MT2: Warrior comments on Jax trade

by mcwalter44 on Nov 16, 2009 3:36 PM PST Comment 36 comments

On his twitter feed, Marcus Thompson has quotes from Larry Riley, Don Nelson and Monta Ellis on the Jackson trade to Charlotte this morning. UPDATE: MT2 has posted an article using Nellie's and Riley's quotes.

Let's start with Larry Riley:

All in all, after evaluating the thing for several weeks, it was important that we do it now.

- GM Larry Riley

Kind of a general statement, but not of much substance or insight. Then again... this is twitter... sometimes you're not going to get as much as when MT2 puts it to print or to his blog. I short it sounds like Larry Riley just wanted to get any deal done and that this was the easiest one to execute. UPDATE: MT2 has more insight from Riley:

"I thought it was important to explore things as long as we possibly could and show some patience," Riley said. "I also thought it was important that we get something back that we could use to our advantage. But that's easy to say, but wasn't quite so easy to accomplish.

"I'm sure that a lot of people are going to say that the situation became one that they just couldn't go any farther," Riley added. "Really, I think we'd explored things enough that I did it more (because) I really felt that this was as good a deal as we were going to get. And I also thought the time was now. While our young players have done a tremendous job of doing everything that they can to not allow this to become a distraction, I also thought that if we went any further, it probably would've been. Now, was Jack giving me problems? No. Was he giving Nellie problems? No."

And later in the article saying

"It was difficult for me to put Acie in the deal because Acie's playing well and starting to show something," Riley said. "We just looked at the big picture and decided that the two players we were going to acquire, along with the cap (relief), that was enough."

Sounds like Riley was happy with the deal and he even went out of the way to say that Jackson wasn't give him or Nellie problems. Sounds more like spin than anything else.

So what did Don Nelson thing of the deal:

I’m happy for Jack. Something had to be done. I'm happy with the trade. As good as we could do under the circumstances.

- Don Nelson

Nellie sounds defeated in this statement. Basically saying we did the best we do considering he poisoned the well by taking everything public.

Finally, what does new team leader Monta Ellis have to say about his friend Jackson being dealt:

I'm not going to put no more on my back. Somebody else gone have to step up and take on the role that Jack had and be that player.

- Monta Ellis

WOW... There is a lot that can be made just from his statement. First, we have no context to how Monta came to that answer. Maybe he had been hounded by the media with various Jax trade reaction questions and this was just one answer. Or maybe this was just short brush off of the situation. I'm sure MT2 and others will have more to report latter this afternoon. But lets dive into this. "I'm not going to put no more on my back." Could Monta be continuing to vent about Nellie ripping him in NYC last week? Could this be the start of "ME wants out" of playing for the Warriors? Or could this be Monta saying he need more support from him his teammates to make up for Jackson's void?

In my opinion this is the start of Monta demanding a trade out of Golden State himself. It started with team holding the moped incident like noose over his head. It seemed to boil with the drafting of Stephen Curry and started to boil over with the Nellie incident last week in New York. Add today's quote to the list of signs that Monta wants out of 510.

Poll

What to make of Monta's comment?

Damn, I thought he'd step it up after Jackson left

62 votes

I guess he wasn't the annoyous Warrior asking for Jackson to be traded

38 votes

Meh, he was just taking about him not being the only one that has to step it up

84 votes

Crap.... ME want's out!!!

116 votes

Other (please post your thoughts below)

11 votes

311 votes | Poll has closed

This FanPost is a submission from a member of the mighty Golden State of Mind community. While we're all here to throw up that W, these words do not necessarily reflect the views of the GSoM Crew. Still, chances are the preceding post is Unstoppable Baby!

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Comments

I voted other

because there is not enough context, tone of voice, etc. to make a conclusion out of this quote.

by IQofaWarrior on Nov 16, 2009 3:41 PM PST reply actions 0 recs

I was really hoping that he would step up and be a man but it looks like Jackson succeeded in poisoning the well before he left. If we can get a genuinely great player in return (read: someone more talented than Monta) I would not be opposed to trading him.

