Monta Ellis Isn't Only a Top Guard in the NBA, but an All-Star To Boot

Most people I have talked to have called Monta Ellis a very selfish player and a me-first type of guy.

Personally, I call him the most underrated shooting guard in the whole NBA. I love watching him play. He’s exciting, electric, emotional and clearly the leader of the team. The Warriors rally around Monta, the fans love him. It’s really hard to not love his game.

You do wish that he would pass a little bit more on the fast break, but the way he attacks the basket does get others in foul trouble, but the only issue with that is his 71 percent from the free throw line.

All in all, that’s only the real knock that I could find on the guy.

When you look at the numbers, he averages 5.3 assists a game and 25.6 points per game. There are two non-point guards in all of the NBA that are in the top 25 in assists. There are a few names that probably pop up in your head right away.

One should be LeBron James (12th in the league in assists) and of course Monta Ellis, 24th in the league in assists. Granted, he’s been playing a lot of point guard with Steph Curry out with an ankle injury the past six games, but Curry could be back Saturday against the Blazers.

Monta is a scorer first and foremost, though.  He averages 25.6 points per game, only trailing Kobe Bryant by a tenth of a point. Monta is currently averaging more points than Dwayne Wade, Eric Gordon, Manu Ginobili and Kevin Martin.

Kobe is a prolific scorer of extraordinary magnitude, his points have come down a little bit as he age has progressed, but he can score at will when needed.

Monta, is only a single tenth of a point behind Kobe on that list. To me that is really impressive.

Where are the All Star votes? He wasn’t even mentioned in the NBA’s release of the first All-Star numbers last week. He’s third in efficiency at the shooting guard position behind Kobe and Wade.

Defensively Monta is extremely underrated. He’s second in the NBA in steals, only Chris Paul is a head of him in this stat. He’s 13th in rebounding as a shooting guard, yeah he doesn’t crash the boards that often, but he’s usually so far away from the hoop or six rows deep after that his 3.5 rebounds per game is actually quite impressive.

He’s sixth in field goal percentage for guards and 47th overall. Those damn forwards and their always shooting within five feet of the basket. His three point percentage is borderline atrocious and it also hurts his overall field goal percentage. You take out his three-point shots and he’s shooting just under 60 percent, and that’s good enough for second overall in the NBA.

Monta also puts in more minutes than anyone else in the NBA. He’s logs in over 40 minutes a game and is averaging 43 minutes in his last 10, twice playing the whole game. Most of it is on his own accord, Keith Smart has to yank him off the floor.

You never really have to worry about him turning the ball over either. He loses the ball only 3.4 times a game, considering he touches the ball on average of 70 times a game. His turnover probability is only 5 percent, good enough for 11th in the NBA.

Monta is never going to get the recognition that he deserves, but without him the Warriors are probably worse than the Clippers. Others on the team can get hurt and Monta can pick up their slack, but when Monta goes down you can’t match his leadership or intensity out there.

Monta Ellis is an All Star and deserves to be playing in February with Kobe, Wade, LeBron, Kevin Durant, Dirk Nowitzki and many others. His stats are there, his heart is there and his talent is more than there.

Monta Ellis is an All-Star and so severely underrated.

It’s sad that the rest of America doesn’t see it. He’s truly a treasure in the Bay.