Monta Ellis was a Mississippi high school legend at Lanier high school where he led the team to two state championships during his time there. He originally committed to Mississippi State, but would change his mind and elect to enter the NBA draft straight out of high school where he would be drafted in the 2nd round, 40th overall by the Golden State Warriors in 2005. Monta Ellis would win most improved player in 2007; the same season as the We Believe Warriors, led by players like himself, Baron Davis, Jason Richardson, Stephen Jackson and Al Harrington. After this season, the team kept losing pieces of this memorable team until Monta was main guy on the team in the late 2000s, and even though he would have three straight seasons of over 20 points per game, finishing sixth in the league in 2010, he never made an NBA all star game.

More importantly the 2010 season saw the Warriors draft Stephen Curry, who Monta did not feel he could win with. The Warriors added Klay Thompson during Monta’s time there as well, but during the same season Thompson was drafted, Monta was traded to the Milwaukee Bucks for Andrew Bogut. Monta initially didn’t want to play with Steph as he didn’t see how two small guards in the backcourt could work, but he got paired with an even smaller guard on the Bucks in Brandon Jennings. While these two could score, they were very inefficient and the Bucks did not have much success with Ellis and Jennings for the season and a half they had them.

Ellis would sign with the Mavs for two seasons in the mid 2000s where he would have his most postseason success alongside guys like Dirk Nowitzki, Shawn Marion, Vince Carter, Tyson Chandler and Rajon Rondo, but he would still not make it out of the first round either year. He would finish his career off with Paul George on the Indiana Pacers where his production declined steeply each of the two years he was there.
So, Monta Ellis’ best years were short lived and overshadowed by a poor reputation and a perceived big ego, which was definitely the case to some degree. But, what can’t be discredited is how good and exciting Monta Ellis was during his prime and how he did all of this as an undersized shooting guard with a play style similar to Dwyane Wade in some regards. He was lightning quick, super bouncy and extremely shifty and those three things made for everyone to be on high alert each night for a Monta Ellis highlight.


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