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

4. Conclusion

It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see who ended up winning this trade; there’s a reason that Joe “Light Years” Lacob wasn’t immediately crucified for his comments. It’s the same reason that Warriors fans can now look back and laugh at the Chris Mullin jersey retirement ceremony.

The Golden State Warriors have asserted themselves in every regard as a juggernaut in the NBA. They have fielded several superstar lineups over the last five seasons. They’re opening one of the most eye-popping venues in North America, in the heart of one of the top markets in sports.

Meanwhile, the Monta Ellis trade accomplished virtually nothing for the Bucks. Their championship hopes were slim, at best, even if they chose to stand pat and retain Andrew Bogut to play alongside Brandon Jennings. But the writing was always on the wall.

Players like Ellis had no interest playing for the Bucks. That kind of culture is toxic and may have been a key reason why Milwaukee was unable to re-sign either of their two star guards.

They mistimed a Hail Mary run at the Eastern Conference playoffs by running into the buzz saw that was the Miami Heat. There was no way that they could match up to LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, and Chris Bosh.

Miami was undoubtedly going to win their second consecutive title.

In some regard, the Bucks at least succeeded in the sense that they shed dead weight in Bogut and Jackson, who were both requesting trades. But they failed to capitalize on getting anything out of the assets that they’d end up losing to free agency.

For the Warriors, the move for Bogut, and the subsequent investment in Curry over Ellis serves as the foundation of the dynasty that we see today.

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What shouldn’t be lost in all of this is the immense risk that was taken in going after Bogut in the first place.

The Warriors essentially put all of their eggs in one basket, prayed that two key players would wind up healthy, narrowly missed losing out on key picks in a monumental 2012 draft, and then bet on themselves to break their playoff drought.

And it worked.

Bogut alone didn’t secure Golden State a championship ring. But the trade opened the window to a championship. It removed Ellis from the dynamic and replaced him with Klay Thompson.

It landed the Warriors an opportunity to knock the 2012 NBA Draft out of the park. It established a brand of team basketball that lured Kevin Durant to Oakland.

Andrew Bogut was a small piece of the puzzle statistically, sure. But the seven-foot Aussie served as the biggest domino to fall. He triggered a change in Golden State that was so desperately needed for the fan base.

Part of what made the fans boo so loudly when Joe Lacob took the microphone was that a laundry list of things had to work perfectly in order for there to be an NBA championship parade in the Bay Area.

But Chris Mullin ended up being right.

Fans just needed to be patient.