Overrated: Monta Ellis

Ellis is almost the perfect prototype of an overrated player: He's a low-efficiency player who plays a lot of minutes on a fast-paced team, so he ends up with gaudy per-game averages even though he's not advancing his team's cause much.

 

Clearly Hollinger and Kawakami are drinking the same efficiency cool-aid when it comes to Monta Ellis' preformance this season. Here's a link to Hollinger's full article (it's an ESPN insider piece). And he's Kawakami's post halfway through last night's game when he reference a Basketball Prospectus article from Kevin Pelton's Every Play Counts piece on Monta Ellis. Here is what Pelton had to say:

There are plenty of NBA players who have had better seasons than Monta Ellis. However, the Golden State Warriors' guard may be having as interesting a campaign as anyone in the league. Ellis started training camp by questioning his ability to play alongside rookie Stephen Curry, and was supposedly on the trading block. But when Golden State dealt Stephen Jackson and was hit with an unprecedented number of long-term injuries, Ellis suddenly become the NBA's marathon man. He is averaging 41.8 minutes per game, second in the league, and has played a full 48 minutes (53, in one case) a remarkable 10 times.

 

Read the rest of Pelton's piece at Basketball Prospectus