Toronto Raptors: Whose stock is up/down, plus Delon Wright on the rise

Greg Monroe – Stock Down

It’s been said multiple times, but Greg Monroe’s impact on the court is only really positive on one end of the court, on offense. However, when his game isn’t flowing in the low-post then Moose is essentially as bad as a net-rating negative as one individual player can be. Despite it not being the worst week, the glaring holes in Monroe’s game are sure to set off alarm bells.

Monroe put in a solid game against Brooklyn, he might have caught the Nets when they had nothing left in the tank but he was able to contribute with a well-rounded performance, regardless. You can only beat what’s in front of you, after all. He had 10 points, eight boards, and two assists. Monroe has a knack for getting offensive boards too, averaging just under two offensive rebounds in limited minutes so far this year. His defensive performance came as a surprise though, a real surprise. A constant negative on defense, it’s a recurring trend, watching teams attack the paint once Monroe checks into the game. He’s not laterally quick and doesn’t have much verticality, Monroe can’t defend the rim if he’s constantly grounded. He added one block against the Nets but it was only his fifth block of the season, Kyle Lowry has more significantly more blocks than Monroe.

That’s where this issue lies, if Monroe was a constant positive on the offensive end of the court then maybe, just maybe, we could set aside his limitations. For that to happen though, Monroe would need to play more minutes and really have a strong run of games to put a résumé together. The problem is, and it’s a real problem, the longer he spends on the court the more the Raptors suffer defensively. There’s no way around the double-edged sword, especially when one side of it is actually pretty blunt.

The rest of his week did enough in summing up where we should stand on Moose, and it wasn’t pretty. Monroe finished with 11 points against Boston, on 4-6 shooting. Somehow he ended up with a +/- of -7. You do the math.