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Is Monta Ellis Available This Summer?

By William Lee

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Tim MacMahon of ESPN Dallas wrote a somewhat sensational article on Monta Ellis’ status with the Dallas Mavericks recently in an article titled “Too much Monta? Mavs might have to move on”. In the piece MacMahon questions if Ellis is a long term solution to Dallas’ problem. Ellis has a player option this summer, and there have been reports that he will use it and become a free agent.

"“Actually, the Mavs have multiple Monta problems, both short term and long term. To put it bluntly, he’s a pain in the butt who isn’t producing.“The Mavs have no hope of making it out of the first round, regardless of their draw in the deep Western Conference, if Ellis doesn’t heat up. Then, assuming that Ellis opts out of the final year of his contract as expected, the Dallas front office has to figure out how much they’re willing to pay to keep an undersized shooting guard who will be 30 next season and has a history of rubbing his teammates the wrong way.”"

Ever since the 2011 NBA Championship run, Mark Cuban has been adamant about the fact that Dirk Nowitzki needs to ease into the Robin role as he heads in the latter end of his career. Finding a new Batman has been no easy task for Dallas, being rejected by Dwight Howard and Deron Williams in their attempts to land a new franchise player. Dallas thought they finally find someone to take the burden off Nowitzki, as Ellis seemed destined to dawn the cowl (Batman reference), but lately Ellis has been more Alfred than Batman.

MacMahon would go on to express his concerns with Ellis’s recent shooting slump, correlating that with Dallas mediocre play of late.

"“Ellis is shooting 38.5 percent from the floor since Feb. 1.”“Not coincidentally, the Mavs have been mediocre during that span with a 12-10 record.”"

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There is a huge X-Factor that MacMahon did not mention though in his article, be it purposely or unintentionally. That is the fact that ever since Dallas traded for Rajon Rondo that the team has seemed out of sync. Dallas started off the season 19-8 before the Rondo trade, since Rondo’s arrival, Dallas have only been winning 57.8% of their games, going 26-19 in that span.

Monta Ellis’ play has been affected as well, before Rondo, Ellis basically had free reign of the offense (within Rick Carlisle’ offensive confines of course), but ever since Rondo’s arrival, Ellis has a lot less ball handling duties and that is affecting his style of play. Ellis is being reduced to a spot up shooter at times when playing alongside Rondo.

Before Rondo Trade

20.6 Pts – 8.1/17.5FG – 45.6FG%- 1/3.4 3pt – 3.3/4.2 FT – 2.4 Reb – 4.7 Ast – 2.6 TO – 1.5 Stl – 6.1 +/-

After Rondo Trade

18.4 Pts – 7.3./16.9FG – 43FG%- 1.2/3.9 3pt – 2.7/3.6 FT – 2.3 Reb – 4 Ast – 2.4 TO – 2.2 Stl – .8 +/-

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Ever since Rondo’s arrival in Dallas, almost all of Ellis’ stats across board have gone down, with the exception of three-point shooting and steals. The increase three-point shooting is a clear indication that Ellis is relegated to spot up shooting when paired up with Rondo in the backcourt. The most jawing drop is his +/-, dropping from a +6.1 to almost a net of zero…with a +.8…

MacMahon brings up Ellis’ past, saying that it should be a factor when considering to resign the shooting guard this summer.

"“That, of course, isn’t a first for Ellis. He had trouble getting along with teammates during his tenure with the Golden State Warriors, who never won anything of note with Ellis as the go-to guy and made an addition-by-subtraction deal by shipping him off. The same was true with the Milwaukee Bucks.”“But Ellis’ value is dipping by the day. If you’re going to be high maintenance like Ellis is, you’d better be worth the headaches. Ellis sure as heck hasn’t been for the last couple of months.”"

If Monta Ellis indeed becomes available this summer, would it be a good idea to sign him? Given that the New York Knicks just got rid of one knucklehead in J.R. Smith, it would seem unwise to immediately add another one back to the lineup. But, maybe these rumors of not getting along with teammates are unfounded, or maybe Ellis has changed, there were no reports that he was acting out before the Rondo trade.

The biggest question is, would Ellis work well with Carmelo Anthony? To that I say yes, Ellis would be able to draw attention away from Anthony. Ellis is currently top ten in driving to the paint this season as per NBA.com, and was the leader in the category early on in the season before the Rondo trade. Currently there is no one on the Knicks’ roster to drive into the paint, except for maybe Alexey Shved recently. Ellis would be able to break down defenses and create shots for himself, as well as his teammates. Anthony would not have to shoulder the burden on offense completely, which wore him down this season.

Another question is, how much would Ellis cost? Maybe now New York can get him at a discount, with this mess that is occurring in Dallas.

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