Greg Monroe on track to become the next big thing for the Detroit Pistons – NBA Feature
For a long time, 7 NBA seasons to be exact, the Detroit Pistons dominated the Eastern Conference in the NBA. They won the 2004 NBA championship, and made NBA Finals appearance on multiple occasions during that time period. The Pistons had a great team around then with Ben Wallace, Rasheed Wallace, Rip Hamilton and Chauncey Billups. They set new records and broke old ones, continuing to rewrite franchise as well as NBA history.
However, slowly, the Pistons core started departing and they were unable to hold on to their crown in the East. Last season, the Pistons finished with a 25-41 record. Although the past few seasons for the Pistons have been ordinary, they have something to look forward to with Greg Monroe on their roster.
Monroe, the 6 foot 11 starting centre of the Detroit Pistons, will start only his third season in the NBA this coming October, but already has the attention of the whole league. The 22 year old has made tremendous progress over the first two seasons of his career, and is close to becoming an All-Star calibre player. Along with that, he is also close to becoming the face of the Pistons franchise, the player who can lead them into a new era.
Monroe averaged 15.4 points and 9.7 rebounds for the Pistons last season. He had a field goal percentage of 52.1 percent and a free throw percentage of 73.9 percent. As impressive those stats are for a player in his second season, the best part about Monroe is that he has shown considerable improvement in all aspects of his game. For example, Monroe averaged 9.4 points and 7.5 rebounds in his rookie season.
The Pistons front office and coaching staff realize that they may have struck gold with Monroe, and are dedicating all their resources and coaching staff to help the big improve as a player. Monroe worked hard during the offseason, a four month stretch that saw him travelling all over the country as he fine tuned all aspects of his game, including conditioning and strength, low post workouts and perimeter shooting.
“The best is yet to come. He’s 22. We want to see improvement each and every day, each and every month, each and every year. That’s the track. We think he has an extremely high upside. He was very impressive with the way he attacked his work this summer,” said Pistons head coach Lawrence Frank recently.
With Monroe showing tremendous improvement, the Pistons are planning to shift him to the power forward position in a couple of seasons, once the Pistons have trained their young centres enough to replace him.
The Pistons picked up centre Andre Drummond with their 1st round draft pick this year, and are looking to train him in the upcoming months to eventually take over from Monroe at the position, so that Monroe can move to four. It is a prospect that could give Detroit variety and a strong front court presence and it is for this very reason that Monroe has been working on his post game as well as his perimeter shooting.
“They basically said I need to be prepared to play power forward. They’re looking for at least one of those guys to be ready, so I’ve started to prepare myself to be ready to play the four. We’ve been working on stuff to have me in those positions,” said Monroe.
Although the transition will take some time and we will see Monroe playing the five for much of the next season, the prospect of him improving as a player and moving to a more offensive role in near future is enticing. They can indeed become a strong contender in the coming few seasons if everything goes according to plan.
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