At the same time, he’s right. Someone else has to step up and take on playmaking and defensive responsibilities. Kinda sucks that he is so bad with the media because I doubt he intends to come off as callously as he often does.

Sittin in my scraper watchin Oakland goin wild, ta-dow!

by Supafishal on Nov 16, 2009 3:46 PM PST reply actions 0 recs

He's just speaking his mind.

As crazy as it sounds, Jackson carried a heavy load for this team and aside from Buike, I don’t know if anyone can fill that role. Let’s hope we build some chemistry and get some wins from the entire team’s performance rather than individual ones.

by dong4ce on Nov 16, 2009 3:53 PM PST reply actions 0 recs

He's right

We just lost Buike and Jack even though he was stupid did carry us a lot this year. He needs some help, but from who? Curry? AR4 ?

Rookie: "Why did you bench me?"
Nellie: "You're a rookie"

by dubzfan on Nov 16, 2009 4:34 PM PST reply actions 0 recs

Yup

I seriously don’t understand how people can look at that statement as a bad thing. I guess people hate Monta so much nowadays that everything he says seems to be bad.

Jackson was one of the team’s leading scorers. He provided defense and versatility to the team. How the hell is Monta supposed to make up for the loss of Jackson’s 18 or so points per game? Is Monta going to have to average around 27-30 ppg now that the team lost one of their leading scorers? hell no.

He just simply wants his teammates to step up so that Ellis doesn’t have to do everything by himself. That’s what being a team is all about. Sure, Ellis is the leader but he’s going to need some help from his team in order to succeed. If Ellis had so much of a “i’m a ballhog, this is ALL ABOUT ME” type of attitude like a lot of people say he has then he wouldn’t be so concerned about his teammates like he is right now.

Formerly known as Five Ten Entertainment.

by Precise Films Productions on Nov 16, 2009 9:39 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

Thinking about it some more...

Let’s give Monta the benefit of the doubt, and he’s simply talking about needing other players to “step up” and help carry the team. Who will that be?

Here’s the entire roster except for Monta:
Biedrins, Maggette, Radman, Bell, Speedy, Turiaf, Azubuike, Curry, Wright, Randolph, George, Moore, CJ, Morrow

For this exercise, let’s assume everyone’s healthy. The first to cross off the list is Speedy, Moore, George. Curry, Randolph, Wright, and Morrow are too undeveloped and inexperienced to carry the team.

Biedrins, Maggette, Radman, Bell, Turiaf, Azubuike, CJ

Azubuike seems like a quiet guy who will do what you ask of him, but I don’t see him “carrying the team”. CJ might hit some clutch shots to help win a game, but I don’t see him “carrying the team” either. I don’t know anything about Radman and Bell, so I’ll separate them out.

Biedrins, Maggette, Turiaf — Radman, Bell

Biedrins, Maggette, and Turiaf all seem like nice, respected guys. Biedrins doesn’t seem like an assertive type of guy, though. Turiaf radiates infectious energy, but I don’t see him as a decision maker at the end of games. Maggette is the only one experienced enough to know how to close a game.

So I suppose the final answer is Maggette, with Radman and Bell being unknowns to me.

If I had to take a guess at who can carry the team in the long term, my quick guess is Randolph, Curry, and Morrow. Curry seems calm and collected. Randolph has that fearless hunger. Morrow not afraid to speak up and motivate, like he did last season from the bench.

by IQofaWarrior on Nov 16, 2009 4:42 PM PST reply actions 0 recs

I want to give Monta the benefit of the doubt. I think that some of his ghetto-speak like “somebody else gone have to step up” should be taken as “I can’t do it alone, I need help.” Judging by Monta’s upbringing, the company he keeps, being from Mississippi, some of his quotes in the past…I think there’s a possiblity he just plainly doesn’t know how to be a leader.

