Since Monta Ellis entered the league six years ago, we’ve seen a lot of talent and a lot that will make you shake your head. Ellis has spent his entire NBA career with the Golden State Warriors, he should be the leader of the team but his attitude has kept him out of that position. Ellis says those days are over.
“I think it’s going to be a breakout season for the Warriors, not just me,” Ellis said. “There are probably a lot of things you’ve seen from Monta Ellis in the past six years that you won’t see this year. That’s for the sake of the team.”
Aside from talking in third person, maybe we can hope that Ellis’ days of being a prima donna are over. It sounds a little bit to me like an alcoholic swearing he’ll never touch a drop again, you want to believe they can do it, but there’s always the fear that something will set off a relapse. Ellis admits that he’s been frustrated with the Warriors organization before, and there’s nothing that says it can’t happen again, but for the sake of the team, we can hope he’ll handle it differently next time.
His already won over his new coach, Mark Jackson, and his teammates definitely believe in him:
“You can tell that he’s plugged into learning coach Jackson’s system,” said teammate Stephen Curry. “Whether he needs to score 50 or score 10 and lock down somebody on defense, he’s going to do whatever it takes to win.”
“Absolutely, he’s different,” power forward David Lee said. “He’s done everything coach has asked him to do. I think he did a great job of being a great teammate last year, which you might not have heard before about him, and I think he’s even more committed this year.”
The Warriors do actually look like a solid team this year, like they could contend for one of the last playoff spots in the Western Conference. I had a lot of hope for them until they decided to pay Kwame Brown $7 million. A lot of it depends on how good of a coach Mark Jackson is, which no one can really predict.
I’m actually really excited to see this Golden State team play. I think they can surprise some people, if they can dodge the drama.
