One was the seventh pick. The other, the fifth. The 2010 NBA Draft might someday be remembered for the debate that became a joke almost immediately – Evan Turner or John Wall? – but the real arguments should’ve went down between picks three and seven. It was in those five spots that Derrick Favors, DeMarcus Cousins, Ekpe Udoh and Greg Monroe were chosen. With Favors becoming quite friendly with the pine amidst a Utah frontcourt more crowded than a Niketown on a Jordan release date, and Udoh morphing into the perfect role-playing big man, DMC and Monroe have exploded.
The popular train of thought is Cousins is a future franchise centerpiece. Monroe, probably because physically he’s not as dominating, must feel like De La Soul to DMC’s A Tribe Called Quest. But look at the numbers: 16.6 and 10.7 for Cousins… 16.5 and 10 for Monroe. Then there’s the headcase factor. Let’s just put it this way: One cat already “supposedly” helped get a coach fired. The other dude barely seems to speak.
So who is the better player? Greg Monroe or DeMarcus Cousins? We argue. You decide.
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GREG MONROE
March 18 stands as Greg Monroe’s defining game of 2012. It was a low-scoring Pistons/Clippers affair, concealed on the schedule by LeBron James, Dwight Howard and Kevin Durant on national TV, as well as the NCAA Tournament.
The game would only populate that night’s above-the-fold NBA headlines thanks to Chris Paul‘s overtime heroics, and any extra real estate on the nightly highlight shows were owed to some uncharacteristically graceful plays by Blake Griffin and some characteristically forceful dunks by DeAndre Jordan.
Buried in those articles and edited out of those videos was Monroe, Detroit’s second-year center, who despite the loss just happened to be the best player on the court.
Monroe put up 25 points (6-11 FG, 11-13 FT) and 13 rebounds. He outplayed the higher-profile Griffin and the higher-paid Jordan. He showed why, had the NBA adopted Major League Baseball’s rule of representing each team in the All-Star Game, he would’ve made his All-Star debut this year. And the Pistons lost. Again. It was the story of Monroe’s season: Individually impressive, mostly unsuccessful in the win-loss column, understandably hidden from public view.
The deck is stacked against Monroe in a “Who’s Better?” matchup with DeMarcus Cousins. On first glance, their stats are even – Monroe averages 16.5 points and 10.0 rebounds, Cousins averages 16.6 points and 10.7 boards. And their teams are equally bad – Detroit is 16-30, Sacramento is 17-29.
But, for better or worse, Cousins is more of a known commodity. Cousins is the one who made headlines at Kentucky’s thoroughbred factory of lottery picks, and continues attracting attention as a pro. Monroe was understatedly solid in college, running point-center in Georgetown’s comparatively slow Princeton-style offense, and he is similarly starring under the radar as a pro.
Cousins is the one who makes highlights. Just two nights ago he cracked SportsCenter‘s “Top 10” when he took off from the dotted line and dunked on the entire Grizzlies organization. A few days before that, Cousins dribbled between Atlanta point guard Jeff Teague‘s legs, went coast-to-coast and finished with a finger roll. Channeling Amar’e and Shaq in the same pay period is no rarity for him.
Monroe isn’t that type of player. His best work belongs in the instructional video section rather than the entertainment section; lessons in high-post footwork and big-man passing that don’t really work with a T.I. soundtrack.
Playmaking is Monroe’s best asset; he is not only a willing passer but an effective one. His 2.5 assists per game look weak compared to Steve Nash‘s numbers, but Monroe ranks second among NBA centers, trailing only Marc Gasol and his 3.1 dimes a night. Cousins averages 1.4 assists while playing for the league’s 12th-best offensive team, flanked by scorers like Tyreke Evans, Marcus Thornton and John Salmons. Monroe’s team ranks 28th in scoring.
Monroe is shooting 51.5 percent from the field, seventh among centers. Cousins is shooting 43.9 percent. And according to NBA.com, Monroe ranks in the league’s top 50 in 30 statistical categories. Cousins cracks the top 50 in 15 categories.