I’ve been at my job for a couple of years, and there are guys here who have been around much longer and have shown me the ropes. If the company was going to shiite and the senior guys tried to absolve themselves of responsability, it’d be laughable. On the other hand, if I’m a young guy, I also recognize that there is a lot of truth to what Monta is saying. I could do without the “i’m the only one who plays defense” hogwash, but like I said, I think Monta just has no education to speak of. As long as he continues to play hard, there’s not much more we can ask of him.

This is the first time in the 8 years I’ve been living out of the Bay Area that I did not buy League Pass. It was clear to me in the summer that this team was the suckiest bunch of sucks that ever sucked. I’m going to miss watching Stephen Curry’s development this year, and I’ll continue to come here to follow the team…but there are some rough times ahead, and that typically brings out the worst in people (ie rats are the first one to get off a sinking ship). i don’t think monta is a rat. Eh, I hope he’s not a rat, put it that way.

On 5/7, the best part of waking is up LOLDGERS in my cup.

by GameSix on Nov 17, 2009 7:13 AM PST up reply actions 0 recs

My how quickly things change...

It was just earlier this year that Monta was claiming to all that HE was the natural leader of this team…

Now when the chance comes, he seems to crumble and collapse ….

I said it then and I’ll say it again, this kid has MAJOR attitude issues and he is desperate need of a mentor! Unfortunately I suspect he has been finding counsel with Harrington and Jackson… whereas he should be taking counsel from the likes of Barnett, Attles, Mullin…guys that can focus him back on being a super hard working team member, rather than a young punk with cash and an attitude problem…

I personally think he is gone already…..

Dont be surprised when the Monta trade appears…

GSOM Blog Beast!

by BritWarriorGSW on Nov 16, 2009 4:57 PM PST reply actions 0 recs

Agreed

Hate to say it, but I’m with you Brit on Monta being one foot out the door.

A Sonics fan without a team... but after 6 seasons now of GS Warriors season tickets have convinced me to adopt the boys from Oakland.

by mcwalter44 on Nov 16, 2009 5:06 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

Raja Bell!!!!!

This dude can undoubtedly be a mentor for Monta! He has no ego, plays hard D, and gets along with all his teammates. The best thing about this trade is bringing a quality person/teammate like Bell. He’s very likely to start and Monta needs to develop a good friendship with him for the sake of the team chemistry we should be able to develop with Jack gone. This trade is gonna work out a lot better than people think, but don’t worry about tomorrow and the Boston game. We aint gonna win either but if we play tough we’ll know this was the right move.

by pre10d on Nov 16, 2009 5:33 PM PST up reply actions 1 recs

I think you read way too much into psychological theories that can’t be proved or even argued with any amount of reasoning, nor shown to have the slightest impact on end results….

It’s all too predictable, too, if the team goes on a hot streak Jackson was a cancer and ridding him magically turned everything around. If the team continues to play poorly, the explanation is a leadership void because Monta crumbles and collapses. Let us know in two weeks which it was, thanks. Or better yet, make a prediction on it now? Especially given these intangible crap psychological BS issues simply cannot be measured, quantified, or observed in any meaningful way to predict the future (which is why they’re BS)….

by Missing Barry on Nov 16, 2009 5:46 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

leadership void?

the team HAS been playing poorly, they can’t be much worse cause of the trade but they can be much worse cause Buike is hurt along with Beans and Ronny. If the team goes on a hot streak it will be cause the chemistry and morale is better and anyone watching the games would be able to see that with their own eyes.

by pre10d on Nov 16, 2009 6:21 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

The team has been playing poorly. No denying that. The teamwork hasn’t been there for most of the season, but then again, against Minnesota, everything was clicking. The important thing is what should we expect going forward? The answer is for them to play to their talent level. If this leadership and chemistry crap was such a big deal that some players simply have as traits and some don’t, we wouldn’t be capable of showing what we can do like we did against Minnesota. This stuff can, and often does, change quickly and significantly. That’s why it’s so pointless to discuss, because it doesn’t give us any information about the future.

