With the March 15th trade deadline rapidly approaching, trade rumors have started to gain some steam. Whether it’s the prospect of the New Jersey Nets trading Deron Williams, the Orlando Magic trading Dwight Howard or the Los Angeles Lakers shipping away Pau Gasol; sources are coming out of the woodwork to confirm that these respective teams are perhaps looking to make a deal.
These franchises obviously have different reasons for looking into making moves. For instance, the Lakers are merely gauging the value of Gasol with the idea of improving their roster to compete for a title. Mind you, in a perfect world, the Lakers would be able to acquire talent for Pau and also shed salary.
The Orland Magic on the other hand have two different agendas. The first one would involve finding a trade that would help strengthen their unit and turn it into a squad capable of taking out both Chicago and Miami in the Eastern Conference. Should they be unsuccessful in acquiring such talent, then their second order of business would involve finding the best possible trade for Dwight Howard, who has requested to be moved to a team of his choosing, a demand that Otis Smith may find himself obliged to agree to since Howard has already advised the organization that he plans to become a free agent at the conclusion of this season and sign with another team.
Whether directly or indirectly, this has an impact on the Golden State Warriors.
For the past few seasons, Monta Ellis’ name has kept appearing in trade rumors, and it’s not by accident. Indeed, the Warriors have been doing their due diligence in trying to accurately determine the trade value of their leading scorer by seeing who they could acquire for him. The truth is, the Warriors haven’t been happy with the offers they have received, which explains why the trigger has not yet been pulled.
As it stands right now, the Dubs seem inclined to trade Ellis in a package that would bring Dwight Howard to the Bay even if the big man refuses to commit to signing an extension to stay with the team long term. Perhaps the organization thinks they could persuade him to remain with the team, or that should he bolt during free agency, it would allow them to blow everything up.
Chris Broussard of ESPN The Magazine has reported that the Magic were trying to acquire the high-scoring guard to give Howard an All-Star caliber partner to help improve the Magic’s odds of competing for a title and keeping Dwight in Orlando. But let’s be honest, unless a third team gets involved, it’s highly unlikely that the Magic could offer the Dubs anything of substance that would compel them to ship Monta out to Orlando.
Indeed, Marcus Thompson of the Contra Costa Times shared that the Warriors would need to get a more than fair offer before they considered trading Monta Ellis away:
“Orlando could get a third team involved. But as one source said, “we’re not trading Monta unless we get something really good in return. It would probably have to be an All-Star or that caliber of a player.” The chances of Orlando finding a player from another team good enough for the Warriors to ship Ellis is extremely slim.”
And in a nutshell, this is the state of the Monta Sweepstakes. Until a team gives something a little above value for Ellis, he is likely to stay put. But one does wonder if a playoff contender such as the Portland Trail Blazers or the Los Angeles Lakers would be willing to part with one of their big guns (Gerald Wallace and Marcus Camby or Pau Gasol) in a package centered around the Warriors guard.
As we get closer to the March 15th deadline, we should probably get a better feel for the offers out there and how they could potentially affect the outlook of the Dubs. But until then, Monta will probably remain in Warriors blue.
Questions or comments? Feel free to leave them in the comments section or you can contact me by email at [email protected].
really THATS your dream scenario? 1. Orlando would want that pick especially if they trade him which is better than getting nothing.2. Your right Lopez wouldn’t stay in the bay area, he’s spent enough time in Palo Alto, and we would essentially be renting him for the last 1/3 of the season and then he would sign with Portland,LAC,LAL or another western conference team in better position than the monta-less dubs. 3. Klay Thompson at his best is good reserve, don’t confuse him with a starter not even on bad team. Jenkins’s hurtin without any d-league time, no nba play, he’s essentially regressing.4. WE WOULD STILL HAVE BEIDRINS 5. WHO are you drooling over in the draft anyways..? Davis, Robinson,Sullinger , Gilchrist,Barnes will all be gone even if the dubs landed in the late lottery.Few college stars have even declared themselves nba ready and even then some should stay a year longer(Cody Zeller)
Boo, hoo, hoo if I only was a millionaire. They don’t need to trade ME they need to trade AB and SC. ME needs help as a guard you can’t do the entire job. They get paid too and they need to work their ass off too. How in the h you going to only make 1 basket the entire game. Please you don’t even need to comment. If they get rid of ME alot fans will no longer be fans. We are tired of this franchise trading good players to go play for other teams and do amazing while we still struggle to get to a playoff. They need to wrap good players around the already good players we have. SPEND THE DAM MONEY.
Then they send Tyler to the D league what kind of CRAP is that.
To me all this franchise do is become a players training camp.
We all overvalue Ellis. To Dubs fans, he is a Top 20 talent. To the rest of the league, he is a Top 50 talent (hence the no All-Star game thing). There is no way the Nets would even give us Lopez for Monta straight up, let alone Lopez AND a first-round pick for him.
A more realistic trade is something like Ryan Anderson + Jameer Nelson, for him. Gasol, Wallace or Lopez are all pipe dreams.
@Franklin,
“A more realistic trade is something like Ryan Anderson + Jameer Nelson, for him. Gasol, Wallace or Lopez are all pipe dreams.”
That’s sarcasm, right?
I wish that were sarcasm. You know the advanced statistics: do you not trust them? Monta has a WS/48 below .100 for four straight years. For four straight years, according to WS/48, he has been a BELOW AVERAGE player. Not a not-star, but BELOW AVERAGE.
His PER is the 68th best in the league this year, and he is 279 in Defensive Winshares. Why do we think we can get a star in return?
I will also note that Ryan Anderson is 7th in WS/48, and 51st in Defensive Winshares.
Franklin, the part I chuckled at was your thinking Anderson was a more realistic trade than Lopez. You ask any GM around the league who is the more valuable player, and it’s guaranteed to be Anderson.
Got it, that makes a lot more sense. While I agree that Ryan Anderson is more valuable than Lopez, and Ellis for that matter, I don’t quite know if I agree that NBA GMs do. Certainly some do, but I think the fact that Brook is a top ten center, and has the potential to be a top 5 center, would make a lot of GMs overvalue him.
Anyways, I think we are much more in agreement on Monta’s trade value than not.
It seems to me there is a way to take advantage of the situation. Dwight has said that Ellis is one of the players he would like to play with. And we also know that NJN is one of his preferred destinations. Regardless of what Orlando does with him, Dwight might sign there, especially if Ellis was already in New Jersey.
So, we could try to make that happen. What if we traded Ellis for Lopez and their first round pick (which will be a good one)? Would New Jersey be willing to do that trade to setup a better possibility for signing D12?
Think about DWill/Ellis/D12 playing together. Probably a pretty good team.
If it did happen, hopefully we wouldn’t make the mistake of re-signing Lopez. I’d let him walk and then we’ve got a great lottery pick, even if we don’t keep our own. (And if it was done soon enough, maybe we’d end up with 2 picks!)
I know, dream scenario.