NBA Q&A: Monta Ellis

Courtesy of the Ben & Skin show

On his decision to come to Dallas:

“I chose this place because of all the options that I had, I felt like this was the best chance and the best opportunity for me to be on that elite state. They're a great organization. They got a hall of fame player in Dirk, so without the defense focused mostly on me, I can expand my game a little bit more. And the city is great. It’s great for my family, my kids love it in school, so I just felt like it was the right fit for me, and I’m happy to be a Maverick.”

On his first impressions of Rick Carlisle:

“He came and met me out in Houston. I was working out of Houston the whole summer pretty much with my ex-coach at Milwaukee, Anthony Goldwire, and as soon as I signed, coach came out to me for a couple of days, and we worked on some things that he thinks will help me better percentage-wise on shooting. There were kinks I had to fix on my jump shot where the ball was going to the right a little bit, and we built a relationship, and for him to do that really set in well with me, because I never had a coach really that do that and come out and show me what I can improve on. And he came out and did that and took the time out of his business schedule to come down to spend a couple of days with me to do that, I can see that he’s very hands on, and he wants to win, so that’s my biggest thing, and when he did that, it was even better for me to be motivated to want to come here and play here and understand the situation that I was coming into.”

On Carlisle teaching him shot mechanics rather than how Ellis will fit into the offense:

“Oh yeah, it wasn’t about the shots that I was taking. I got the ability to make any shot that I take. It was just something I was shooting short, shooting to the right, and there was a lot of movement that was going on.”

On playing with Dirk:

“I think we’re going to do wonderful. I think he’s gonna help my game out tremendously, and I’m gonna take a lot of pressure of him as well. I think with my ability to get to the basket and his ability to shoot the ball, we gonna have the defense in a bind …  As long as we can get on the same page and gel, we’re gonna be great. I’m ready and excited for the opportunity and can’t wait to get started.”

On playing with another ball handler like Jose Calderon:

“It’s gonna be exciting, man. That’s all I can really say, because he can shoot the ball, and like you said, he’s a pass-first point guard. I haven’t had one of those since ’07 when Baron Davis was on the team, and with his ability to shoot the ball… If I can come in and get to the basket and make the defense move and find open guys, I think it’s going to be a great tandem between the two of us. A lot of people are doubting us or they put a burn into me, and hopefully him, and we’re gonna do everything we can to make this work and prove everybody wrong.”

On his non-existent social media presence:

“I never got into it. Not gonna do it now. Really don’t have the time for it to be honest with you. If I’m not at the gym, I’m at home with my kids … I’m just gonna be quiet and go do my job and hopefully win.”

On playing tennis against SportsDay columnist Tim Cowlishaw:

“We had to reschedule because it started raining, but he texted me yesterday, and I think he wanted to play either today or tomorrow … But yeah, we’re gonna get out there and hit a couple of tennis balls … I played tennis from the fifth grade to my senior year in high school and never lost a single match.”