The Milwaukee Bucks got their center on Thursday when they signed (former) Detroit Pistons power forward/center Greg Monroe to a maximum contract, per Adrian Wojnarowski. The deal is for three years and $50 million, with a player option on the third season.

Free agent Greg Monroe will sign a maximum contract with the Milwaukee Bucks, league source tells Yahoo Sports. — Adrian Wojnarowski (@WojYahooNBA) July 2, 2015

Monroe will sign a three year deal, with a player option on the third year, league sources tell Yahoo Sports. — Adrian Wojnarowski (@WojYahooNBA) July 2, 2015

Greg Monroe will sign a three-year, $50M deal with the Bucks, including the player option on the final year, sources tell Yahoo. — Adrian Wojnarowski (@WojYahooNBA) July 2, 2015

That’s over $15 million a year on average, so essentially it’s just a bit more than Brandon Knight money on a shorter deal. I think everybody knows that I love Brandon Knight, but as a logical NBA writer and more importantly as a passionate Bucks fan give me Greg Monroe over BK any day of the week, and twice on Sunday.

Adam McGee, Jordan Treske and I all talked on our third podcast about how despite concerns about his defense and mid-range scoring game, we thought Moose would be a great get for the Bucks for a few reasons, first and foremost being his age.

Monroe is just 25 years old, so he fits right into the Young Bucks team that Jason Kidd and John Hammond have molded here in Milwaukee. Just like the rest of the Milwaukee core, Monroe should continue to develop and grow into a better player over the course of his time with the Bucks.

The real reason I wanted to see Monroe come to Milwaukee is that the Bucks now finally have a center who can do some real damage in the paint. Last season Monroe averaged a double-double per game, posting almost 16 points and over ten rebounds each contest.

And he didn’t get those baskets by stepping out of the paint and letting loose step-back jumpers ala Ersan Ilyasova. Moose gets those baskets the hard way, by putting his back to the basket and simply out-muscling his defender around the basket.

In addition to being a great scorer down low, Monroe is actually a much better driver than people give him credit for, and I believe he’s going to play better defense in Jason Kidd’s system on a much better Bucks team than any he played with in Detroit. This short highlight video shows off a lot of Moose’s game in just three minutes, and it’s hard to not get very excited about the upcoming season in Milwaukee now that the Bucks got their big man.

It’s important to note that signing what could be just a two-year deal is nothing against the Bucks on Moose’s part–it’s just smart economics. The salary cap is slated to make some massive gains over the next two seasons, and this deal makes sure Monroe gets paid now and has the ability to get a larger, long-term deal when the cap is somewhere over $100 million.

I’m honestly just too excited about this signing to feel negative about any part of it. I really meant it when I said I think the Monroe signing makes the Bucks a top three team in the Eastern Conference. All last season I watched Bucks games and constantly thought to myself, “man, imagine if this team had a true center.”

Well, the Bucks definitely have a true center now. Welcome to Milwaukee, Moose.