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| English: Brandon Jennings of the Milwaukee Bucks during a game against the Detroit Pistons (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
http://www.hoopsworld.com/jennings-hoping-for-deal-with-dallas-mavs/
Showing posts with label Monta Ellis. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Monta Ellis. Show all posts
Tuesday, February 26, 2013
NBA News 2013: Jennings Hoping for Deal with Dallas Mavs?
http://www.hoopsworld.com/jennings-hoping-for-deal-with-dallas-mavs/
Saturday, November 3, 2012
NBA News 2012: Bogut limited
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| Monta Ellis at the Golden State Warriors' open practice. (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
It made perfect sense there were so many high wires incorporated into the Golden State Warriors home opener Friday against the Memphis Grizzlies.
The Bay Bridge replicas that were used during player introductions were lowered by them. The athletic men and women in the Cirque du Soleil style halftime act hung for their entertaining lives from them. The season of one of the Western Conference’s most intriguing teams, quite clearly, is going to be a high-wire act of its own.
As if it’s not enough that a key piece of their promising core, four-year, $44 million man Stephen Curry, has spaghetti ankles that have compromised the early part of his career. Or that one of the team’s most valuable rotation players, veteran Brandon Rush, went down with a left knee injury in the first quarter after colliding with Zach Randolph that — while not yet diagnosed — left the Warriors small forward in tears and led to the Grizzlies forward following him into the opponent’s locker room during a brief break in play to check on his well-being.
All of that, and then there’s this: The Warriors’ main attraction — the center who is nothing short of their centerpiece, Andrew Bogut — is off to a torturous start.
It’s not about his play at this point; Bogut’s left ankle surgery in late April has proven more problematic than he or the Warriors initially thought. So here they are in early November, with Bogut — who was traded by the Milwaukee Bucks with Stephen Jackson for Monta Ellis, Ekpe Udoh and Kwame Brown in late March — limited to 20 minutes a game per doctor’s orders. The plan is to keep it that way until December at the earliest. The playoff race will not wait.
Bogut played 18 minutes in a season-opening win Wednesday at the Phoenix Suns, posting eight points and six rebounds. He logged 18 minutes again in the 104-94 loss to the Grizzlies, adding four points and three rebounds. The frustration seems to be there all the time these days.
Thursday, June 9, 2011
NBA News 2011: Talk of Iguodala-for-Kaman swap
Image by Getty Images via @daylifeA spot for Evan Turner may be opening. Amid increasing signals that the Philadelphia 76ers are finally prepared to deal Andre Iguodala after years of trade speculation, another potential swap has surfaced that would send the swingman to the Los Angeles Clippers for center Chris Kaman, sources with knowledge of the discussions told ESPN.com. Although it's believed that the trade has not yet advanced past the discussion phase, sources told ESPN.com that the teams have discussed an Iguodala-for-Kaman swap.
Sunday, October 31, 2010
NBA News 2010: Los Angeles Lakers manhandle Golden State Warriors
Image by Getty Images via @daylifeLOS ANGELES -- Forward David Lee epitomized the night the Warriors had in Los Angeles. He played 19 minutes, missed all three of his shots and had as many fouls as rebounds. And the man Lee was defending had his way.
"I work hard and stay consistent in my preparation to avoid games where you just can't find a rhythm," Lee said. "But unfortunately it happens."
That about sums up Golden State's performance Sunday: no offense, no defense, no chance.
The Warriors struggled across the board in a 107-83 loss to the defending champion Los Angeles Lakers. They shot just 40.9 percent and were out-rebounded 55-42, and that includes a garbage-time boost in stats.
They had no answer for the Lakers' weapons and failed in their attempt to improve to 3-0 for the first time since 1994-95.
Without Curry, who is hoping to play Wednesday against Memphis, Monta Ellis was the Warriors' only reliable weapon for most of the night. He finished with 20 points on 9-of-20 shooting, but he had to work extra hard against a Lakers defense geared to stop him.
