Greg Monroe will Sign With the Boston Celtics
Greg Monroe will sign with the Boston Celtics, league source tells ESPN.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) February 2, 2018
Monroe will sign a one-year, $5M deal with Celtics, league sources tell ESPN. Pelicans could only offer $2.2M.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) February 2, 2018
WOJ BOMB! After a lot of speculation, Adrian Wojnarowski just reported that Greg Monroe will sign with the Boston Celtics. It’s going to be a 1-year deal for $5M, which wipes out the $8M DPE the C’s were rewarded when Gordon Hayward went down. Even though they didn’t use the full $8M, they can’t go back and use the rest on somebody else.
So if you don’t know, here’s a little background on how Monroe got here. He was traded from the Milwaukee Bucks to the Phoenix Suns as part of the Eric Bledsoe deal at the beginning of the year. Immediately after the Suns got him there were rumors that he would be bought out, as he was scheduled to earn around $17M this season. And those rumors eventually came true when Monroe was bought out earlier this week, allowing him to become a free agent. I think you can figure the rest out.
Personally, I love this move because it will give the Celtics some much-needed bench scoring down low. Baynes and Theis have been fantastic this season, but they have shown they aren’t going to put up big numbers every night. I’m not expecting Monroe to post huge numbers by any means, but at least you know that you’re going to get maybe 10 points a night from the guy, which I would consider a win. This is mainly a depth move and I’m very satisfied with it.
I also don’t see it being the last move that Danny Ainge makes before the deadline. I know they’re hesitant to move any first round picks, but I really think they should try to swing a deal for Tyreke Evans. I’ve noticed a big tick in Abdel Nader & Guerschon Yabusele’s minutes as of late, which could be an indicator of them trying to showcase those two guys and potentially make them part of a trade. I would send Memphis the both of them and their own first-rounder if it meant getting Tyreke Evans in the building for the remainder of the season. I think a different first-rounder or anything more than that would be too much.
But the biggest story-line here might be that Woj could finally be back to his old ways. He’s had a pretty good stretch recently in terms of breaking the Boogie Cousins injury, the Nikola Mirotic trade, and now this. Shams has owned him since he left for ESPN, but Woj is on a hot streak. If Shams doesn’t step his game up Woj might own the Spring & the Summer.
I’m still #TeamShams though:
Writen By: Nick Cherico (@NickCherico2)