5 Teams That Can Fix Monta Ellis' Stalled NBA Career

Once upon a time, Monta Ellis was an up-and-coming guard who seemed like a virtual lock to make a few All-Star teams and compete for the scoring title year in and year out.

It's getting harder to remember that now. 

Ellis' career has stalled, and now he must decide where he wants to spend the next portion of his career. With a player option for $11 million, he could stay with the Milwaukee Bucks or opt out and join a new squad. 

As Charles F. Gardner of the Journal Sentinel reports, it's becoming increasingly unlikely that he sticks with the Bucks after turning down a contract extension: 

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The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel has learned that discussions were held to extend Ellis’ deal with the Bucks but no agreement was reached.

As part of the discussions the Bucks offered the 27-year-old guard a two-year extension through the 2015-’16 season, resulting in a total package of nearly $36 million over three years, according to a source. Ellis would have been required to opt in to get the additional two years on the deal.

That includes the opt-in first year at $11 million, with annual raises bringing the total to $11.8 million in the second year of the deal and $13 million in the final year.

The average salary in the deal would have been about $12 million.

Ellis would have received some protection against injury with a three-year deal while also having the chance to be a free agent at the age of 30. But he may be interested in testing the market now.

 

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If Ellis does indeed test the market, he has a number of options. But not all of them are good situations for him to jump the battery of his NBA career.

On June 5, I wrote about the six most likely landing spots for Ellis. Being the most likely destinations doesn't make them the best options for fixing the talented 2-guard's career. In fact, only two teams appear in both this article and that one. 

The Atlanta Hawks, Phoenix Suns and Sacramento Kings are all possible landing spots for Ellis because they have plenty of cap room and can offer him the chance to start at shooting guard. That said, none of them are terrific options for Ellis, unless he wants to continue the path he started with the Milwaukee Bucks. 

He may be the No. 1 scoring option in those three locales, but that doesn't guarantee success. There are better roles for Ellis to fill.

Some guys, Ben Gordon and Jamal Crawford for example, thrive when they're allowed to come off the bench and play a guard position that doesn't necessarily line up perfectly with the traditional concepts of point guard and shooting guard. Vinnie Johnson may be the best example of this role, as he came off the bench for the Detroit Pistons in the 1980s and early '90s and immediately lived up to his "Microwave" moniker. 

If Ellis can be convinced to abandon his gunner mentality, he'd thrive in a similar role. Whether he starts or comes off the bench, he'll put up similar stats. But if he does the latter, he'll be more efficient and leave the chemistry of the starters intact. 

So, which teams give him the opportunity to do exactly that?

Note: All stats, unless otherwise indicated, come from Basketball-Reference.com. 

Cleveland Cavaliers

Between Kyrie Irving and Dion Waiters, the Cleveland Cavaliers already have their backcourt of the future in place. There's no need for either of them to be displaced from the starting lineup, especially since the Syracuse product, Waiters, started putting the pieces together during the second half of the 2012-13 campaign. 

However, the Cavs could very much use a scoring spark plug off the bench, and there's no better role for Monta Ellis. 

When the oft-shooting guard is pigeonholed into the lineup as either a point guard or a shooting guard, he isn't able to maximize his talents. He'd be best suited for a more amorphous role, one that lets him control the ball without worrying about running more traditional sets. 

Even with Irving in the lineup, the Cavs were only able to muster up the 20th-best offensive rating in the NBA. They scored 104.3 points per 100 possessions and needed to play at a relatively quick pace in order to boost their scoring total (per Basketball-Reference.com).

Most of the scoring came from the starters. According to Hoopsstats.com, Cleveland's bench scored just 2,525 points during the regular season. To put that in context, Carmelo Anthony scored 1,920 by himself. Only the Indiana Pacers, Philadelphia 76ers, Los Angeles Lakers and Portland Trail Blazers had worse scoring second units. 

Ellis would immediately change that, and he'd thrive while doing so. 

Dallas Mavericks

Of the five possible destinations presented in this article, the Dallas Mavericks are the only team with which Monta Ellis would have a starting role. 

O.J. Mayo is as good as gone this offseason, as it's highly unlikely that the sharpshooting 2-guard decides to opt in and accept just $4.1 million to remain with the Mavs. In fact, there might be a better chance of the referees retroactively going back and deciding that Tony Parker's dagger in Game 1 of the 2013 NBA Finals had not actually left his fingertips before the shot clock expired. 

In other words, he's opting out. And with that decision, the Mavericks will have a major hole at shooting guard.

One that could be filled by Monta Ellis.

The beauty of this scenario would be the lack of pressure on Ellis' tattooed shoulders. For the first time in recent memory, he wouldn't be counted on as the No. 1 option in the offense. That role still belongs to a certain German seven-footer named Dirk Nowitzki.

Let's look back at Mayo for proof.

According to NBA.com, the USC product averaged 22.8 points per 48 minutes when Nowitzki wasn't in action. That includes both when Nowitzki was healthy and resting, as well as the early portion of the 2012-13 campaign when the big man was recovering from offseason surgery.

