Golden State Warriors: Revisiting the Monta Ellis for Andrew Bogut trade

1. The Milwaukee Bucks receive Monta Ellis, Kwame Brown, and Ekpe Udoh

There’s been recent speculation that this entire trade package could have looked completely different.

The front office of Golden State seemed at odds with which of their two backcourt stars was expendable, and there was hesitation from the Milwaukee front office on exclusively going after Curry because of his injuries.

When the official offer was put in, Monta Ellis served as the headliner headed back to the Bucks.

The Bucks were by no means serious contenders in the 2011-2012 season, but they were feeling the pressure of moving Bogut because of a combination of his trade request and not wanting to lose any value the seven-foot Aussie had left.

Getting anything remotely valuable back was a top priority. At the time of the trade, the Bucks were 18-24 on the season, good for ninth in the Eastern Conference. Let’s take a look at what they received.

Kwame Brown (C)

While the Bucks were parting ways with their own number one overall draft selection in Bogut, they would be receiving another in Kwame Brown. The problem with that, though, was that Brown never figured it out at the professional level.

At one time, Brown was universally regarded as the best high school player in his draft class. He was hand-picked by Michael Jordan, who served as the general manager of the Washington Wizards and was pretty good in his own right back when he played.

Brown is now widely considered the biggest bust in NBA Draft history.

The Warriors had signed Kwame Brown to a one year, $7 million contract in the previous offseason, but he only played nine games and served as filler on this trade to Milwaukee.

Brown would not play a single game with the Bucks due to a chest injury that kept him out for the rest of the year. He would retire the next season at the age of 30.

Ekpe Udoh (PF/C)

At the time that this trade happened, Ekpe Udoh was an up-and-coming big man with a 7-foot-5 wingspan and a prowess in shot-blocking. He offered Milwaukee a controllable asset that would ideally help replace the defensive center they had just shipped to Golden State.

Udoh played 141 games with Milwaukee across parts of three seasons, averaging 4.2 points, 3.6 rebounds, and 1.2 blocks in 18.3 minutes per game.

He offered hard-nosed defense inside, but was mostly a liability on offense where he struggled to convert at a high enough clip near the basket. After his age 26 season, Udoh would sign with the Los Angeles Clippers, where he saw a dramatic cut in playing time.

Following his first stint in the NBA, he found success overseas where he would win the 2017 EuroLeague Championship and earn the EuroLeague Final Four MVP that same season.

Udoh now plays for the Beijing Ducks of the Chinese Basketball Association.

Monta Ellis (SG)

It’s already been established that Warriors fans were smitten with Monta Ellis at the time he was traded; many even believed that the Warriors should look to build around him as opposed to fellow backcourt member Stephen Curry.

But for fans who might not have followed the team as closely ten years ago, it can be a bit harder to understand why fans loved him.

Ellis was selected in the second round of the 2005 draft after putting up absurd numbers at the high school level: 38.4 points, 7.9 rebounds, 6.9 assists, and 4.5 steals per game.

In the six seasons that he played for the Warriors, he served as one of the lone bright spots for Golden State, proving to be a capable scorer and ball-handler. He played hefty minutes and put up nearly 25 points per game in consecutive seasons. He was Golden State’s go-to.

He was also the front office’s headache, however.

Ellis notoriously tore a ligament in his left ankle thanks to a moped accident and lied to the front office about it — hoping, unsuccessfully, to evade a 30-game suspension without pay for violation of his contract. A couple of years later, he was sued for sexual harassment against a team employee.

And upon the Warriors’ selection of Curry in the 2009 NBA Draft, Ellis was very vocal about his opinion on his new teammate, saying that he and Curry would never be able to succeed together.

The Warriors front office eventually agreed. While Curry was considered an excellent shooter, there were serious doubts that he could be utilized as a facilitating point guard. Ellis had deeply established a reputation of being a ball-hog.

In the eyes of Golden State, having two ball-dominant guards wasn’t going to work. The Bucks obviously had a different opinion, however.

Three picks after the Warriors selected Curry in the 2009 Draft, the Bucks selected their own point guard of the future in Brandon Jennings. He would, like Curry, make an immediate impact for his team by making the All-Rookie First Team.

While he wasn’t quite as efficient from the floor as Curry was, he was on the court more consistently — lacking the injury concerns that plagued Golden State’s point guard prospect.

The concerns about pairing Ellis with another similarly-sized and similarly-skilled guard followed him to Milwaukee, but the pairing was far more successful.

The Bucks were working with a potentially limited window before Jennings had the option of entering free agency following the 2012-2013 season.

The newly minted pairing of Ellis and Jennings proved to be a problem for many opposing teams. While Jennings maintained his numbers, Ellis put up 18.9 points, 6.0 assists, 3.8 rebounds, and 1.9 steals per game.

Milwaukee wasn’t ever really in contention for a spot in the 2011-2012 playoffs, finishing the strike-shortened season with a 31-35 record. But the following year, they would slip into the Eastern Conference playoffs with a 38-44 record.

In the first round, they were mauled by the Miami Heat in a four-game sweep.

For the Bucks, the playoffs continued to demonstrate a key problem with their offensive consistency that afflicted the team since the arrival of Ellis: the team only did as well as their backcourt did.

While Ellis put up similar totals to the ones he put up in Golden State, he was shooting just 41.9% from the field and 28.4% from three-point range.

Whenever Jennings and/or Ellis would have tough shooting nights, the Bucks were forced to swallow empty possessions as a result of ineffective isolation basketball.

Following an early exit in the playoffs, the Bucks were hoping to re-sign Jennings and re-work an $11 million player option into a three-year contract extension for Ellis.

Neither player would play with the Bucks the following season.

Jennings would be signed and traded to the Detroit Pistons for a package including Khris Middleton. Ellis, on the other hand, would surprisingly reject a three-year, $36 million offer sheet from Milwaukee.

Rumors swirled that neither player had any interest playing for the Milwaukee Bucks moving forward. After testing free agency, Ellis would sign a three-year, $25 million contract with the Dallas Mavericks.

Ellis served as a relatively consistent scorer during his contract with Dallas but never escaped the criticisms that followed him. He was still the same player who could put up about 20 points a night on isolation plays and depended on significant time with the rock to get it done.

With the NBA changing, Ellis’ lackluster three-point percentages were a key issue, and his unwillingness to play team basketball cost him.

He would play just four more seasons in the NBA before being waived by the Indiana Pacers in his age 31 season in 2017.