FEBRUARY 1, 4:06pm: The Suns have officially waived Monroe, according to a press release issued by the club. He’s on track to clear waivers on Saturday.
We rounded up several rumors on Monroe’s next landing spot earlier today.
JANUARY 31, 9:53pm: The Suns and Greg Monroe have reached an agreement on a buyout, tweets Scott Bordow of The Arizona Republic. Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN adds that there will be “significant interest” around the league in signing Monroe to a rest-of-the-season contract once he becomes an unrestricted free agent.
The timing of the deal is a bit peculiar with the trade deadline about a week away, but Bordow surmises that a worthy deal likely wouldn’t have materialized for Monroe anyway, so the timing really didn’t matter to Phoenix. Wojnarowski adds that the Suns did in fact exhaust all trade possibilities before agreeing to the buyout.
Monroe, who was sent to the Suns earlier this season in the move that landed Eric Bledsoe in Milwaukee, had seen inconsistent minutes since arriving in Phoenix, with Tyson Chandler and Alex Len also vying for minutes at the five. Monroe has been viewed as a candidate to be traded or bought out since the Suns acquired him — a trade would have been challenging due to his $17.88MM cap hit.
Earlier in the evening, John Gambadoro of ArizonaSports.com opined that a buyout could be forthcoming after Monroe was not in attendance for tonight’s game against Dallas. Multiple sources indicate that the Celtics, who possess an $8.4MM disabled player exception, are a team to watch in the Monroe sweepstakes, with Chris Mannix of Yahoo Sports reporting that the interest is expected to be mutual.
Helping Boston is the fact that its disabled player exception – acquired as a result of the season-ending injury to Gordon Hayward – does not prorate throughout the season. As detailed by ESPN’s Bobby Marks, this is different from the mid-level exception that most teams would utilize to offer Monroe a salary over the minimum.
In addition to the Celtics, another team said to be interested in Monroe is the Pelicans, per Bordow. New Orleans is in a position to make the playoffs and just lost All-Star DeMarcus Cousins for the rest of the season. Moreover, a potential deal for Nikola Mirotic just fell through after New Orleans refused to guarantee Mirotic’s 2018/19 salary.
New Orleans is over the cap and wouldn’t be able to offer a free agent more than the prorated portion of the bi-annual exception — even that would be tricky due to the team’s hard cap and tax ramifications. Still, Monroe is from the New Orleans area, so the Pelicans may be hoping that he is willing to take some sort of hometown discount. In addition, New Orleans could offer him a starting position, while the Celtics would almost certainly bring him off the bench.
The Thunder could also be a dark horse in the Monroe sweepstakes, according to Mannix. Meanwhile, the Bucks are ineligible to re-sign Monroe after trading him earlier in the league year.
Pelicans make too much sense next to AD. Another team is the Thunder so he can bring a nice boost off the bench.
could Bucks want him back?
The Bucks can’t sign him. They traded him away earlier this season
is that an NBA rule? I didn’t know that
It is. From Larry Coon’s CBA FAQ:
“When a team trades a player who is subsequently waived by the receiving team, it cannot claim the player off waivers or re-sign the player until the one-year anniversary of the trade, or until the July 1 following the end of his contract, whichever is earlier.”
Weirdly, if a player is traded TWICE and then waived, his original team is allowed to re-sign him (so if the Suns had been able to flip Monroe in another deal, then his new team bought him out, the Bucks could’ve re-signed him).
I just want to know what dionnis thinks?
It’ll come! hahaha
Lmfao
I love that EVERYONE knows that guy
He’s a legend in the Trade Rumors community for all the wrong reasons
It’s all Lebrons fault. There ya go.
BOS makes too much sense. Monroe is a heady player who has grown accustomed to coming off the bench and playing a specific role. He’s made the playoffs once in his lifetime (last season) so he’ll want a taste of that. And he’s a nice complement to Horford/Baynes. Offers a bit of bucket-getting, a bit of rebounding, bit of passing skill from the high post.
Seriously Spurs can use a big man and he is kinda a old school player and I feel they would utilize his skill set the best.
Pops requires some semblance of defense. Monroe doesn’t check any of those boxes.
Cavs
The Pels also have over $2m left on their MLE to offer before dipping in the BAE, but it seems the hard cap is what’ll prevent them from offering more than a minimum deal. It looks like they’re within a $1MM or so of it.
Celts. Most money to offer and playoffs can help his cause next year if he performs well. Can’t see who else he would select if not them.
Monroe is OK, if that’s all the Celts can get. But they really need a scorer on the second unit. That’s not Monroe.
With Tyreke Evans at around $3.8 MM, I wonder if the Celts could fit both Evans and Monroe in with the $8.4 MM DPE.
The DPE can only be used once — even if they just use it to sign/acquire a player earning $3MM or so, the rest would disappear.
Okay thanks
I still hold hope they can somehow nab Aaron Gordon or lou Williams but Monroe is ok
Come to the next championship team Greg
Monroe is all offense. It’s his defense that doesn’t exist.
Pels make the most sense. Yeah the Celtics and Thunder could offer more immediate money, but NO can offer him a starting spot and the most minutes. That will more likely increase his worth for next season and beyond. Monroe is not a veteran at the end of his career, he is still just 27. He has to think of his future potential earnings far more than just this year.
You’re prob right especially since he’s also from there but starting minutes means he has to get in much better shape and he may be more content coming off the bench and going deeper in the playoffs with a team from the East then going out in the first round out West.
Biggest waste of an expiring contract that I’ve seen in some time. No wonder the Suns are not going anywhere anytime soon.
Literally could have upgraded by trading with the dozen teams looking for cap space.
If the new team was looking for cap space then they’ve got to trade 17.88 million back to the Suns. Suns want no part of that… makes no sense.
Charlotte is basically going to give away Kemba Walker to unload 1 contract. I understand how the salary cap works bozo.
Bozo?
Why?
Not cool.
So when did he say he didn’t want to be here?
The second he got traded from the best team in the East
The minute he got traded from the 7th best team in the NBA.