Fitting Greg Monroe in remains a work in progress for Celtics

Greg Monroe began his Celtic career with some success. Just hours after the trade deadline passed in Washington D.C., he posted 5 points, 6 rebounds, 2 assists and 2 steals in his debut against the Wizards, as his new teammates outscored the opposition by 10 points with him on the floor during an overtime win. He even saw a couple crunch-time minutes.

Nearly three weeks later, that stint remains the highlight of Monroe’s tenure as a Celtic. The 6-foot-11 big man has played five more games in green since that initial appearance, and he’s struggled in parts of each contest. The Georgetown product is shooting just 41.6 percent from the field over that stretch, including an uncharacteristically low 27.3 from 3-10 feet (41 percent season average).

The offensive slump (Monroe is shooting a career-high 57.6 percent for the season) is not much to worry about. He’s missed a number of shots on postups that have largely been good looks. They are the type of attempts the C’s second-unit offense needs more of: high-percentage shots from a reasonable distance. With a lack of effective penetrators in that bench unit, the reserves often become too dependent on their unpredictable jump shots in the halfcourt. Monroe’s presence in the post should provide a nice change of pace on that front when he gets comfortable.

But if you're Brad Stevens, the bigger concern right now is Monroe’s defense. Despite injuries and a number of opponents playing with true centers that are ideal covers for a guy like Monroe, he's only played between nine and 11 minutes in four of his last five games. The reason? His struggles within Boston’s defensive scheme.

The Celtics have a 116 defensive rating when Monroe is on the floor, 15 points worse than their league-best season average. The center isn’t entirely to blame for that number, since Boston was struggling as a team on defense over the past couple weeks anyway. However, it’s easy to see how much more vulnerable the Celtics’ defense looks when Monroe is anchoring it.

Opposing teams have targeted the 27-year-old throughout his career because of his limited speed and mobility. He struggles containing the pick-and-roll and defending the perimeter, and several teams have burned him there already.







He deserves some slack for the adjustment period, but the problem doesn’t seem to be getting much better a few weeks into his stint. The Celtics have been outscored in five straight games with Monroe on the floor, and his net rating of -16.2 is easily the lowest number on the roster since he signed. Comparatively, Boston has a plus-3.8 net rating when Monroe has been on the bench during his six games in Beantown.

That’s not to say that Monroe isn’t capable of being more than a net negative for this group. His rebounding has been as advertised, and he’s had some nice flashes of passing as well. When his offense gets rolling again, that should help to make up for his defensive shortcomings. However, right now, if his post play isn’t clicking, he doesn’t do enough else for this team to warrant him playing bigger minutes.

The challenge for Stevens going forward is to find the best ways and groups to hide Monroe on defense when he’s out there. Second-unit guards like Marcus Smart and Terry Rozier are going to have to be on top of their games from a defensive standpoint to take some pressure off the big man and cut off dribble penetration. Monroe is slow to get back in transition as well (no surprise with his size) so wings like Jaylen Brown are going to have to have better awareness of that fact instead of passing ballhandlers off to him like he’s Al Horford. Plays like this can’t happen.



Under Stevens, the Celtics haven’t had many subpar big man defenders over the past couple years. Guys like Tyler Zeller and Kelly Olynyk weren’t elite, but most nights, they were strong with their fundamentals and positioning on defense. Monroe, understandably, isn’t there quite yet and his eventual ceiling is lower than both those guys defensively. His strengths should make it worth the drawbacks down the line. But, for now, the Celtics need to find a way to keep him from dragging down the team’s performance on a nightly basis. Otherwise, the added big man depth won't be of much use to Stevens in the win column.