Monta Ellis out of Dallas? Be careful what you wish for!

Ask ten Mavericks fans what they think about Monta Ellis today and you’ll get ten different answers. After the fiasco in Phoenix, a 98-92 loss in which Dallas’ leading scorer shot just 4-22 from the field and 0-8 in the game’s final seven minutes, Monta is about as polarizing as his backcourt mate Rajon Rondo was roughly three weeks ago.

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Ellis played poorly, obviously. He started the game 0-6 before hitting a floater in the lane to bring Dallas within 15 at halftime. One could feel the Twitter tension building by then, and it only progressed as the game wore on.

Down 15 at halftime? Wow, Monta’s poor shooting really killed the Mavericks in the first half! Well, Phoenix out rebounded the Mavericks by seven in the first two quarters, had 11 fast break points, shot 55% from the field, oh, and the rest of the Maverick starters were 7-26.

Dallas lost the game after climbing back from a 17-point deficit and leading by six with five minutes to go? Ellis was 0-8 in the fourth quarter? How can we coordinate a public stoning? Yeah, Ellis couldn’t hit the broad side of a barn against the Suns. But he did play a key role in getting Dallas back in the game in the first place by scoring nine points in the third quarter.

The point is, nobody played very well. And headlines like “Do Dallas Mavericks have a Monta Ellis problem?” and “Too much Monta? Mavs might have to move on” are largely overreactions stemming from his poor shooting performances in the last two games. Ellis scored 11.5 points on 23% shooting in losses to the Memphis Grizzlies and Suns. His five games prior? 21.4 points on over 49% shooting.

Fans and media alike are fickle. And what a coincidence, reports of officials within the franchise “fretting for weeks” about Ellis’ alleged moodiness surfaced after back-to-back losses rather than when the Mavericks had won three in a row and were trending in the right direction less than a week ago.

I’ll get to it. Everybody’s got a narrative to push, so here’s mine. Monta Ellis isn’t perfect, or anywhere close to it. He settles for mid-range jump shots a little too often, he struggles to defend bigger shooting guards, and he doesn’t shoot the three all that well.

But he’s done everything that has been asked of him since coming to Dallas. He’s played in all 153 regular season games as hard as anyone else in the league, and he’s averaged 19 points, 5 assists, and 3 rebounds on 44.5% shooting. Four other guys have posted those numbers in the same span. Stephen Curry, James Harden, Chris Paul, and Kyrie Irving.

Dallas has problems, but they all can’t be blamed on Ellis’ off-nights and his reluctance to provide soundbites after a bad game. Can Monta be the best player on a championship team? Probably not, but neither can Chandler Parsons or, at this point, Dirk Nowitzki. Both have been at least as inconsistent this season as Ellis.

Big changes are coming, but for those out there hoping he opts out of the final year of his contract and Dallas moves on without him, be careful what you wish for. Finding a replacement won’t be easy, and it certainly won’t be for $8.7 million a year.

Next: By the Numbers: Mavs Go Dry in the Desert

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