[h2]Monta Ellis on pairing with Stephen Curry: "We can't… (We're) not going to win that way"[/h2]
Posted by
Tim Kawakami on September 28th, 2009 at 2:15 pm | Categorized as
NBA,
Warriors
This is going to be a
wild Warriors season. You knew that. They're always wild. But this one… this one could be an all-timer.
Started off today with Media Day, and you could never imagine Monta Ellis would upstage Stephen (Trade Me) Jackson in the talking, but that's exactly what Ellis did.
I'll say that Ellis was much more focused and direct than he usually is when he speaks to the media. He had a point to make about himself, and with the Warriors' talks about playing Ellis together with touted draft pick Stephen Curry.
Ellis point: That won't work. Period. With excellent reasoning: They're too similar and too small and Curry's too young to make up for his deficiencies.
FYI, that's reasoning that the Warriors management is trying to ignore.
Ellis could not have been more clear. It's the clearest point I've ever heard Ellis make, by a landslide, over these many years.
This is not the full Ellis transcript, but the weighty part, sliced out, with much more to come, including Jackson Himself, refusing to back off of his trade request (without saying the words), and ripping Warriors management for making the team worse every step of the way since the '07 playoff run.
Classic Warriors: Their best two players are the most disgruntled… and they're also both much smarter than Warriors management.
-ELLIS, partial transcript/
-Q: Jackson says you're going to be playing with a chip on your shoulder… You think so?
-ELLIS: (laughs) Only thing I'm going to be playing for is to win. A chip? I don't know what that means. Like I said, I'm just coming back to show everybody I worked hard this summer to get myself back to 100%, to see the Monta Ellis that everybody wants to see. Just glad to be back on the court.
-Q: How important was it to you that Don Nelson and Larry Riley flew out to see you in the off-season? What was that about?
-ELLIS: Really just… get on the same page. They wanted me to lead the team. Be one of the leaders.
We had to air some stuff out that happened last year that should've been… We put all of it behind us. Everybody's coming in positive, everybody's got a great mindset. Everybody just wants to win.
-Q: Being a leader, does that mean being the point guard?
-ELLIS: Nope. Being a leader means lead by example. Say what I mean and mean what I say. And I can't go out and tell nobody to do this when I'm not out there doing it myself. You know, lead by example. Be that leader.
-Q: Have you talked to Jackson, understand his situation?
-ELLIS: That's Stephen Jackson's situation. That's not mine. That's not for me to comment on or whatever… Let Stephen and the organization handle that part. Like I said, at the end of the day, when the ball is tipped off, I know that Stephen will be there to play basketball, whether he's here or somewhere else.
-Q: So it won't impact you?
-ELLIS: It's not going to impact anybody. I mean, he's got a hold on his situation. He's got control over it. He's being professional about it.
Everybody's coming in with a great mindset of just winning. That's it.
-Q: Do you expect to be playing the 1 or the 2?
-ELLIS: I just want to play basketball. It doesn't matter. You could put me at the 5, I just want to play basketball. It doesn't matter what position I play.
-Q: Were you OK with them drafting Stephen Curry? He's pretty similar to you…
-ELLIS: I mean, I don't have a problem. Whatever decision they make upstairs, that's their decision. They're doing it for a reason.
I'm going to wish Curry the best in training camp, get better as his career goes on. We're not worrying about it. We're teammates. We're not out here fighting for a position, because that's not the case.
-Q: Can you see yourself playing with Curry in the backcourt?
-ELLIS: I can't answer that. Us together? No.
-Q: Why not?
-ELLIS: Can't. We just can't.
-Q: Too small? Too similar?
-ELLIS: Just can't.
-Q: The Warriors say you can.
-ELLIS: They say we can? Yeah. If they say it. But we can't.
-Q: You wouldn't want to give it a shot?
-ELLIS: I just want to win. That's… not going to win that way.
-Q: Why not?
-ELLIS: It's different when you're trying to compare me and Stephen, when you're trying to go back to when me and BD were playing, it's a different situation.
You've got a nine-year veteran who's been in the game, who understands the game, knows how to play the game, and he's a big body…
You can't put two small guys out there and try to play the 1 and the 2 when you've got big 2 guards in the league. You just can't do it.
OK, yes, we're going to move up and down fast, but eventually the game is going to slow down.
You can't do it.
