Monta Ellis Versus Stephen Curry, The Twitter Debates

With the trade deadline coming close, Golden State Warriors beat writer Marcus Thompson II and San Jose Mercury Sports contributor Tim Kawakami chat with Warriors fans over the fate of their backcourt conundrum. From the looks of it, both of them are seem to think that replacing Monta Ellis may be easier than trying to replace Curry. And both Thompson II and Kawakami are in agreement that what they realistically think they could get in return for Curry if they’re expecting to get that dominant big man they’ve always wanted.

Here’s what they Thompson II and Kawakami had to Tweet about today:

gswscribe Marcus Thompson
@timkawakami Problem is, you can trade a SG for any position. Do you trade a PG for anything but a big?

gswscribe Marcus Thompson
He has really good vision. Handles well in traffic. He is inexperienced and lacking athletically @HowardKushlan

gswscribe Marcus Thompson
He must play PG. Doesn’t have size/athleticism for combo RT @timkawakami: But do you really consider Curry a PG? his future is as combo 1/2.

gswscribe Marcus Thompson
Point guard is the most difficult position on the court. You can’t just put anybody at PG. Those dudes are rare

gswscribe Marcus Thompson
That is why when you get one that is good, especially one with a special talent, you don’t just walk away from it because of the flaws

gswscribe Marcus Thompson
I said the same things when the Warriors had Baron. You just don’t walk away from good point guards. Good franchises don’t, anyway

So the battle rages on! But Thompson II seems to think that trading Curry might set the Warriors back. There was an additional Tweet by Thompson II about how all young point guards take time to develop (Jrue Holiday, Darren Collison, and Brandon Jennings) with the exception being Chris Paul. But anyway, Thompson, to me, brings up a good point, no pun intended, which I will extrapolate on.

If you trade Curry, who’s going to bring the ball up court. Or rather, who has the ability, in pressure situations, to bring the ball up court without getting picked? During the Don Nelson and Baron Davis years, Davis was called upon to facilitate a huge portion of the offense because, honestly, no one else had the handles or court vision to do what he did. Before that, the Warriors hadn’t had a point guard with that ability to lead a team since Tim Hardaway. Curry isn’t an elite point guard by any means, yet. But finding someone with his skills does seem pretty difficult to duplicate considering what the market is out there for point guards when we can’t even get a decent back-up.

With that said, be careful what you wish for.