The Milwaukee Bucks are reportedly shopping big man Greg Monroe just six months after giving him a three-year, $51 million contract and the Cleveland Cavaliers, with power forward Tristan Thompson as a potential trade piece, is one of their rumored trade partners.

Hoops Habit's Gerald Bourguet reported that Monroe's flat-footedness and defensive flaws, combined with the exit of two of the team's resident defenders Zaza Pachulia and Jared Dudley, made Milwaukee possess the third worst defense in the NBA right now.

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The Bucks made great strides last season going 41-41 and finishing sixth place in the Eastern Conference following a 2013-2014 season where they only had 15 wins to boot.

When Monroe was acquired last summer, expectations were high that Jason Kidd and his team will do even better in 2015-2016. Instead, they are currently third worst in the East with a 20-32 record and are in pace of missing the playoffs once again.

Bourguet said that while the Cavs may be hesitant to trade for Monroe as he would certainly become a defensive liability, and championship teams need reliable defense more than anything else, Monroe is still "worth investing in" because he tends to play better against Golden State.

Milwaukee provided the Warriors two of their closest games this season Monroe, who had 28 points and 11 rebounds in a Bucks win against the defending champs, was said to be "a big reason why".

Even with his lapses on defense, the former Georgetown standout still has a lot of upsides and potential at 25 years old. It can be argued that he still has not reached his prime and a persistent coach would be able to change him into a consistent rim protector in time.

Meanwhile, SB Nation noted that if the Bucks will not trade Monroe now, he may choose to exit the team in the summer 2017 anyway as his three-year deal has a player on the second year.

Monroe is averaging 16.5 points, 9.6 rebounds, 2.3 assists, and 0.9 blocks in almost 31 minutes of playing time a night in 50 games so far for Milwaukee this season. The rebounds and blocks numbers may relatively be low for a 6-foot-11 big man, but his ability to consistently score from the shaded area is his strongest trait as he shooting at a 52.1 percent rate from the field.

TagsNBA Trade Rumors, Milwaukee Bucks, greg monroe, cleveland cavaliers, Tristan Thompson