Golden State Warriors: Revisiting the Monta Ellis for Andrew Bogut trade
2. The Golden State Warriors receive Andrew Bogut and Stephen Jackson
The front office of the Warriors knew that they had something special in Curry, despite what reports might indicate about their willingness to trade him.
What they didn’t have, at the time, was a dominant center who could offer physicality and rebounding for a team that had been mostly offense-centric.
In the prior offseason, the Warriors hired Mark Jackson, a defensive-minded coach, to attempt to make something of a franchise that had been at best charming and at worst laughable for decades. They also acquired former all-star forward David Lee in a sign-and-trade with the New York Knicks the summer before.
But something had to change in the backcourt.
The Warriors were a combined 79-123 during the Ellis-Curry era. Everyone in the greater Bay Area knew that it wasn’t going to get the job done. Ellis proved to be the expendable piece.
At the time of the trade, the Warriors were 17-21 on the season, good for 13th in the Western Conference. Let’s take a look at what they received.
Stephen Jackson (SF)
Fans might remember Stephen Jackson as one of the faces of the “We Believe” era Warriors. He was, like Ellis, a guy who wanted the ball and wanted to score as much as the team would possibly let him. Back in the 2006-2007 season, it worked, as he consistently dropped 20 points per game.
By the time the Golden State Warriors would acquire him in this deal, however, Jackson saw his production drastically drop. At 33-years-old, he was shooting just 40.9% from the field and 27.8% from three with Milwaukee.
To make matters worse, he was not happy with his role there.
At the time, Captain Jack was frankly upset about everything — playing time being reduced, disagreements with head coach Scott Skiles, no traction on a contract extension, and so on.
This wasn’t speculation, either. Jackson came out the following year with his explanation of the unceremonious departure:
"“I just wanted to be around a positive organization that’s used to winning and plays the game the right way. Milwaukee, they’re not used to winning. I just wasn’t going to go for it at the end of my career.”"
Ouch.
Anyways, the Warriors had no intention of actually reuniting with Jackson — rightfully so with a mentality like that. Two days later, the Warriors would trade him to the San Antonio Spurs so that Gregg Popovich could smack some sense into him.
Andrew Bogut (C)
It almost goes without saying that this was a massive gamble for the Golden State Warriors organization, but it was a gamble that evidently opened a championship window.
Andrew Bogut was a stud. The Warriors had previously attempted to lure DeAndre Jordan to Golden State, then moved on to inquiring about names like Dwight Howard and even Pau Gasol.
Basketball fans may not remember Bogut as being among those names, but, at the time, he was one of the best centers in the league. The former number one draft pick in 2005 was a physical, imposing center who served as both a glass-cleaner and rim protector.
In seven seasons with the Milwaukee Bucks, Bogut put up an impressive 12.7 points, 9.3 rebounds, and 1.6 blocks per game to go along with all-league-level defense and stellar basketball IQ. Though he earned All-NBA Third Team honors in 2010, there was a catch.
After averaging 75 games a year in his first three seasons, Bogut’s consistency in being on the floor began to rapidly disintegrate. He would average about 45 games the following four seasons due to a slew of freak accidents and chronic pain.
It began with a stress fracture in his lower back. Then a strained ligament in his left leg. Then a strain to his middle back.
On April 3, 2010, in a game against the Phoenix Suns, Bogut broke down the court, catching a full-court pass, gathering the ball, and slamming it down with two hands.
Amar’e Stoudemire, lurking just behind, clipped the lower back of Bogut, causing his momentum to flip him in the air despite attempting to hold onto the rim.
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Bogut toppled in midair, extending his right arm to brace his awkward fall, before snapping his elbow under his bodyweight. He immediately gripped at his arm, screaming in agony.
The training staff came to him and attempted to cover his injured arm with a towel. He’d be quickly removed from the game and was done for the season thanks to a broken hand, sprained wrist, and dislocated elbow.
Bogut would later reveal that he couldn’t fully extend his right arm for several months.
Just two months before the trade to the Warriors, Bogut would go up for a block against Terrence Williams but awkwardly land on his left ankle. He’d miss the remainder of the season after only playing in 12 total games.
The Warriors were still enamored by what Bogut could potentially offer them if he were to ever consistently see court time again.
He would undergo micro-fracture surgery on his left ankle to clear bone spurs and other debris while the Warriors would finish the season to the tune of only five wins in the final 27 games.
The following season gave a sliver of hope as Bogut played in the first four of five games to begin the season. Unfortunately, Golden State ruled him out indefinitely immediately after.
He would receive Regenokine treatment — an experimental procedure where a person’s blood is extracted, manipulated, and then reintroduced to promote healing.
Whether it was the experimental procedure or patience in his recovery, Bogut would begin to thrive in a Warriors system that didn’t depend on him to play in every single game, but to show up for the big ones.
In the 2012-2013 season, the Warriors were able to put together a massive turnaround, finishing 47-35 to enter the Western Conference playoffs as the 6th seed. Bogut’s return in January of that season was a huge lift for the team.
Putting Bogut in the lineup offered versatility for a Warriors offense that liked to play Stephen Curry off the ball at times.
Bogut was more than capable when it came to making the right pass and reading lanes on the floor. His presence was felt on both sides of the ball no matter what the stats might indicate.
Bogut was an instrumental factor in the first round of those playoffs, recording playoff career-highs of 14 points and 21 boards in Game 6 against the Denver Nuggets to end their season. He was the first Warriors player with twenty or more playoff rebounds in a single game since Larry Smith in 1987.
Golden State’s patience for Bogut’s comeback as well as reverence for his role on the team led to the team signing him to a three-year contract extension in October of that year.
Though Bogut would continue dealing with freak injuries — only ever finishing one season with 70 games played with the Warriors — he was exactly the piece that they needed to play off of a budding superstar backcourt of Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson.
Ultimately, Golden State’s 2012 gamble would pay off in 2015.
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The Warriors came into their own in the 2014-2015 season, storming through the first three rounds of the playoffs with the best record in the NBA, 67-15. They would go on to win their first NBA Championship in 40 years, overpowering the LeBron James-led Cleveland Cavaliers.
Andrew Bogut was a key piece of the Warriors transformation from basement dwellers to NBA Champions.
In a total of 247 games played across four seasons with Golden State, Bogut averaged 6.1 points, 8.1 rebounds, 2.2 assists, 1.7 blocks, and 0.6 steals per game.
His impact would go beyond the numbers, however. He would finish top-10 in Defensive Player of the Year voting in 2014, earn All-Defensive Team honors in 2015, and lead the league in defensive box plus-minus in back-to-back seasons.
He became the first player in franchise history to average at least 10 rebounds per game while shooting sixty percent or better from the field. On top of an NBA Championship, he played consistently through the Warriors’ NBA record-setting 73-win season.
Bogut’s time with the Warriors would come to an end as he was shipped off to the Dallas Mavericks to make room for a lanky forward who could put the ball in the hoop at a pretty elite rate; his name was Kevin Durant.
Although the injury bug would never really leave Bogut alone, he played another three seasons in the NBA. Most recently, Bogut came back in a handful of appearances for the Warriors in the 2018-2019 season.
Currently, he plays for the Sydney Kings of the National Basketball League in Australia. There, he won the 2019 Most Valuable Player and Defensive Player of the Year for the team he grew up rooting for as a child.