The Hawks pursued Greg Monroe last summer, and the Pistons were willing to discuss a sign-and-trade.
Vincent Goodwill Jr. of The Detroit News:
"The Pistons wanted point guard Jeff Teague and sharpshooter Kyle Korver in return for Monroe"
The Pistons would have been better off with either player, let alone both. I suppose it didn’t hurt Stan Van Gundy to ask, but that would have been a great return for Monroe even if the Pistons had him locked up long term. They didn’t and should have been willing to accept less as a result.
I don’t blame Van Gundy for Monroe signing the qualifying offer. No player of his caliber had ever done that before. I too figured Monroe would re-sign on a multi-year contract.
But I wasn’t against signing-and-trading him for value. If the asking price was that high, no deal was going to be completed, though.