Golden State Warriors: 5 Ways Monta Ellis and Klay Thompson Can Work Together

With the sadness that is the NBA lockout, we are now left with no player movement, no trades, being regulated to watching NBA's Greatest Games on NBA TV and thinking about how rookies are going to fit in with their new team.

The drafting of Klay Thompson to some meant that Monta Ellis was on his way out, but with the way the Golden State Warriors front office has been handling things it looks like Monta Ellis will be in a Warrior uniform for the foreseeable future and that he will be playing alongside Thompson to help make a very dangerous backcourt.

1. By Allowing Monta Ellis to Penetrate More

Monta Ellis is at his best when he is leading the break or penetrating.

Having Monta focus more on getting to the hoop and now being able to dish it to another shooter like Thompson on the wing will not only give him a great option to kick it out to, it is also going to make any wing defender think twice about leaving his man to help defend Monta taking it to the rim giving him more space to attack the rim.

Not many people can defend Monta one-on-one if any, and with Thompson's shooting ability defenders should be afraid to leave him on the wing, leaving the defense in a state of flux.

2. By Not Even Being on the Floor at the Same Time

Monta Ellis played an NBA high 40.3 minutes per game last year, so when Larry Riley says that they drafted Thompson for depth I kind of have to believe him a little. 

Klay Thompson is most likely going to be the first Warrior off the bench giving Monta and Dorell Wright needed rest, without losing much if any of their scoring. 

Not to exciting, but it's going to help over the course of 82 games, and hopefully more.

3. By Having Monta Ellis Play Point Guard

Stephen Curry is going to need rest to and if the Warriors play with his minutes like last year he is going to get more rest than he needs. When Curry does go out having Thompson would allow Ellis to play the point, with Thompson at the two and Wright at the three.

With Ellis ball-handling ability with having Wright and Thompson on the wings it is going to be to near impossible to defend.

I would not want to come up with a defensive game plan where I have to defend Ellis penetrating and Thompson and Wright sitting there on the wings.

4. By Using the Pick-and-Roll

Or any other variation of it, the pick and pop or the pick and slip you name it these two should be able to run it. Teams don't run this quite enough and these two would be great running this a handful of times a game.

Thompson is big enough to set a tough screen on most anyone that will be guarding Ellis, so as Thompson comes over sets a screen Monta should look to take it to the hoop.

If he can't, he has deadly shooter to kick it out to. Works the other way to, Monta sets the screen Thompson can pop or hit Monta cutting to the hoop.

Seems too easy unh? Would be nice see.

5. By Forming a Deadly Trio with Stephen Curry

With Curry at the point, Ellis and Thompson on the wings the Warriors are going to be a nightmare for teams to defend.

Curry at the helm will find the open man, whether it be Ellis cutting to the hoop or Thompson coming off a screen (Andris Biedrins should be able to make himself useful by at least focusing on getting others open by setting screens and then crashing the boards) or taking the shot himself, giving the Warriors no shortage of options on offense.

With these three on board plus Wright, the Warriors rotation is going to be a deadly one.

Can all four of these guys play together? That would be fun to see—it would probably would be a disaster defensively, but we have to see all four on the floor at the same time at least once just to try it out.

Regardless, adding Thompson to a backcourt that already featured two outstanding offensive players adds great depth, leaving the Warriors to focus solely on the frontcourt in free agency, whenever that may be.