Monta Ellis had the best years of his NBA career when he played for the Golden State Warriors . Ellis won the league's Most Improved Player award in his second year with the Warriors and also had four 20-point seasons in Dubs colors. His career scoring average of 19.6 points per game as a Warrior is the highest among the four teams he played for in the association.
However, as successful as Ellis was individually with Golden State, the Warriors made the playoffs only once during his seven-year tenure. Looking back on his Dubs career, Monta lamented that he never had a team capable of contending for a championship while he was in the Bay.
"That's what I dealt with. And people know that," Ellis said . "Real people that know basketball and all that, they know that. They know the team that I was dealt with. If you switched me and Steph out with the team that won the championships, it'd be the same thing."
The Warriors drafted Ellis 40th overall in the 2005 NBA Draft, straight out of Lanier High School in Mississippi. After an adjustment season in his rookie year, Monta was named the league's MIP as a sophomore and went on to average in four of his next five seasons with the Dubs, including a career-high 25.5 points per game in 2009-10.
The only time they made the playoffs was in 2006-07, when they were known as the "We Believe Warriors" and knocked out the top-seeded Dallas Mavericks in the opening round. The next campaign, Golden State actually had a better regular season at 48-34. However, all eight teams that made the playoffs in the brutal Western Conference won 50 or more games that year, so the Dubs did not make the postseason.
Aside from Ellis, the "We Believe Warriors" had the likes of Baron Davis, Stephen Jackson , Matt Barnes , Jason Richardson , Al Harrington , Mikael Pietrus, and Andris Biedrins . However, the Dubs traded Richardson after the season. Although, as mentioned earlier, they had a better year in 2007-08, it was downhill from there.
Golden State struggled to a 29-53 record in 2008-09 and went to the lottery, where they drafted Curry . Steph paired with Monta in the Warriors' starting backcourt for two seasons, but he was traded in 2012 for Andrew Bogut , and three years later, the Dubs won the first of four championships.
Curiously, during the media day for the 2009-10 season, or long before Ellis was traded, he went public and declared that he and Curry were not going to work as a backcourt tandem playing in the ultra-competitive Western Conference.
"It's different when you're trying to compare Stephen and me when you're trying to go back to when me and BD [Baron Davis] were playing; it's a different situation. You've got a nine-year veteran who's been in the game, who understands the game, knows how to play the game, and he's a big body. You can't put two small guys out there and try to play the 1 and the 2 when you've got big 2 guards in the league. You just can't do it. OK, yes, we're going to move up and down fast, but eventually, the game is going to slow down. You can't do it," Ellis said .
Ellis was listed at 6'3" and Curry at 6'2", so he had a point there. But again, just three years later, Steph led the Dubs to the 2015 NBA title. You can argue that he had Klay Thompson , Draymond Green , and a solid supporting cast.
But if you look at Ellis' roster, it wasn't as bad either. Maybe the West was just too tough during those years. Regardless, it's hard to imagine the Dubs winning any of their four titles without the "Splash Brothers," especially Curry.
Related: Stephen Curry recalled the moment Monta Ellis got traded: "Monta was dapping up everybody"
This story was originally published by Basketball Network on Aug 10, 2026, where it first appeared in the Latest News section. Add Basketball Network as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
