A Guest Breakdown of the Dubs Backcourt + an Addendum to "Blowin' Up The Spot"

Before I get to the "guest post", I guess you can call it, there is one point I didn't make in my last post that I'd like to clear up here.  I believe all 3 of the players I called out can be productive players on a winning basketball team, but in a reduced roll.  Monta's ability to score, Curry's shooting, Lee's pick and roll ability and mid-range game, they can all be used to help put a contender over the top.  My opinion is that these players are best used in small doses and in certain situations, the better to hide the many flaws in each of their games.  Monta Ellis is built to be the perfect 6th man.  If he was in the Jason Terry role of coming off the bench and providing a scoring punch - coincidentally like he did with the "We Believe" Warriors - he would be immensely valuable.  Curry is like a better Steve Kerr or John Paxon. On a team that has a Non-PG as their primary ballhandler and playmaker, Curry would be deadly.  Curry playing off the ball with the Heat or the Lakers?  He could average an easy 15 a game and shoot something like 60% from 3 with all the open looks he'd get.

The reason I believe they need to be traded away is because these players wouldn't be able to accept those reduced roles with the Warriors.  Even if the Warriors had talented enough players to relegate Steph and Monta to secondary roles, there is no chance they would happily accept those roles.  Monta has been hailed as a potential all-star and face of the franchise for about 4 years now, and was mad that they even drafted Curry in the first place.  There is not a chance he ever accepts a 6th man role, especially with this team.  He'd treat it like a demotion.  Curry, by the same token has been hyped so much by the organization as the future, as an untouchable trade chip, and a potential Steve Nash, that if relegated to the Steve Kerr role, he'd be gone at the first opportunity.  Hell, he's already dropped hints about leaving for his hometown Bobcats in the future.

That's why they need to cut ties with both players.  Neither will accept a reduced role, and thats because the Warriors marketing department sold these guys as All-Stars and "The Future" so well, that they even believed it themselves.

And btw, if anybody think that Monta's 48-point explosion from the other night proves he's a star and an elite player, all-time greats like Dana Barros, Tracy Murray, Damon Stoudamire, and Tony Delk have all broken the 50-point barrier.  There is more to basketball than scoring points.


Ok now for the real reason for this post.  After my last post, my father, who has been a basketball coach for 17 years, felt the need to comment. What he wrote was so good, I felt compelled to repost it in its entirety.  While I disagree with the statement that David Lee is an "overachiever", I agree with the sentiment on the whole, and frankly its so well written it makes me wonder why he isn't the one with the blog.  Alright, enough rambling, here we go"

"In the past, in a time of less sensitivity people would sometimes refer to autistic children as idiot savants because of the tendency of some of these children to have one great talent but be non-functional in society overall. While it is a cruel way to refer to children suffering an unfortunate condition it is disturbingly apropos in describing this backcourt.

Monta's great talent is explosive speed and the ability to finish while moving at a blur. However, he constantly gets in the wrong position on offense and defense and seems mystified by what to do next. It usually winds up a turnover on offense and a basket allowed on defense.

Steph's great talent is his shooting. The only elite point guard skill he consistently shows is the half-court lob in transition. He has a marginally better grasp of the game than Monta. But, he is not as physically gifted as most guards so he has trouble penetrating and getting penetrated on. The worst part is the indifference in his game. How many times is he going to make a lazy one-handed pass to the opposition before Mark Jackson straps him to a chair and blowtorches his short-hairs to get some fire and focus from him?

David Lee is like over-achieving, good-teammate players at all levels. He just happens to do it at the NBA level. As soon as he goes up against better talent he is stymied because he is missing an edge. Another way I look at it is that he has some similarity to Chris Mullin in his lack of athleticism and great overall understanding of the game but Chris had an assassin's eye and a toughness to take it right to superior athletes and outfox them. I don't see that in David.

I like all of these players to a point but they're all complementary players; there is not a worthy alpha-dog in the bunch. You need an alpha-dog to win big. Unfortunately, we are probably not getting an alpha-dog with this core gumming up the works, so yeah, blow up at least two of them. And if the two are both backcourt players, oh well. Treat some other fan base to clueless end-of-game dysfunction and furious mouth-guard chewing. I'll settle for growing pains with real promise."