Philadelphia 76ers: A Sixers player gets a championship ring after all

Despite a quadruple doink prematurely ending their season, it looks like a Philadelphia 76ers player will end up with a championship ring after all.

While the Philadelphia 76ers may not be walking away as NBA champions, due in large part to arguably the luckiest shot in NBA history (a ‘quadruple doink’ if you will) that doesn’t mean that one of the team’s players isn’t going to earn some hardware for his efforts.

That’s right, while he may have finished that season in Philly, Greg Monroe actually spent the majority of the regular season as a member of the Toronto Raptors, appearing in 38 games with the club after signing a one-year contract last August.

While Monroe wasn’t the best player on the team and clearly was viewed as non-essential to where he was waived midseason, 6-foot-11 Georgetown product still averaged 4.8 points and 4.1 rebounds 11.1 minutes of action and night, and contributed to a 26-12 record in games he played in.

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Honestly, that’s pretty good for a deep bench player.

However, in the leadup to the trade deadline, where the Raptors landed a much-needed injection of talent from players like ex-Memphis Grizzlies center Marc Gasol, ex-Atlanta Hawks guard Jeremy Lin, and Championship good luck charm Patrick McCaw, the team needed to free up roster spots and waived Monroe, to get that done.

From there, Monroe spent a few weeks with the Boston Celtics, appearing in two games, and a few weeks unemployed before finally settling in as the Sixers’ second, third, and sometimes fourth-string center – securing a postseason contract after putting up 18 against the Miami Heat, and 14 against the Chicago Bulls to close out the season.

And really, there’s not a whole lot left to say about Monroe.

In the playoffs, Monroe averaged four points and 3.1 rebounds in nine minutes of action a night, appearing in all but one of the team’s games. Though he scored in double digits once – fittingly in the Sixers’ Game 2 win over his former club – Monroe was largely a non-factor for a Philly team in desperate need of reserved help behind Joel Embiid.

Now one could argue that having Monroe around was valuable in understanding Nick Nurse’s squad in a pivotal series, as he had been firmly entrenched in the system for the better part of a season, but it’s hard to look at the stats, game film, or game logs and really find much of a contribution from Monroe.

Needless to say, it seems doubtful Monroe will be a high priority free agent this summer, and likely won’t be coming back with the Philadelphia 76ers unless something goes really, really wrong.

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Could Greg Monroe still provide value on some team as a deep bench reserve or even as a veteran presence in the locker room? Possibly, but if this is the end of the line for the nine-year vet, at least he’s walking away from the game with a seriously impressive consolation prize, even if he never actually stepped foot on the court for the Raptors in the finals.