Pacers player review: The role is shrinking for Monta Ellis

Next up in our player review series is Monta Ellis, who finished his twelfth season in the league and his second for the Pacers. Monta’s approval rating in Indy took a hit this season, but he shouldn’t take all the blame.

Monta Ellis has always been polarizing.

The shooting guard from Jackson, Mississippi arrived in Indiana at the beginning of the 2015-2016 season and formed a solid backcourt pairing with George Hill. The second-leading scorer on the team besides Paul George, Ellis helped shoulder some of the offensive burden while functioning well enough on the other end that the Pacers still ended with a top three defense.

This season was a bit of a different story. George Hill got shipped to Utah in a deal that brought Jeff Teague in to replace him, and the switch made Ellis much more unnecessary in the starting lineup. Teague and Ellis are skilled at mostly the same things, meaning that Ellis was better served in a bench role.

That redundancy was highlighted to a large degree in this year’s playoffs, and Pacers fans ended the season questioning what role Ellis could possibly have on a contending Pacers team. We very well might be stuck with him, though, so let’s break things down a little bit more.

Significant Digits

108.0 Defensive Rating when Ellis and Jeff Teague shared the floor

Having two smaller guards like Ellis and Teague on the floor at the same time cratered the Pacers’ defense. The two of them formed the worst defensive pairing of any two-man lineup that logged at least 600 minutes together, and they didn’t exactly make up for it on the other side of the ball. In the playoffs, their defensive rating ballooned to 115.2, an abysmal figure.

The best offensive teams (read: Cavaliers) know how to sniff out the holes in a defense and attack them from the opening tip. It didn’t take a trained nose to sniff out the holes in a Teague-Ellis lineup. If Teague is back next season, their shared minutes have to decrease, even if that means that Ellis is just Teague’s backup.

31.9 percent from 3-point range

Ellis is a below average 3-point shooter playing at a position where 3-point shooting is becoming more and more necessary. Among guards with similar workloads, Monta’s 2.4 attempts per 36 minutes looks downright puny, and he’ll need to change if he wants to stay relevant. Quickness and athleticism have already begun to fade, and unless he can start chucking from long range more consistently, Ellis will have a hard time seeing the floor.

Monta Ellis’s Season Summed up in One Archer GIF

If you followed the Indiana Pacers, you needed a sense of humor. Laugh so you don’t cry. And what’s funnier than Archer? Nothing. Nothing is the answer.

Sweatin’ Bullets

Sweatin’ Bullets is an 8p9s tradition started by Jonny Auping in which we offer standalone facts, observations, and commentary, often devoid of context or fairness.

• Monta shot 37.5 percent from right corner 3s during the regular season…on 16 attempts
• Ellis scored three more points per 100 possessions against West teams than he did against East teams. The West is the new trash conference. You heard it here first.
• We’re getting slightly closer to Ellis and Dwyane Wade being comparable players. MONTAELLIHAVEITALL.
• With between 22 and 18 seconds left on the shot clock, Ellis shot 56.8 percent on 88 attempts.

One Key Question

Is there another team that might be interested in taking on Ellis’s contract?

The Situation: Ellis is owed $11.2 million for the 2017-2018 season and $11.7 million for the year after. However, if his team waives him at any point during next season, that last year gets erased.

Best-case Scenario: Another team is desperate for off-the-dribble creation and has money to blow. The Pacers can get a second-round pick for Ellis in a deal this offseason.

Worst-case Scenario: No one picks up the phone for a Monta deal, and his salary makes it difficult for the Pacers to improve in the offseason. They waive him before the end of the season and wash their hands of the Monta Ellis experience.

Prediction: I don’t feel comfortable saying if Ellis is still on the team by opening night. However, I’m fairly confident that if he gets traded, the Pacers will have to add something to sweeten the deal. It just doesn’t seem like Ellis is an asset on his own anymore.