Stephen Curry on Monta Ellis: ‘We Want Him With Our Team’


What was once viewed as a strained relationship between Curry and Ellis has grown into a friendship, and Stephen tells Yahoo! Sports that he wants Monta as a teammate going forward (despite the trade rumors): [Mark] Jackson and Warriors assistant Michael Malone visited Curry in Charlotte for dinner last week in advance of the lockout. They also went to Memphis, Tenn., to meet with Monta Ellis and to St. Louis to visit David Lee. Curry said Jackson and Malone preached the importance of improving the team’s defense, and suggested the Warriors players work out together as much as possible during the lockout to build camaraderie. ‘I like the hiring,’ Curry said of Jackson. ‘He knows the game, and the only knock against him right now is he doesn’t have any coaching experience. For him to hire Pete Myers and Michael Malone behind him [as assistants] helps start a great staff. From what I can tell from the meeting with [Jackson] and Mike, they had a great chemistry just from the start. It’s going to be a work in progress day to day with the coaching philosophies he wants to implement for us and get us to where he wants us to go.’ Curry said he, Ellis, Lee and Dorell Wright, who lives in Los Angeles, plan to meet in each other’s cities for workouts. The Warriors have tried to downplay speculation they want to trade Ellis. Jackson has claimed to be a big fan of the Warriors’ leading scorer. ‘I don’t know about the talks he had with the front office or where they ended before the lockout, but as of right now, he’s still a Warrior,’ Curry said of Ellis. ‘We want him with our team. He makes us better. And I think with a fresh start and all the new faces with the organization that will help him forget about the past and not really affect what is going on right now. I know there has been a lot of turmoil with him and the organization in the past. I can’t speak for him, but I think the new look of our organization will help him make a difference.'”