NBA Free Agency 2014: Stan Van Gundy has made his decision on Greg Monroe

Stan Van Gundy has not been shy about expressing his feelings for Greg Monroe since taking over as Pistons team president and head coach on May 13. Van Gundy has spent "well over half" his time in his new position(s) thinking about Monroe. Van Gundy said he "loves" him, putting him in the same sentence as Andre Drummond and calling them "two of the elite big guys in the NBA." Van Gundy insists that Monroe is "the most important thing on our plate for the offseason."

But Van Gundy's not stressing. At least he's playing it cool now, because he says he and his staff have thought up every possibility concerning Monroe when free agency starts on July 1 and they know exactly what they're going to do. Here's what Van Gundy told the media on Tuesday as transcribed by MLIVE:

"We've been through basically every million-dollar increment of an offer sheet he can get, and what will we do if he takes the option of signing an offer sheet, and this is what he comes back with, what will we do?" Van Gundy said. "So to me, there's not going to be any drama in it for us. We've already made that decision. We've already talked that through with ownership." [...]

"I think teams think it's better, especially with younger guys, to have an asset, even if he's overpaid, that can bring value down the road, than to have a guy go for nothing."

It all sounds a bit like the Pistons have a ceiling in mind in terms of what they will happily match, but they could still ultimately match a max offer. I interpret that last quote to mean that Van Gundy is on board with the line of thinking that it's better to overpay for a young asset than let him walk for nothing. And Van Gundy quotes in the Detroit News make it sound like they won't do a sign-and-trade for the sake of just getting something, anything:

"The only thing I wouldn't be comfortable with is making a deal because I got forced into it. We're not doing that. We will not make a trade ... we'll make a trade we like or won't make a trade."

"There's a lot of options and we're comfortable with all of them. On the parts we can control. We'll be OK no matter what. There can't be a trade we don't like."

"And we have control over whether Greg is here next year."

I'm guessing there's a threshold offer at which point Van Gundy enters sign-and-trade mode and, if the return value makes sense, he pulls the trigger. If it doesn't make sense, they reluctantly match to keep Monroe.

That's my e-pinion anyway -- what say you, DBB?