If the team goes on the hot streak it will likely be because they’re playing better, no denying that. Maybe they play better D, pass better – the point is, it doesn’t mean there was a fundamental change in the team caused by some players innate leadership or chemistry gene…it just means they started playing winning basketball, something almost every NBA player knows how to do (notable exceptions: Jamal Crawford, Starbury). Sometimes it just takes young players some time to grow into their role and figure out what they can do to best help the team win games.

by Missing Barry on Nov 16, 2009 7:18 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

So he's not a good leader because he wants his teammates to step up?

So what do you expect him to do? Make up for the loss of Jackson by doing everything himself? How exactly do you see Monta averaging 30+ ppg in the NBA? Because if he had to make up for Jackson’s loss then he’d have to pull off something spectacular.

Formerly known as Five Ten Entertainment.

by Precise Films Productions on Nov 16, 2009 9:41 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

you sound like Monta

it isn’t that he’s wrong – other guys will need to step up. It about HOW he is handling things. Can you imagine Kidd or Nash saying this sort of stuff. He should be saying, “we are losing a lot here – we will all need to step up and try to fill that void.” Pretty basic, cliche response but it still gets his message out without alienating the other players.

by tjmax on Nov 17, 2009 10:45 AM PST up reply actions 0 recs

I'll give Monta some time to see how he adjusts to Jack leaving...

but I don’t really expect him to change seeing as he aligned himself with Baron and Jack…

by Jagz8 on Nov 16, 2009 5:26 PM PST reply actions 0 recs

Corey Maggette......

seems to be the only player on the team now that really connects with Monta.
Monta’s probably still upset at the fact that he has to take on so much blame from what happened last season.

by Richboievans on Nov 16, 2009 5:28 PM PST reply actions 0 recs

What a little punk

One of the few to have appreciated Cap'n Jax. Do well in NC, get that 8th seed!

Conductor of the "We're Back!" Bandwagon!

by ejdacanay on Nov 16, 2009 5:33 PM PST reply actions 0 recs

So you don't want his teammates to step up?

Okay, don’t be surprised if Ellis doesn’t average 30+ ppg then. Because making up for the loss of Jackson will be a team effort; you can’t expect Ellis to do everything himself. It’s a team, not the Golden State Montas.

Formerly known as Five Ten Entertainment.

by Precise Films Productions on Nov 16, 2009 9:43 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

Yawn. Can’t really make anything out of one sentence* with no tone, no context or anything. I think this may be a good thing – the last thing I want is for Monta to try to turn himself into the kind of player that dominates the ball on offense and completely disrupts the flow and teamwork of our offensive sets. Monta is good, but he’s not good enough that I want him single-handedly running the offense in Chris Paul or LBJ-like fashion…

by Missing Barry on Nov 16, 2009 5:48 PM PST reply actions 0 recs

sounds familiar?

reminds me of him bashing curry on media day. on both counts he may have good reasons for his comments but as a team LEADER he needs to be thoughtful about how and where he shares his views.
Monta needs to step up and be the leader he wants to be or he should be traded to. Pretty sad that are rookie has the most mature comments on the whole situation.

by tjmax on Nov 16, 2009 6:14 PM PST reply actions 0 recs

I don't find it pretty sad.....

That Curry seems okay with everything.
He was brought up around this kind of stuff and had his father teach him the ropes on how to handle himself with the media.
He knows all the right things to say.

by Richboievans on Nov 16, 2009 6:23 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

you misunderstood me

sad that our rookie is the most mature guy on the team! I’d like to expect more from Monta is my point.

by tjmax on Nov 16, 2009 6:25 PM PST reply actions 0 recs

sad that our rookie is the most mature guy on the team!

haha, He’s a rookie, he shouldn’t speak unless spoken to.

