Golden State Warriors: Should They Build Around Monta Ellis or Stephen Curry?
After the Warriors clinched yet another losing season, it's time for the fan base to turn their collective heads to the major questions that need answers this offseason.
And following a campaign as frustrating as their 2010-11 has been, there are certainly a lot of questions for Larry Riley and Joe Lacob to ponder.
Should coach Keith Smart hold his spot on the sideline for next season? Who should the Warriors target in the free-agent market? Which, if any, of their free agents should they keep around?
But the biggest question remains (as it has for two seasons now) can the Warriors win with a backcourt under 6'3"? The jury is still out, but for argument's sake let's assume they follow the lead of most national analysts and resign themselves to splitting up their dynamic duo.
If that's the case, who's the odd man out?
Conventional wisdom would say Ellis needs to go. He's undersized for the shooting guard position, his leadership skills are a work in progress and his defense is working on becoming a work in progress.
But is the answer really that easy? After all, Ellis leads the team in scoring (24.3) and minutes (40.4) and has played in all 75 games this season. Not to mention, he's one of the league's best players attacking the basket and has added an increasingly reliable three-point shot (35.5 percent) to his repertoire.
And as for keeping Curry, while he certainly has the pedigree to become one of the NBA's elite point guards (high basketball IQ, deadly three-point stroke, creativity with the basketball), are Warriors fans (or, more importantly, Warriors executives) convinced that he'll fully realize his potential?
After all, despite cries from the fan base to increase his minutes, there have been no directives handed down for Smart to increase Curry's unimpressive 33.4 minutes.
To further the argument, it's hard to doubt which player will bring back more in return. The best legitimate offer for Ellis has been O.J. Mayo, Hasheem Thabeet and possibly a first round pick.
In other words, that's a player who has struggled to stay in the Grizzlies' rotation, a player who has struggled to stay in the NBA and a lower lottery pick. Not exactly a franchise-changing type trade.
As for Curry, only Riley knows what kind of offers are being made for the sharp-shooting point guard. Would a lottery pick or two, combined with a couple impact players (not necessarily stars, but players who could start right away) be sufficient for the Warriors? It would certainly seem to lend itself to a quicker fix than the Warriors hoping to strike late lottery gold each season.
Trading either player would be hard to stomach for any Warriors fan or executive. But if one goes, it's further from an open-shut case that Ellis is the odd man out than many Warriors fans think it is.
