Monta Ellis Superstar?

gsfool — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 20:03:40 -0000

This is kind of a response to postings I've seen that are skeptical of Ellis' PG skills, suggestions that we trade him for a power forward or "true" point guard, complaints about his defense.

I've watched a lot of Warrior games the last couple of years. I'm no expert but you don't really have to be to see that Monta Ellis is a rare talent, the kind that doesn't come around that often.

The game comes easily to him, it's not supposed to be this easy to come right out of high school and score at will against the best players in the world. We haven't really had a chance to see a talent like this develop before. We've seen some very good players - Antawn, J-Rich, Spree, Dunleavy- and been pretty tough on them (justifiably so in Dunleavy's case). The closest thing to seeing a talent like Monta's here was Webber for one year and Arenas for two.

To put what Monta has done in perspective look at his numbers against all the other players who have come straight from high school. With the exception of Lebron, who was freakishly physically ready, Monta has been as good as any. If you compare Monta's first three years with Kobe the numbers are almost identical. He's been better than Mcgrady and equivalent to KG although they play different positions.

Obviously what all those guys have in common is that they became superstars in the league.

I'm not saying he will be the next Kobe (well maybe I am sort of) but he is going to be one of the players to watch this year. He will be the new Iverson, Wade, Carter, Kobe- the guy that you makes you buy tickets if you're a fan of an opposing team bc you want to see what he'll do. He's going to have some crazy games this year. He'll be on highlight reels all the time. He's gonna be the guy that all the kids want to be like. I want to see him do all this in a warrior uniform. When he's dazzling the world with 40 point games I'm just going to be laughing at all those who wanted to trade him for Marion, or whoever (like that would really help the team get closer to championship level). Of course they will still probably be complaining about his defense.

Speaking of defense- not many players come in out of high school and quickly become top notch defenders. Kobe (to use that comparison again) was hellof skinny and didn't really guard anyone early in his career. There were probably those that wanted the Lakers to keep Eddie Jones for his D and trade Kobe for a power forward. Chris Paul is known to not play much D, although he gets lots of steals, Lebron is not known for D either. Give Monta a chance.

Some people say Monta does not have the size to guard the shooting guard position so He'll never be able to match the Kobes of the world. Monta's not that small. He's 6'3" with long arms and crazy hops. He'll fill out. I bet if you put him next to Raja Bell who plays next to Nash (who can't guard anyone) and is Known as a Kobe stopper, you would see that they are almost exactly the same size.

Monta as Point Guard- People talk about true point guards like its some mystical ability that you either have or don't. I think that's kind of true with ordinary NBA talent but when you have someone with Monta's ability he will be fine because teams will have to adjust their defense to stop him and he has shown that he can create for his teammates. You can see that he has the ability to make the other players better. It's almost beside the point (no pun) what position he plays, Nellie is going to figure out the best lineup to put around him, as a combo guard he can play either (sort of like Wade when the Heat were good, he would sometimes play with a pg like Jason Williams and sometimes with a shooter like Damon Jones or Kapono). People look at how Chris Paul and Deron Williams have turned their teams around and everyone thinks you need a pure point guard so stupid franchises use high draft picks for "pure" point guards but it predictably fails bc tguys like Paul and Williams don't come around often (examples- Mike Conley #4, Acie Law #11; DJ Augistin #7- when Bayliss is clearly the greater talent). Monta's talent is on par with Williams and Paul although he probably will never average 10 assists he will do things that neither of those guys could dream of in mid-air. It's true that they have accomplished more so far but consider that they were high lottery picks for bad teams who turned the keys over to them right away. Monta was a second round pick out of high school playing behind a superstar point in Baron and a very good 2 in J-rich. Of course he wasnt' going to get a chance to develop as quickly. I think this year he will show that he is in the same class as they are. Sorry this is long and probably tedious to read but fun to write. I've been sort of simmering over what I see as lack of appreciation for Ellis but I've been too busy studying for the Bar to respond. I think this team is going to be better than anyone I've read so far gives them credit for.

SB Nation User Blog: gsfool

Monta Ellis Superstar?