Toronto Raptors: Whose stock is rising/falling after week four?

Greg Monroe – Stock Up

I’m doing this because I don’t think there’ll be another chance for a while.

Wednesday night was the most we’ve seen of Greg Monroe since he was picked up in August. He was..good. No, actually, he was good. On offense anyway.

There’s no point in really deep-diving into Monroe’s limitations, we know he’s a defense sieve and not particularly mobile, and I’m willing to live with that some nights. Wednesday’s game just happened to be one of those nights.

Ibaka was ruled out a few hours before game time – soreness of the right knee keeping him out. Valanciunas filled in as the starter and was okay, defensively he was great matched-up against Drummond and he was reasonable on offense. Someone needed to fill in for JV’s bench minutes and it just happened to be Monroe.

It started rather horribly, in actual fact. Moose bumbled the ball around on a pick and roll handoff from Lowry which resulted in a turnover. Things got a bit better after that, he made his claim in the paint and dominated the boards in the 21 minutes he spent on the court.

He had three offensive rebounds and showed a deft touch on his finishing on put-backs. He stuck to his assignments all night and didn’t really do more than was asked of him. Monroe has above-average passing for a big man, he feigned a three-point attempt before an overhead pass found Delon Wright in the corner. Wright missed the three but it was a nice spot from Monroe in the first place.

80-percent shooting, not bad at all. 17 points for Moose, he helped the bench keep the Pistons at bay for a while, but alas it was not meant to be.

Monroe played his role well, and depending on the extent of Ibaka’s injury – or the fact he might just need some rest – we could see a bigger role for Moose in the coming weeks. Interesting stuff, it really is.