Those are just numbers, though, and numbers can be deceiving.
The greater efficiency in scoring, the superior creativity in passing, the wider range of his all-around game all mean less to me than the simple eye test. I’ve seen Monroe and Cousins play a lot, in-person and on TV, since they were in high school. And putting aside my Hoyas bias as much as I can, Monroe is my pick. He’s not a center who wants to play guard – he’s a center who possesses guard skills, who knows when and when not to use them.
If Cousins is the broke kid’s Amar’e, Monroe is the broke kid’s Duncan. And I know who I want in that matchup.
-AUSTIN BURTON
DEMARCUS COUSINS
Why does saying DeMarcus Cousins is the no-doubt, why-would-you-think-otherwise? choice of the 2010 NBA Draft feel like arguing for the defense?
I’ll try to answer that in a question: Why do critics think a player can’t change?
Given a choice between Cousins and Greg Monroe in a do-over of the 2010 draft, Cousins still deserves to go first. Monroe’s a fine player from a similar blue-blood college, Georgetown, to Cousins’ Kentucky roots. As pros, they’re both on bad teams you need League Pass to watch. Stats line up just as close.
Fifty players in league history have averaged at least 16 and 10 in their second season (including Blake Griffin this year, too), a club that both Sacramento’s Cousins and Detroit’s Monroe belong to. It’s narrow but it’s also exclusive: Shawn Marion and Elton Brand were the last to do that, in 2001.
But when the Kings went looking for a center who would be a franchise cornerstone in 2010, they chose right with Cousins. With a franchise seemingly on the outs at the time, they wanted the guy who would produce — points and ticket revenue. Guess what? He has. I don’t look at the Kings’ taxes, but the ex-Wildcat’s production is entering budding star territory at 15 points and 9.4 boards over his first two seasons. That’s three points and a board more per game than Monroe, and is a major reason why Sac-town Mayor Kevin Johnson helped persuade city voters that there’s a future there worth watching.
Cousins leads the league in offensive rebounds this season, one ahead of Monroe, and is eighth in total boards. He gives a lot of fouls, the most in the league, but that’s something that will be corrected with time.
His offensive production, however, is something you can’t switch on. He has rare touch around the hoop and steps back to make one jumper a game on average from 16-23 feet. I never said he was Kevin Love, but he’s more versatile than you want to believe. Monroe doesn’t even average half a make from that distance.
Perhaps the biggest misnomer is that Cousins’ attitude stops him from playing defense or sacrificing himself in the lane. It’s a myth because his charge rate, 0.86, is fourth-best in the NBA but arguably No. 1 because the guys in front of him haven’t played as many minutes. Monroe’s much less active taking charges at 0.24.
Let’s go back to that foul rationale, though. “Corrected with time,” or “this is just a phase,” is what every Cousins believer will bring up. It sounds too flimsy to hold up until you think about the precedent of Zach Randolph‘s progression and what it could mean for Cousins’ long-term success. Once reviled in Portland, Z-Bo’s playoff performance last spring showed he was the soul of Memphis, turning the Bad News Bears into the Scary Good Grizzlies. The word from Tennessee is that while his huge production rarely dipped, his attitude is wholly different.
Cousins’ poor attitude either requires the 6-11, 270-pound center to fire his public relations team or hire a new one. I’m not around the Kings every day, so I’m unsure whether Cousins actually does pout all the time or whether it’s so memorable they get the lion’s share of the attention.
There’s likely a hint of both there and it doesn’t dispute that sometimes Cousins’ attitude can be a sixth defender against him. Former Kings coach Paul Westphal‘s firing in January over alleged trade demands by Cousins was another entry in the “bad DeMarcus” chapter of his biography.
There’s no denying he needs to work on that. His career depends on whether a team can stomach his attitude if it stays the same. Here’s to thinking, however, they’ll be more than happy to pick an elite center in the making — much like the Kings did in 2010 and how I would right now.
-ANDREW GREIF
Who do you think is better? Who would you take for the next 10 years?
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