re: 2016 NBA Offseason Thread
Best breakdown in here I've seen.
This is why I enjoy your lengthy posts in our groupme chat.
A few factors involved:
1. Casual fans that say Detroit sucked with him and Milwaukee sucked with him, and he's the common denominator.
2. The fact that the Bucks went from 41-41 to 33-49 after adding him (though people forget that post All-Star break last year, the Bucks played at a 31 win pace).
3. The defense went from among the best in the league to probably the worst in the league (this is a legitimate beef, but it's worth noting that a part of this was also the drop off defensively from Ersan Ilyasova/Jared Dudley, who are great at help defense but bad at defending their man, to Jabari, who's border-line okay defending his man but is horrific in close-outs and help.
4. While Monroe is very productive offensively, since Milwaukee was losing, Bucks fans basically wanted every possession to end in a Giannis, Jabari, or Middleton shot, so any shot Monroe took was "stunting the important players' developments".
In reality, Monroe was as good as people thought he was. He gave Milwaukee 19 and 11 per 36, along with 1 steal and 1 block, scored efficiently, and was a good passer. Looking at some of the analytics, his on/off court split was 2nd best on the team at +4/100 possessions, and the Bucks starting lineup, with him in it, was quietly one of the better 5 man lineups in the NBA last year. His PER, BPM, VORP, etc. all place him somewhere around the top 5-10 C/PF's in the league. What killed them, much like it did after the All-Star break last year, is that the bench is consistently demolished every game. While the starters generally outscored their opposition, they couldn't do it at a rate that outweighed how horrific the Bucks bench was.
As one of the other posters said, his half-court post-ups aren't a great fit for a team with Giannis and Jabari on it, but he's still a good, young player, and after this offseason, paying $17 million for him won't look bad. I'd be pretty shocked if Milwaukee trades him for less than a mid-1st round pick, maybe with another decent piece attached too. If a team believes their defensive system is good enough to handle him, or if they simply play a system that doesn't require their center to run around like a chicken with its head cut off like Milwaukee does, I could see the Bucks getting something like the #16 pick + Kelly Olynyk or Amir Johnson for him (not saying Boston would be interested, just saying that's around what I think Monroe's value is).
TLDR: Any decline that the Bucks suffered this year (which really began after the All-Star break last season) probably had very little, if anything, to do with Monroe. He was one of the Bucks top 2 or 3 players this year, and his contract won't look bad after guys like Bismack Biyombo and Dion Waiters are being paid around $15 million. He's just a poor fit in the Bucks' defensive system and his post-ups don't mesh well with Jabari and Giannis.
1. Casual fans that say Detroit sucked with him and Milwaukee sucked with him, and he's the common denominator.
2. The fact that the Bucks went from 41-41 to 33-49 after adding him (though people forget that post All-Star break last year, the Bucks played at a 31 win pace).
3. The defense went from among the best in the league to probably the worst in the league (this is a legitimate beef, but it's worth noting that a part of this was also the drop off defensively from Ersan Ilyasova/Jared Dudley, who are great at help defense but bad at defending their man, to Jabari, who's border-line okay defending his man but is horrific in close-outs and help.
4. While Monroe is very productive offensively, since Milwaukee was losing, Bucks fans basically wanted every possession to end in a Giannis, Jabari, or Middleton shot, so any shot Monroe took was "stunting the important players' developments".
In reality, Monroe was as good as people thought he was. He gave Milwaukee 19 and 11 per 36, along with 1 steal and 1 block, scored efficiently, and was a good passer. Looking at some of the analytics, his on/off court split was 2nd best on the team at +4/100 possessions, and the Bucks starting lineup, with him in it, was quietly one of the better 5 man lineups in the NBA last year. His PER, BPM, VORP, etc. all place him somewhere around the top 5-10 C/PF's in the league. What killed them, much like it did after the All-Star break last year, is that the bench is consistently demolished every game. While the starters generally outscored their opposition, they couldn't do it at a rate that outweighed how horrific the Bucks bench was.
As one of the other posters said, his half-court post-ups aren't a great fit for a team with Giannis and Jabari on it, but he's still a good, young player, and after this offseason, paying $17 million for him won't look bad. I'd be pretty shocked if Milwaukee trades him for less than a mid-1st round pick, maybe with another decent piece attached too. If a team believes their defensive system is good enough to handle him, or if they simply play a system that doesn't require their center to run around like a chicken with its head cut off like Milwaukee does, I could see the Bucks getting something like the #16 pick + Kelly Olynyk or Amir Johnson for him (not saying Boston would be interested, just saying that's around what I think Monroe's value is).
TLDR: Any decline that the Bucks suffered this year (which really began after the All-Star break last season) probably had very little, if anything, to do with Monroe. He was one of the Bucks top 2 or 3 players this year, and his contract won't look bad after guys like Bismack Biyombo and Dion Waiters are being paid around $15 million. He's just a poor fit in the Bucks' defensive system and his post-ups don't mesh well with Jabari and Giannis.
This is why I enjoy your lengthy posts in our groupme chat.
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