Standing on the moon
Where talk is cheap and vision true
Standing on the moon
But I would rather be with you
Somewhere in San Francisco
On a back porch in July
Just looking up to heaven
At this crescent in the sky

by Skeptic con Urquell on Nov 16, 2009 8:03 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

We will be better off in the long run without Jack ruining Monta's young, impressionable mind.

With all the youth around him now, maybe it will be contagious and Monta will go back to just having fun and running up and down the floor full speed.

by HOLDEMUPGoldenStateOfOppression on Nov 16, 2009 6:48 PM PST reply actions 0 recs

I JUST WON'T DO IT

This quote re Jackson seems to me to be related to that tiff with Nellie where he said “That’s why i won’t do it”.

Maybe Monta was referring to taking over the team – or his lack of desire to do so.

Monta wants to be called the MAN, but he doesn’t want to BE the MAN.

MONTA – SHUT UP AND YOU’LL BE OUTTA HERE BEFORE THE ALL STAR BREAK…..AND WE’LL ALL BE HAPPY!

by joegiant on Nov 16, 2009 6:56 PM PST reply actions 0 recs

I will not be happy with that at all. Losing talent = bad, unless that talent is old with an albatross of a contract.

by Missing Barry on Nov 16, 2009 7:20 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

I won't be happy

The I won’t do it I think means he does not want to be a point guard..

Rookie: "Why did you bench me?"
Nellie: "You're a rookie"

by dubzfan on Nov 16, 2009 7:55 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

Now, was Jack giving me problems? No. Was he giving Nellie problems? No."

Then why pull the trigger now? Starting over with two new players has to be just as much distraction as jackson?

by Skeptic con Urquell on Nov 16, 2009 8:05 PM PST reply actions 0 recs

Is it just me or Monta's attitude sucks?

I mean I love the guy but everytime something comes out of his mouth, it’s always “I won’t blah blah..”, “I’m not going to blah blah…”

Seriously.

May I suggest a resolution to this dilemma? How about getting rid of his leadership title? Maybe not being a leader of the team would take the pressure off his shoulder, maybe that will make him do the things he’s supposed to do and that is play consistently on the basketball court.

Will this matter a year from now?

by girltothemax on Nov 16, 2009 10:05 PM PST reply actions 0 recs

Ellis- he's still the best on the team though

I just wish he would show a bit of positivity around the young guys. Gosh knows they need it.

Will this matter a year from now?

by girltothemax on Nov 16, 2009 10:26 PM PST reply actions 0 recs

I just wish he would show a bit of positivity around the young guys.

He’s just a straightforward guy who speaks the truth as he sees it. If positivity is warranted he’ll speak positive. Remember he came up on the rising “we believe” team so this torn up “we suck” team is not fun for him. He’s seen all that success blown away in his short lifetime so no wonder he feels negativity ?

by Skeptic con Urquell on Nov 16, 2009 10:40 PM PST reply actions 0 recs

well, instead of swimming on the negativity pool..

maybe he should start realizing that life in general doesn’t always give you the ups. It also will give you a share of downs just to make you stronger.

Will this matter a year from now?

by girltothemax on Nov 16, 2009 10:47 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

asdf

Can you honestly blame him if he wants out of GS? I don’t, he probably doesn’t want to be here and if I was in his position I probably wouldn’t want to be either. We are a joke and always will be until CC sells, Rowell is dismissed and Nellie sails off to Hawaii.

by JRich4MVP on Nov 16, 2009 10:51 PM PST reply actions 0 recs

tiring of this "mentor" talk

i know i may have started the meme, but i’m tired of reading all the comments about howz bell’s gonna teach everybody to be a lockdown defender and be a mentor to everyone. that’s not his job nor his focus. but, he can lead by example if he thinks we’re worth the effort.

"We're Menudo," -BB

by eshock on Nov 17, 2009 12:15 AM PST reply actions 0 recs