Monta Ellis Opens Up on Rift With Warriors, Pledge to Mend Fences Here's a couple more supplementary articles by Sam Amick: Monta Ellis Shaking Off Immaturity, Growing Up Before Our Eyes Stephen Silas Proves He's His Own Man
Pretty encouraging to hear this straight from the horse's mouth. Monta admits he was wrong (by making those comments last training camp about Steph) and having a bad attitude for the better part of the season. Matt Steinmetz said in his chat yesterday that Monta footed the bill for Steph's birthday party too. While I don't think he's the floor leader, Monta is starting to really mature and is embracing the leadership role, which sometimes means you need to define your role as less. He says: I feel vindicated! Monta Ellis Needs To Be The Man By Letting Stephen Curry Be The Man
Yeah, I don't know how long I've been saying that, but it's been a long time. Curry is going to be the man, and the team can only succeed if Monta accepts that. It doesn't mean Monta needs to play second fiddle, he just needs to embrace his own role on the team as an off-the-ball scorer and play maker, like he did with Baron. The only new thing here is that Monta apparently is going to try. Frankly I didn't think he would be willing to try that. I guess we'll see.
Who do you guys see as the the go to guy? I think most Warrior fans would say Curry, but I'd love to see Monta Ellis become the go to guy that other teams try to double down on. He could really open things up for Curry and David Lee on offense if Ellis is the offensive force that other teams have to contend with.
I actually see Monta as the "go to" guy right now, as far as scoring at the end of games. But it will be because of Curry. Curry should be the playmaker, ala Nash, and he should find the hot hand throughout the game. At the end of games, he should still have the ball, but Monta should be the one coming off screens to get open looks. As far as a last-second shot, it depends. If it's a 1-point game, it should be Monta going to the hole and trying to get fouled. If it is 2 or 3 points, it should be Curry who shoots the three. IMO
I agree. I like Curry if we're down by 2 or 3 points and need a 3-ball to win or tie the game. If we need to draw a foul, then give it to Monta. Ellis is working on his 3-pt shot which I hope he uses with discretion and not become another Baron. Ellis should work on improving his free throw shooting, too. He should be in the 80% area. We'll have to see how efficient Monta will be this season. He's got to improve his FG% and cut down on the number of shot attempts. He was hogging the ball or trying to do too much. He needs to take over when the team needs it and pass the ball when someone else has a better shot. In other words, he has to do it in the flow of the team's offense.
Great to see Monta owning up to his faults. Maybe it can work, but I doubt it. Curry is a scrapper on D but Monta is not. If you are going to have two undersized guards, they have to be scrappers.