However, when Mayo and Dirk played together, the former scored only 17.6 points per 48 minutes, and the latter put up 26.8 over the same time frame. It was clearly Dirk who filled the slot as the No. 1 scorer. 

This scenario would benefit Ellis greatly, as he could focus more on driving to the basket when such opportunities were available and facilitating the rest of the time. Even though he has a ball-stopping reputation as an offensive player, Ellis still passes the ball with the skill of a point guard when he chooses to do so. 

Indiana Pacers

The Indiana Pacers came so close to dethroning the Miami Heat in the Eastern Conference finals, but they ultimately fell short as LeBron James and Co. pulled away during the second half of Game 7.

The Pacers were missing one crucial piece. 

That would be a scoring threat off the pine. When Indiana's starters left the court, the offense struggled tremendously, because there just wasn't a player capable of putting up points in bunches. D.J. Augustin and Tyler Hansbrough certainly couldn't fill that role. 

Throughout the playoffs, Indiana's bench averaged a putrid 17.3 points per game, beating out only the stagnant offensive production of the Boston Celtics bench. For the sake of comparison, the Los Angeles Clippers' second unit paced all postseason teams with an average of 40.7 points per game.

Danny Granger would have helped change this, but he was injured and unable to play. Now he's on the trading block and doesn't appear likely to wear yellow and blue during his next healthy go-around in the NBA. 

In fact, from a financial perspective, trading Granger is the only way that the Pacers can make signing Monta Ellis work. In order to have the cap space necessary to bring Ellis aboard and keep David West, now an unrestricted free agent, the Pacers need to shed Granger's $14 million salary by trading him to a cap-rich team. 

It would take some tricky maneuvering by the front office, but it is possible for the Pacers to re-sign West and still get Ellis. 

If general manager Kevin Pritchard could pull it off, it would be the perfect situation for Ellis. He'd get to spell both George Hill and Lance Stephenson, and he'd be counted upon to provide offense whenever he entered the game. 

Plus, his defensive shortcomings would be largely masked by the presence of four great defenders on the court with him. 

New Orleans Pelicans

In terms of bench offense, the New Orleans Hornets were right in the middle of the pack during their final season with that name. According to Hoopsstats.com, they scored 17.8 points per 48 minutes, leaving them tied with the Atlanta Hawks for 16th in the league. 

The New Orleans Pelicans would experience no such problems if they signed Monta Ellis and asked him to serve as the primary backup to both Greivis Vasquez and Eric Gordon. He'd immediately be an upgrade as the second-unit guard, and he'd ensure that there was no offensive drop-off when he entered the game. 

New Orleans has only $43.4 million on the books going into this offseason, and they have a bunch of non-guaranteed contracts to play with. The Pelicans could realistically sign Ellis for around $6 million to $8 million and still have enough money to land a solid small forward out of the free-agency pool. 

In a lot of ways, that's the best option for general manager Dell Demps because it's unlikely that he can lure a max player to the Bayou. Signing a guy like Josh Smith would be nice, but that's a bit of a pipe dream. 

Ellis would mesh perfectly with bigs like Ryan Anderson and Anthony Davis. Both of them have the ability to step away from the basket, drawing defensive attention with them and opening up driving lanes for the guard. 

The 27-year-old Ellis has a knack for getting to the rim, and he also has the creativity and passing instincts necessary to kick the rock out to shooters when he gets in amongst the trees. Although David Lee is an incredible talent and Ersan Ilyasova has displayed a nice shooting stroke, Ellis has never had the luxury of playing with a true stretch 4 like Anderson. 

That would do wonders for his ability to succeed. 

Portland Trail Blazers

Signing Monta Ellis might be an unconventional move, but it would make general manager Neil Olshey's job a lot easier during this offseason. 

The Portland Trail Blazers have two primary needs during the offseason: adding a center to replace J.J. Hickson and finding some way to shore up the second unit. Ellis would solve the latter need, and Olshey could take a defensive center like Steven Adams in the draft, while using the remaining cap space to add a few more low-end free agents. 

While signing a starting center is the more glamorous option, it's less of a pressing concern. Portland's bench was just awful during the 2012-13 season.

(That may not be a strong enough adjective, hence the italics.)

Rip City's second unit scored just 13.4 points per 48 minutes, giving them the worst mark in the NBA. The Miami Heat scored the second fewest, and they checked in at 15.2. To emphasize how big that 1.8-point difference is, that's the same gap that separates the Memphis Grizzlies (No. 26) and the New York Knicks (No. 5). 

Portland's starters are solid, but they aren't on the same level as the Heat's. Upgrading the bench isn't just a priority, but a necessity. 

Ellis would be viewed as a savior throughout Oregon if he could shore up this second unit and take the team to the next level, freeing them from NBA purgatory (low end of the lottery). He has the scoring talent to spark this squad, and they have the money and need necessary to sign him. 

It's a match made in heaven, even if the Blazers are in that basketball version of purgatory.