Pistons forward Greg Monroe denied a report yesterday from the New York Daily News that his move to the Knicks is “close to a done deal.” The report came from Frank Isola, who cited an unnamed league exec as his source of information. Monroe denied the report when speaking to reporters prior to the Pistons’ final home game against the Charlotte Hornets Sunday.
“You write it’s a done deal, there must be another Greg Monroe around here that I don’t know about, because I haven’t agreed to anything,” Monroe said.
“This stuff right here, it’s just unfortunate that we have to talk about it,” Monroe said. “I know we have to. But I talk to my agent every day, and I know for sure, I’m 100-percent, 1,000-percent confident, that he hasn’t done anything. If they (the Knicks) have interest, maybe they might have commented on that. But I haven’t even gotten to that place yet.”
It bears mentioning that any actual progress toward finalizing such a deal while Monroe is still under contract before the free agency period begins would be a violation of the NBA’s anti-tampering rules. In his piece, Isola tried to clarify that it’s more likely each side has expressed interest in the arrangement and plans on pursuing it further once NBA free agency begins.
Monroe will be an unrestricted free agent this summer and will be a highly sought commodity on the open market. The Knicks, for their part, have made no secret about wanting to land Monroe. As we reported in this space yesterday, Monroe’s agent David Falk has a connection to Knicks president Phil Jackson: he represented Michael Jordan when he was in Chicago.
But complicating matters further is Pistons coach and G.M. Stan Van Gundy, who also told reporters yesterday that the team is “going to try to keep Greg, there’s no question about that.”
“Greg and I have not spent any time talking about that,” Van Gundy said. “I don’t think it would be appropriate, number one, to be focusing on anything beyond the rest of the season until the season’s over.”
Monroe also made it known that he would’ve preferred to sign a long-term deal with Detroit when he was eligible for a rookie extension in 2013, but former G.M. Joe Dumars never made such an offer. Monroe also could’ve become a restricted free agent last summer, but he instead ended up signing a one-year qualifying offer with the Pistons worth about $5.5 million, which allowed him to become an unrestricted free agent this summer. Many saw that as an unmistakable sign that Monroe planned to leave Detroit, seeing as how sitting out restricted free agency prevented the Pistons from being able to match any long-term offers he might have received.
