Monroe now front and center
By his own admission, Greg Monroe wasn’t happy with his finishing rate heading into April.
The Celtics center always has been a high-percentage shooter as one of the NBA’s most endangered species — a post player. But after signing as a free agent with the C’s on Feb. 8, this 51.5 percent career shooter was struggling to convert shots.
Then came the last two games, including a 19-point, 11-rebound, 10-assist triple-double against Chicago that included 8-for-10 shooting, followed by Sunday’s 17-point, 7-for-8 performance against Atlanta.
Monroe will be a pivotal part of the Celtics bench once the playoffs start, and Brad Stevens has to hope that these recent shooting performances are indicative of better things to come.
“Well we need him to play well. He’s a good offensive player, and so we need him to continue to take advantage of the things that he does best: score around the rim and pass the ball and those type of things,” said the Celtics coach. “Obviously we’re going into the playoffs with less people on our roster, and down some guys. The bench play is going to be huge for us. And I think that that’s something — whether it’s two deep, three deep, four deep, whatever it is — it’s going to be big for us.”
Monroe didn’t join the Celtics with expectations regarding his role, or the amount of touches he would get in Stevens’ schemes. He very much saw himself as a role player on a talented playoff team.
But as injuries continued to claim players — Kyrie Irving done for the season, Marcus Smart done at least until the second round, if the Celtics last that long — Monroe’s importance grew.
“I didn’t have a vision originally. In the beginning, it was just about me coming in and getting acclimated,” he said. “Obviously, it’s not just me, but it’s a bunch of guys that have to play more because of injuries. So we all have to do a good job of stepping up and embracing our expanding roles and making sure we are doing what we need to do to make the team successful.
“I’m just being aggressive. I think that’s the mindset for everyone,” said Monroe. “We’re at our best when the ball is moving. We don’t necessarily want to pound it. Guys feel like they have a seam or anything like that, they feel like it’s a good shot, we want anybody to take it as long as you think it’s a good shot. As long as it’s something that we worked on within our offense, just being aggressive is a part of the offense. Not only moving the ball, but you have to take the shots and make the shots.”
Monroe’s skill as a passer has always been respected and, as evidenced by his triple-double against the Bulls, it will be equally important on a young second unit. Monroe also downplays that the Celtics are relying more on him as a play-maker than anyone anticipated.
“Nah, it may look like that, but we’re running the same stuff that they’ve been running,” he said. “It’s the same stuff I guarded (against the Celtics) when I wasn’t here. It’s not anything different. They’re not doing anything different for me.”
On the other hand, Stevens does seem to have found the best ways to accentuate his backup center’s game.
“He just puts everybody in great positions. The stuff you work on in practices is the stuff you see in the game,” said Monroe. “He tells guys he wants to be aggressive to take that shot or move the ball if you need to. Every game, every team is a little bit different, as far as how we want to attack. Before the game, he does whatever needs to be done to make sure that guys understand the way we want to attack and that just makes it easy on guys.”