From a lot of the reading I do on Warriors forums throughout the internet I have seen many posts or blogs talking about trading Monta Ellis. There are more people than I thought out there, who think Monta is more of a liability than this team's all-star. Those who say this claim Monta is holding Curry back. The writers feel that Curry would be the next Steve Nash without Monta slowing him down. They have the idea that the offense would flow so much better with Curry on the floor and players wouldn't just stand around and watch like they do with Ellis. The part I find intriguing is what could the Warriors get in return for Monta? Well let me give you my opinions on all of this AND MORE!!!!!!! Well maybe I will just stick to this topic and save the AND MORE for my next blog.
First lets talk about what Ellis brings to the court that I am not sure Curry can replace. Monta has finally come into his own when it comes to being a gamer. He is the guy the team knows can hit that shot with game clock running out. He is also the kind of player that doesn't need to be freed up by coming off a screen to get that last shot. He can break down the defender and take it to the rim or pull up and hit the jumper. He is a hard man to stop from getting his shot off during one possession at the end of a game. My question is can Curry do any of this? He certainly hasn't shown me the ability to break players down offensively at will. So therefor at the end of a game the Warriors are going to have to run him off of a screen for an open look. Now once he has that ball with time expiring can he hit that shot. His percentages tell me yes but this is a different scenario than shooting during the rest of the game. Now he certainly did it in college but he isn't playing against the same caliber of player. The answer to this question can only be answered by him doing it and seeing what happens. Personally I don't trade Monta yet until I see that Curry can take over his leadership role at the end of the game. If you get rid of Monta and it turns out Curry can't fill that role this organization will once again have shot itself in the foot.
Secondly I would like to address the point of Curry making our offense flow better and Monta causing it be stagnant. That is a pile of nonsense. I am not saying that Curry doesn't make the offense flow better or that when the ball is in Monta's hand the offense doesn't get stagnant. What I am saying is that has nothing to do with Monta. Curry is the PG I would hope he would run the offense better. It's not Monta's job to run the offense he is a SG. Curry is in charge of creating that flow as the point guard and if the flow dies every time Monta gets the ball that is on Smart. The coach has to tell his players to keep moving. Ellis has done a fine job this year of finding the open man for a score. Monta isn't that same head down player he used to be. I can't fault Monta for either of those things.
Now if the Warriors trade Ellis who do they get? Personally I think some of us Warriors fans over value Ellis but I don't think by much. There aren't a ton of impact players in the league like him. So who is available and what can the Warriors do? Personally I see only one option, draft picks. Now I know what you are thinking, we should get a player that can have the type of impact that Ellis did. Like maybe a Danny Granger. Well you are now putting yourself right back into the hole of Curry playing second fiddle. So you can't do that and the last thing the Warriors want to get for Ellis is a bunch of decent players but nothing outstanding. Also let's face it Melo isn't coming here so getting superior star isn't happening either. So you have to go young. Get draft picks hope to draft well and let the young guys learn to play with Curry instead of next to him. I personally think that could be a very smart idea (no relation to Keith). This team has a ton of issues right now. It's not going to be fixed tomorrow. Ellis may only be 25 years old but lets not forget he came straight out of HS and if there is one thing I have learned it's that a players NBA body has about the same amount of seasons in it whether you went to college or not. So why not trade Ellis now and get some good young talent to develop with Curry? It's the smart move (again no relation). Unless your organization does a terrible job drafting young talent, uh oh.
If I was the GM I would probably lean toward keeping the two for a little longer but if another team wants to give me a couple first round picks for Ellis I think I pull the trigger. It would be a tough choice but it really would be hard to go wrong with getting several young players who could impact the organization long term.
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