Monta scouting report

Scout's Take on Monta from CNNSI.com

While the Warriors' season has been filled with inconsistency, second-year guard Monta Ellis has been consistently excellent, averaging 17 points, 3.9 assists and 3.1 rebounds, well ahead of the 6.8 ppg, 1.6 apg and 2.1 rpg he charted as a rookie. SI.com checked in with an advance scout recently to ascertain why Ellis has blossomed in such spectacular fashion.

"He was still really good last year, but now he's getting more minutes and the ball is flowing through him more often. He's quick as lightning -- he's a blur out there -- and he can shoot it. It's a Catch-22: If you close in on him for a shot, he blows by you; you stay off him, he's knocking down a 3. He makes his free throws, defends -- he does it all.

"If he had a little bit better ball-handling skills, he would be one of the top eight point guards in the league. And Don Nelson loves him. Golden State plays basically a dual point-guard system, where he or Baron Davis can bring it up and create and do anything they want to do."

V: Great and accurate take on one of my favorite young players in the League. I'd have to disagree with him on Monta's 3-pt. abilities though...having watched many games this season, I'd have to say that 3's are one of his weaker areas. He definitely has a shooting touch though and has room for improvement, so it's not a concern.

I'm kinda blown away that this scout claims that he'd be one of the top-8 PG's in the League if he improved his ballhandling. That's some gushing praise.

That being said though, I project him to be a quicker, more explosive Sam Cassell-type scoring PG at his peak.