"His presence was missed," Ellis said of Curry.
On a night where the Warriors needed someone to go above and beyond, they got no other significant offensive production when the game was in the balance.
Lee, who signed a six-year, $80 million contract this offseason, was the most likely candidate. But coach Keith Smart had seen enough by early in the third and yanked Lee for good.
It was the first time Lee went scoreless since Nov. 30, 2007, when as a New York Knick he was 0 for 2 in 12 minutes against Milwaukee.
"He had been great all yearlong, from the preseason on through," Smart said. "I took him out, because he didn't have the pop he normally has. I think he understood that."
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
NBA 2010: Filling Out Golden State's Roster
Image via WikipediaFirst off, let’s be clear where the Warriors are roster-wise. They have Stephen Curry, Monta Ellis, Andris Biedrins, David Lee, Dorell Wright, Ekpe Udoh, Charlie Bell, Reggie Williams, Brandan Wright, Vladimir Radmanovic, and Dan Gadzuric under contract. That’s eleven players- every NBA team must carry between 13 and 15 players on roster at the start of the season (and at all times the rest of the year).Leaving Udoh out because he will not be suiting up to start the season, the ten players Golden State has already includes one PG (Curry), four swingmen (Ellis, Wright, Bell, Williams), and five big men (Biedrins, Lee, Wright, Gadzuric, and Radmanovic). As such, the base 12-man has two spots to fill, one of which needs to be a PG.
Point Guards
The biggest challenge with the PG market this summer has been that the relatively few good options have been overpaid, particularly considering what the Warriors need. While some can argue effectively that Monta should get the PG minutes that Stephen does not play, I would rather see Monta focus on making the full transition to off-guard, especially since there is not a guy who can play lead guard in a SG’s body (so Monta could play off the ball and guard PG’s) in the free agent pool after Shaun Livingston signed with Charlotte.
Swingmen
With Ellis, Wright, Williams, and Bell likely to take up most of the minutes at SG and SF, this is more of a depth signing than anything else. Players like Antoine Wright and Keith Bogans would work fine yet are probably looking for either more money or more minutes than what the Warriors have to offer. Rasual Butler could play well next to Dorell Wright and Reggie Williams when Monta is on the bench, though he might be looking for more PT. Beyond him, I’d love to see a defensive-minded wing like Ime Udoka or a high-character veteran like Devean George to act as a mentor to the young group Golden State has.
Big Men
The most difficult obstacle when it comes to adding a big is the issue of fit. With Biedrins and David Lee clearly taking the lion’s share of the available minutes when healthy, the Warriors should look for big men through the lens of how they fit with those two guys. Brandan Wright and Ekpe Udoh are both worthy of minutes when healthy, but I worry about Radmanovic and Gadzuric getting any substantial playing time, particularly if Nelson is the coach (and he likely will be, though I hope Brian Shaw gets a big pitch sooner rather than later).
If Josh Boone is willing to come along, he would work. Anthony Tolliver was a solid pick-up for the Warriors and embraced a role which would be remarkably similar to this coming season. While I would rather see the Dubs pick up a C (since David Lee is a PF in the NBA), the Center crop is bad enough that the PF’s like Tolliver or Shavlik Randolph are worthy of consideration.
http://warriors.realgm.com/articles/185/20100720/filling_out_golden_states_roster/
Friday, July 9, 2010
NBA News 2010: Knicks Convert Lee Into Randolph, Turiaf, Azubuike
Image via WikipediaAfter much speculation and hand wringing, the deal is finally done. No, this one is not about a King, leisure suits, or championships. Rather, two teams that haven’t made the playoffs more than twice in the last decade made a deal on Thursday that will substantially change the future of both franchises in the immediate as well as the long-term.As it looks right now, the Golden State Warriors traded Anthony Randolph, Ronny Turiaf and Kelenna Azubuike for a signed and traded David Lee.
