In the small sampling of games, Monta Ellis has already been noted by former teammate and NBA colleague Al Harrington as most likely taking the scoring title this season. With a little more than 1/20th of the season already done, Ellis is atop the scoring rankings at 30 points per game even with Chicago Bulls point guard second at 27.7 point per game.
But it isn't just that Ellis is scoring a lot of points, but more HOW he's getting his points. As cliche as this may sound, it is poetry in motion. Imagine Kurtis Blow rapping "Basketball."
Commonly known as the Mississippi Bullet for his place of birth and his incredible quickness to the rim or from baseline to baseline, this season he might need a new name that can take into account not just his speed by his choreographic moves in the air. Natural speed can't even capture this, you'll have to watch it in slow motion.
While the bulk of the video are jumpshots, there are several slow-motion clips of Ellis elevating against an opponent, hanging, then on his way down flipping up his shot for the score. It's amazing the amount of the ab and back strength Ellis needs to stay up that long. But more incredible, to me at least, is his ability to shoot on the way down from all this. See .23 to about .37 to see what I'm talking about. And if that's not crazy enough, he's doing against two defenders in his face. Releasing in a tight window beyond defenders' stretched arms, Ellis makes scoring seem so effortless.
Maybe its the lack of emotion on his face that makes me think that Ellis could probably to hit a fadeaway three with 2 people in his face ON his way down. Maybe a shot of that difficulty, we will finally see Ellis express some excitement over his awesomeness.