I think Monroe is a very good player, but because of his skills in some areas and lack of skills in others, he's a hard guy to fit into a winning roster. On offense, he's an above average post player, but most likely not the kind of great post player you can center your offense around like Al Jefferson. He's not a great pick and roll threat, and he can't shoot well from mid-range or outside. So on offense, you have to put him next to a shooter at the four or five position.

But on defense, he's not fast enough to guard quicker guys, and he's not a skilled rim protector, so you have to choose which of those is more important to your defense (usually it's the rim protector). The problem then is that if you want a solid offense and defense, you basically need to slot him next to a rim protector with shooting range. There just aren't many guys who fit that mold. Anthony Davis, Marc Gasol, Serge Ibaka, Bosh, Horford, and not much else. If he were to play alongside one of those guys, I think he'd be an all star or at least an important piece to a very good team. His combination of passing and low post scoring on offense would be perfect for those guys, and his strength and willingness to bang with other players is valuable on defense.

He was pretty effective for us in our winning streak when Jennings was healthy, but the effectiveness came in spurts mostly when he wasn't sharing the floor with Andre. So at his best for us, it seems like he's more of a luxury. And when you consider the type of money he's going to get paid, it would be a very expensive luxury for us to keep him. That said, I'm not totally against keeping him, but I think the cap space could probably be spent more wisely if we could trade for a stretch four or pry away one of the restricted free agents this summer.

TLDR; he's a good hardworking player with valuable skills, but he needs the right players around him to really reach his value.