<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">The beauty of youth -- and playing with relatively little at stake -- is that mistakes can be quickly forgiven. So when Monta Ellis blew a fast break Thursday by clanking a dunk so forcefully that the ball went straight out of bounds to the Mavericks, the rookie merely slapped his hands in anger and moved on to the next play. No sense in fretting over the blunder. There were rebounds and steals to be had -- such as in the fourth quarter, when Ellis stripped Jason Terry of the ball and started a fast break. Or when he corralled three critical rebounds during a three-minute stretch. "First half, we actually made a run and got back in with Will (Bynum) and Monta," coach Mike Montgomery said. "We got quicker. We had to gamble and just go with it." The gamble paid off as the Warriors went significant parts of the second and fourth quarters with Bynum, Mickael Pietrus and Ike Diogu on the floor. Bynum finished with four points and three assists in 15 minutes. Ellis had 12 points, four assists and three steals in 25 minutes. </div> Source
Those rebounds by Ellis were HUGE! I'm really glad to see him getting significant PT. It reminds me of Gilbert Arenas' first year. He sat most of the first half and then Musselman let him go off the second half of the season.
You know there is a partnership between Montgomery and Mullin. They were both guys who've never done their jobs before and they would go in head first together as a team with other guys like Elie/Higgins/Mitch Richmond to help them. I don't know if Mullin's ever coached to know what it's like in Montgomery's shoes, but this is a team that lacks major quickness and that has been a major liability on both ends of the floor. This is especially a problem when the team also doesn't play smart together and they tend to play smaller than their overall size (except for the more athletic guys who have also finesse to their game). Ellis brings those weapons with quickness and the way he plays on offense and defense. He plays big. There's going to be some adjustments and learning from mistakes that Ellis will have to go through. It's why he shouldn't be hurried along unless the guy is like Lebron James already. Thankfully, he's not as raw as Biedrins or Pietrus when every impatient fan wanted them out on the floor as soon as possible. But you have to wonder what types of things is he missing that we're not seeing since the guy had only high school competition to play against. This is when other rookies like Biedrins/Pietrus were playing in professional international leagues (maybe not Biedrins since he was in a smaller circuit in Latvia, but Pietrus played with euroleague powerhouse Pau Orthez). The hoop doesn't have an age limit, but experience counts for something, especially when there's four other players and the coaching staff that have to rely on you and stay on the same page. What I can't understand is... in the initial construction of this team, wasn't lacking quickness and playing smaller than their size indicates, obvious from the start? We lacked quickness to get our game going, we lacked guys at forward and center to play big and start banging, lowering shoulders, posting up, finishing above players. In fact, besides lacking fundamentals, the lack of quickness and unwillingness to create contact is the one thing that IMO prevented us from playing tougher man-to-man defense, getting a step ahead of defenses, fighting through screens, setting screens is what keeps us out on the outside arc or not getting inside position or playing an honest individual defense. It's not just effort that's a problem, because stone hands Foyle gives you 110% effort, but it's the fact of not being able to physically react if you can mentally anticipate. Either guys don't physically react fast enough or they don't mentally react fast enough or both. What can we say about Monta Ellis? So far, he plays bigger than he is, he is unselfish, he looks like a player that never gives up, and he's got quickness. He seems to 'save the day'. He gives badly needed quickness on the perimeter. The only problem is he's young and I'm not sold he's a guy that can do no wrong because we've barely seen him and we catch him in all the good moments. Generally, guys with unguaranteed contracts that just want to play and prove themselves will have that sense of urgency unlike some guys who get all this money, preferential treatment, and haven't really proven themselves in more minutes. It's like Calbert Cheaney will die of old age before some of these guys get their games together. Hopefully Ellis isn't one of them. But he looks great so far. Hopefully increasing our toughness, quickness, good overall skills and smartness should lead to better results in executing offense and playing a more honest type of defense. Because dammit, we're a team of liabilities and low %'s. At least we are getting some dribble penetration and quickness to pick up both offense and defense. The addition of Wil Bynum on a 10 day contract at least is a sign that these guys know what's going on with our stagnant offense at the guard positions and too-slow-to-react defense.
