to trade Monroe, and it appears that they are, they must be willing to get low value in return at this point.
