Milwaukee Bucks get Monta Ellis; Andrew Bogut and Stephen Jackson head to GS Warriors in a 5-man trade: NBA News
With the clock running on the March 15th trade deadline, the league, on Tuesday night, saw its first block buster trade involving the Milwaukee Bucks and Golden State Warriors.
In a five player deal, the Warriors have let go of their leading scorer Monta Ellis, power forward Ekpe Udoh and centre Kwame Brown while the Warriors get oft-injured centre Andrew Bogut and one of their old heroes, Stephen Jackson
aka Captain Jack.
While Brown is already done for the season with a chest injury, Ellis and Udoh sat in the Warriors game against the Sacramento Kings on Tuesday. Speaking before the game, Ellis seemed relaxed at the development which has ended
his above three years association with the bay area franchise;
"It's not a bad thing, man," Ellis said. "Not at all. We are going to another team to do the same thing we love to do. I'm riding back home with him."
Commenting on his earlier statement about the long term commitment with the Warriors, Ellis was candid;
"Well, everybody says that," Ellis said. "But sometimes it (doesn't) always work out like that."
After winning 4 of the last five games, the Bucks are already breathing below the necks of New York Knicks for the eight spot in the Eastern Conference and the addition of Ellis will add a new dimension to their charge.
With Brandon Jennings quickly establishing himself as one of the premier point guards in the league, the duo has the potential to form the best back court combination in NBA. Also, taking into account that Drew Gooden and Ersan
Ilyasova are available as the two bigs, the Bucks have now become more than decent contenders in East.
As far for the Warriors, it seems that they have got the raw end of the deal. There is no doubt that when fit, Bogut is more than a formidable option on the glass, but the problem is that his career of the 2006 number one draft
pick is a story of injuries – lower back, broken right hand sore wrist and more recently a fracture left ankle which may force him to miss the whole season.
The Bucks waited for more than five years for him to deliver upto his potential, but with this trade, they have got a way out of the ordeal.
For the Warriors it’s a gamble, and the obsession of getting a good centre might cost them in future. The addition of Jackson however, who had been making the Bucks bench his own after reported difference with Coach Scott Skiles,
will add depth, and more importantly the intensity, to the Warriors front court.
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