Monta Ellis trade rumors are hot hot hot, per the unassailable Ken Berger. I'm no Picasso of the NBA Trade Machine. But from time to time I've been able to use my impressive Rolodex to communicate with the Great Masters to get their trade ideas. For the bizarre Monta Ellis to the L.A. Lakers trade rumor, I consulted a man well-versed in phenomenology, Russian abstract painter Wassily Kandinsky.
His thoughts on Monta to the Lakers, the latest in our Artists of the NBA Trade Machine series, are below.
Kandinksy, Composition VI (1913)
As you might have guessed, I am a Lakers fan. (The Kandinsky clan is actually rather uniform in our love of and for the Forum Blue and Gold.) In seeking explanation for the failures of the most recent incarnation of the Lakers, one can look at myriad angles and through countless prisms. But in the end, and I am sure Phil Jackson would agree should Phil Jackson wish to discuss the matter, the failings of the Lakers can be blamed on a lack of spiritual awareness and connection.
For what is basketball if not a set of emotional expressions of faith? The basic tenets of basketball all require faith. To dribble the ball is to cast belief that the floor of the gymnasium is suitable to receive and return the ball. Without faith in the physics -- the essence! -- of the floor, one cannot, in good faith, dribble. To pass, one must express faith in one's self to complete the task without error, and one must express faith that one's teammate will maintain position to receive the pass, and one must express faith that the very air between passer and recipient abides by the common laws of air.
If one cannot breathe with faith, execute with faith and excel with faith, one cannot succeed. Faith is expressed mentally as confidence, pyschologically as spirituality and physically as action. We all know he on the Lakers who lacks action. And we know that Monta Ellis never lacks for confidence, spirituality or action. Therefore, I suggest the Lakers trade Pau Gasol for Monta Ellis and the Warrior's No. 11 pick.
I would also like to register my public support for Jim Buss.
Thanks, Wassily.