Even if it means getting rid of Monta Ellis?

Monta can still help the team out as a role player. He does better as the 2nd/3rd option anyways, let’s see how he does with a fully healthy team first (instead of that 6-man D-League team we had to work with in 09-10).

Anthony Randolph, Brandan Wright, Ekpe Udoh, Andris Biedrins, Ronny Turiaf, Anthony Tolliver, Chris Hunter, Vladimir Radmanovic and Dan Gadzuric are enough big men to help us out in the paint when they’re all healthy. Just the depth alone will make a big difference. We need to keep Monta in this situation because he’s one of the best in the league at slashing and penetrating. With a healthy team, he won’t have to chuck up shots anymore and can pass the ball to guys like Curry, Azubuike, Morrow, Randolph etc. who can help out in scoring.

If we trade for David Lee, he’ll just be scoring points that Udoh/Randolph/Wright/ etc could have scored and grab rebounds that guys like Biedrins and Turiaf could get. The downside is that Curry won’t have a deadly scorer like Monta to help him out in the backcourt. It would put too much on Curry’s shoulders which will cause him to chuck a lot. Yeah, Curry will have shooters like Morrow and Azubuike to pass to, but those guys can’t really score at will like Monta can. We need the depth at the guard positions, too. Keeping Monta will allow us to maintain a good bench with Morrow and Williams. This team is incredibly deep when they’re healthy.

I didn’t know Troy Murphy averaged 20.6 points on a .584 TS% last season. Per 36 minutes in the last four years, Murphy is averaging 10.3 rebounds and Lee is averaging 11.8.

the term “great player” is an oxymoron on a 20some win team.

i’m not a fan of the trade either since Lee is as bad as Monta on defense (both give up 0.98 ppp 1 on 1 & their teams do worse defensively when they are on the floor) & i still want to give BW & AR this season to show what they can do, but calling Monta great when his 1st time as the best player led to 26 wins (which we can probably all agree was inflated by the “Reggie Williams & the d-league all-stars get Nellie the record” run at the end) then bashing Lee who got the team 29 wins (with arguably less talent – anyone as good as Curry or Maggette were last season on that team?) just seems a tad foolish.

We need a small forward if anything. We are too small at that position. And in terms of bigs, we need a center (although Biedrins should get another shot to show his old self), not a power forward who can’t defend a lick. Yeah he can rebound and score well, but I’m sure Randolph/Wright/Udoh can do the same if they got the consistent minutes. Plus, they play defense. You should also take in to mind tha Lee is 27 years old. I’m pretty sure at least one of the 3 power forwards we have will turn out just as good if not better than Lee at those things, plus being better on defense already.

1. He also has not been given a fair shot and when he has gotten fair minutes he HAS produced very well. Being jerked around like he has probably wouldn’t help any player
2. Who plays on and off the ball is the coaches choice, Nellie wanted Monta on the ball so this is a coaching issue. And if Curry doesn’t want to take over cause Monta is the vet that’s Curry’s fault. Do you also remember who we played when Monta was out? All below .500 team we played without him we won but lost ALL our games without him against good teams
3. If all our bigs are healthy rebounding will be much better, Lee can’t play defense. That simple and he’s not a center which we need more than a 4

but the one good thing he does is rebounding and blocking shots. Lee isn’t even a shot blocker.