Ever-breathless Tim Kawakami of the San Jose Mercury News has been creaming the Warriors all year, but his latest cannon fire might be the most relevant when all's said and done. Today on his blog Kawakami reports that Monta Ellis and his agent (Jeff Fried) will meet in a couple weeks to decide whether Ellis wants to suit up for the Warriors again.
My understanding is that, once Fried and Ellis put their heads together and weigh Ellis' physical situation and his feelings about Don Nelson and team management, this will be the period that determines Ellis' future with or departure from the Warriors. [...]
Ellis and Fried have long planned to re-assess Ellis' status with the Warriors once they felt Ellis was on the brink of returning to action-this has been planned since they filed a grievance over the Warriors' 30-game suspension and resulting $3M fine.
As I said, Kawakami has a dozen breathless insights a week from Oakland -- and he's a general sports columnist. Dude gets around. But he's telegraphed the transformation of the Warriors inside, and it'd be odd for Fried and Ellis to have a notable meeting worth attention if Ellis weren't planning on making some sort of stand. Fried wouldn't give Kawakami any reason to think there's smoke if there was not a fire brimming -- Ellis' camp has little to gain if it's not going to play tough.
And what could Ellis and Fried possibly pull? "Give back some of that $3 million or trade me" sounds about right. (Or Kawakami -- who has been the chief flogger of Robert Rowell's regime in Oakland -- could be wishfully reading more into than exists.)
Monta Ellis Has Somethin' Up His Sleeve originally appeared on NBA FanHouse on Thu, 08 Jan 2009 22:30:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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