Randolph will be the most important player as far as New York goes, and his development is heavily clouded in uncertainty right now. Every once in a while we saw a flash of absolutely amazing play from Randolph, whether it was a short term thing like an amazing block with a sprint down for a dunk or a game where he put it all together. One of his biggest challenges will be deciding what his game is as a player since he has no bread and butter. He has the athletic ability and tools to be good at a wide variety of things, yet is the master of none for now.
If I’m Mike D’Antoni and the Knicks, I would be working with him on a reliable mid-range jumper on the offensive end and weak-side shot blocking on the defensive end: not the perfect complement for Amare that way, yet they are the parts of his skill-set that Randolph can get up to speed the quickest so he can contribute out there.
Azubuike is best as an effort rotation guy- he has the tools to be a very good defender and could thrive in a system where he only shoots open looks when the defense sags, sort of like a rotation player version of Trevor Ariza’s role on the 2008-09 Lakers team.
Turiaf is a strange fit in D’Antoni’s system, but is a very good defender and rebounder while also being a simply awesome teammate. This will come up more later, but there is no one more fun to have on the sidelines and the locker room than Turiaf, and he can be a valued contributor on the court as well.
Grade for the New York: B
For the Warriors, let’s start out with this: I like David Lee. He’s not a bad player, seems to play hard and appears to be a good guy. He is also the best player in this trade, as he should be in a 3-for-1. The problem here is that Golden State is paying him $13 million dollars a year and he is not even the second-best player on a team that could make the Conference Finals, which should be the measure of a $13M man in the current CBA, much less the worse one for players coming down the pike in 2011.
Unless the team moves both Andris Biedrins and Monta Ellis for expiring scrap (and they shouldn’t now), they have likely committed to a core of Stephen Curry, Ellis, Biedrins, and Lee for the next 3-4 years with zero cap flexibility until Steph Curry comes up for an extension in 2013.
What makes this move so depressing is that those four as the best players on a team likely does not even put the Warriors in the playoffs next year, much less down the line when teams like Sacramento gel and still have money to spend and the older teams on the list still haven’t declined enough for Golden State to overtake them.
One vision for this team would have been to get it to the new owner with a core of Curry, Randolph, Udoh (I guess), Turiaf, and Buike if he wanted to come for cheap. That team would have cost around $14M altogether and had the flexibility to either pull a Camby-esque deal or actually get a free agent. It also would have allowed the team to be patient and both stick it to teams while they had cap space a la Oklahoma City and wait for the right fits to come along (like OKC again or Portland). Alas, management has decided to go in a different direction.
They replaced those guys with David Lee who can spell defense, but hasn’t played a lick of it in at least the last six seasons. One remarkable thing about Lee is that I attended his best performance of last year (at Oracle where he dropped 37/20/10): the Knicks lost that game by 11 and Monta, Biedrins, and Randolph all did not play that night.
There is a distinct chance that this works out for Golden State, especially if they are willing to be more conventional and play Lee and Biedrins together for periods of time (and I’m sure we’ll see lots of Lee and Udoh as well). I just can’t shake the feeling that it was a gigantic mistake to take three guys on reasonable contracts who all made sense with a long-term vision of the team to overpay the ever-loving hell out of a single player who is good, but not great, on the offensive side and abysmal defensively. I hope I’m wrong with every fiber of my being.
Grade for Golden State: D+
As a final note, there is also some personal anguish here because as someone who covered the Warriors for much of last year, I saw what these guys, particularly Ronny Turiaf bring to the table off the court. We see a ton of media pub for the guys who are squeaky wheels or prima donnas, especially when they are more notable off the court. I did not get to spend much time with Randolph because he was hurt so much, but Kelenna and Ronny were both class acts that were great with the media, including yours truly while more importantly being great teammates. Seeing Turiaf interact with Curry was one of the highlights of my Warriors’ locker room visits and wish all three former Warriors the absolute best of luck going forward. Take care, fellas.
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