Caron Butler?(*UPDATED*)

to me, is the most interesting anti-Monta argument:

I don’t think you realize how hard it is to win when a ball-dominating player performs that badly. You want to brush off those numbers like they’re nothing, but they’re not. Given the number of missed shots in that "42%" he’s hurting the team, a lot, that night.

Is there like a points-per-shot-per-game stat?
Something that shows the weight of the TS%?

He can take over and be the biggest part of a win on any given night. Can Dunleavy do that? Point is, Monta is a MUCH better scorer than Dunleavy. You know who Dunleavy reminds me of this season? Luke Walton the one year he was a full-time starter for the Lakers. Solid at everything, really good at nothing. He’s a good off-ball ball handler, but you can’t ask him to make plays for your team. He shoots the ball pretty well, but he can’t make too many difficult shots or take somebody off the dribble. He’s not an impact defensive player either. The first two are things Monta does on a nightly basis, whether he’s playing well or not. As much as he needs to work on his ball control and passing, he can still make plays to get his teammates easy points. He can also knock down difficult jumpers, whether he should have taken them in the first place or not. He can drive to the lane to get his own points. His defense isn’t good either, but he does make up for that a little (still not enough) with the steals he produces. Monta’s impact on any game is much larger than Dunleavy’s because he is a play-maker and Mike is not. That’s all the difference you need to know that Ellis is the better player, especially since Dunleavy isn’t really good at any one thing.

they are relatively solid round off numbers. Under 40 is typically not good, and under 33 is typically really bad. The fact that they’re very easy to achieve off of any shot total helps too. They seemed as good as any number could be.

That’s normal. It’s not as if he’s been randomly terrible against bad or average teams in winnable games. If that were the case I’d be really worried. However, a lot of them have been early blowouts/biggish leads in which Monta was putting it upon himself to carry the team back (even though it wasn’t working). He’s also had to play without Curry or Lee in half the games, and neither has really been 100% even when they are playing. He’s been good in all of our wins, and the best player in 8 of them. His bad games obviously have not outweighed his positive impact at all. He isn’t as good as the best players in the league, but to knock him for bad games when every player in the league has them is unfair, and that was my point with the Durant, Kobe, etc comparison. As far as 42% hurting the team because he dominates the ball, that’s not Monta’s fault. 42% has been a below average night for him this season, and that’s when you need other players there to pick up the slack. He hasn’t had that with Curry and Lee injured. Don’t blame him for having to carry the load. Who would you rather have the ball in the games he’s been below his average? Reggie? Wright? Lee isn’t exactly the player he’s been in New York, and Curry has been hobbled in a good number of the games he’s played in. When we get healthy, he won’t have the ball as much. So, of course he has bad nights, but they haven’t been happening constantly, which is a good sign when you’re carrying the load for a bad team. You’ve got to give him a break there, if not anywhere else.