Greg Monroe, Sam Dekker Latest Update: Dekker Heading to Cleveland; Monroe Signs with the Raptors

As the huge free agents have now inked their deals with their respective teams, the remaining players who have yet to finalize their contracts are now slowly joining teams as well. The latest trade and acquisition involve Greg Monroe and Sam Dekker.

Both players didn't really help their teams all that much last season as they were just there to serve as backups or even just to fill the roster. As for Greg Monroe, WDEF confirmed that the center/power forward has now signed with the Toronto Raptors in a one-year $2.2 million minimum vet deal. Sam Dekker, on the other hand, has now been traded to the Cleveland Cavaliers.

Sam Dekker’s trade is quite unusual since the Cavaliers haven’t offered anything in return for the young player but the Los Angeles Clippers are sending him to Cleveland anyway. Normally, the teams involved in a trade present whom they’re letting go in exchange for a particular talent. But this isn’t the case for Dekker and the Clippers essentially gave him away for nothing it would seem.

In this sense, Greg Monroe is lucky that he still got to sign with the Raptors. He’s expected to act as a backup for Jonas Valančiūnas as their reserved big man Jakob Poeltl has been sent over to the San Antonio Spurs as an inclusion in the Kawhi Leonard and DeMar DeRozan trade package.

Sam Dekker has practically been non-existent in the years of him being in the league as teams haven’t really given the young player an opportunity to showcase his talent. Greg Monroe’s case is somewhat similar in a sense.

The big man had been quite the reliable reserve during the regular season of the Boston Celtics. However, when the playoffs rolled around, Greg Monroe also appeared to have vanished as his presence in the court wasn’t really felt by both his team and the opposing side. Still, both Sam Dekker and Greg Monroe can still work on their games and improve them so that teams will give them more playing time in the future.