OAKLAND, Calif. -- The Golden State Warriors -- the team Monta Ellis grew up with after entering the league as a skinny, straight-outta-high-school second-round pick -- have the best record in the West.
Warriors star Stephen Curry, the point guard Ellis publicly declared he didn’t want to play with, has emerged as a legitimate MVP candidate.
Think Ellis has any regrets about his divorce from the Warriors? Think again.
“I don’t live in the past,” the Dallas Mavericks shooting guard said ahead of Friday's game against the Warriors (10:30 p.m. ET, ESPN). “I mean, the situation was best for both of us. Me being in Dallas is a great situation for me. Them going with him to be with the face of the team and franchise worked out good for them. And it’s working out good for me. I don’t live in the past. I always go ahead.”
Ellis has acknowledged he was burned out from being the face of a struggling franchise by the end of his six-and-a-half-year stint in the Bay Area, and he had to endure a season and a half of misery in Milwaukee after the March 2012 trade in which the Warriors shipped him to the Bucks. Ellis has since found happiness as the go-to guy for the Mavericks, his current slump notwithstanding.
For the Warriors, moving a fan favorite such as Ellis was a critical move in building a legitimate championship contender.
The five-player deal that brought Andrew Bogut to the Warriors certainly wasn’t popular with Golden State's passionate fan base at the time. The Oracle Arena crowd booed owner Joe Lacob a week later during a halftime ceremony to retire Chris Mullin’s jersey.
"As the greatest fans in the NBA ... sometimes change is inevitable, and it's going to work out just fine," Mullin said to the crowd that night in defense of Lacob. "With your support and patience, and use that passion in the right direction ... this thing is going in the right way.”
Indeed it has, as evidenced by the Warriors’ 47-12 record this season and playoff appearances the previous two years.
Golden State’s return for Ellis doesn't appear remarkable on paper. Bogut, who was out for the season at the time of the trade, has averaged 6.7 points and 8.1 rebounds during his injury-marred tenure with the Warriors, though those numbers aren't indicative of his value as the anchor of the league’s top-ranked defense.
But Ellis' absence also provided the Splash Brothers an opportunity to shine. A few years later, Curry and Klay Thompson form the NBA’s best backcourt with the potential to be among the elite guard duos in the game's history.
After the Warriors used their 2009 lottery pick to select Curry, Ellis made it clear that he didn’t consider their games compatible.
“Us together? No,” Ellis told reporters at the start of the next training camp. “Can’t. We just can’t.”
When Golden State failed to sniff .500 during the guards' two-and-a-half seasons together, Ellis’ point was proved pretty well. Ellis and Curry both need the ball in their hands to be at their best. Defensively, they were simply dreadful.
Essentially forced to choose between the two, the Warriors wisely went with Curry, who emerged as a star after Ellis’ departure and now gets mentioned in discussions about the league’s most dominant players, with averages of 23.8 points and 7.8 assists this season to show for it.
“At some point, his hard work was going to pay off,” Ellis said. “He’s getting better and better every year. He’s having a heck of a year right now.”
Ellis has never been an All-Star -- owning the highest scoring average among players to never be so honored -- but he has proven in Dallas that he can be a major piece of a winning puzzle.
At this point, he knows he and the Warriors are better off without each other.