Restricted free agent Greg Monroe appears to want the Detroit Pistons to trade him. Detroit reportedly increased their offer to Monroe, who still hasn't budged in the contract negotiations.
Despite Detroit's purported efforts to re-sign Monroe, the big appears unwilling to play another season for the Pistons.
"It's no secret that Monroe wouldn't mind a change of scenery and wants a max contract...," Vince Ellis of the Detroit Free Press wrote Wednesday. "... The Pistons have moved from the initial five-year, $60 million offer and an offer that's slightly better than the four-year, $54 million deal that Josh Smith signed last summer is on the table.
"But the offer to make him the highest paid player on the roster hasn't brokered an agreement. And negotiations aren't ongoing. The impasse could last into next month unless a sudden sign-and-trade materializes."
Detroit reportedly has discussed trading Monroe with the Portland Trail Blazers, the Phoenix Suns and the Atlanta Hawks, although none of the conversations went far. Teams, though, are unwilling to offer Monroe a max deal - either because they don't view the 24-year-old as worth the investment, or they feel Detroit would match any offer and don't want to have the money tied up for a few days.
The Washington Wizards also reportedly were interested in Monroe, but the team apparently moved on after filling cap space with the contracts of Paul Pierce and Marcin Gortat.
Monroe's only real option, barring a trade, is to sign Detroit's $5.4 million qualifying offer and become an unrestricted free agent next summer. He's not expected to sign the offer, however.
Yahoo Sports' Adrian Wojnarowski reported Detroit has tried to find a sign-and-trade for Monroe, but nothing has yet come to fruition.
"Detroit has tried to help him with some sign-and-trade possibilities around the league. Monroe doesn't really have a great interest in going back and playing with the Pistons," Wojnarowski said during a podcast, via Fansided. "But if they're going to move him in a sign-and-trade, they've got to get value for him. And they've got to get back some significant players, some significant talent, to compensate for that loss. They haven't been able to find a deal for him. ...
"They've talked to Atlanta. I believe they talked to Phoenix for a while. Those are the two off the top of my head that they had conversations with and that there was interest. Portland had some interest early on but those teams moved on and they realized, you know, again, they could have signed Monroe to an offer sheet but Detroit would have likely matched it."
Monroe has until Oct. 1 to sign the Pistons' qualifying offer.
