Write back at you: On trading Monta Ellis; deal with Clips; and Nellie's blog potential

Monta Ellis: Not a matter of "wanting" to trade him

This  morning, the in-box is the go-to guy ...

JLIGHT WROTE: … Why would the Heat go for Monta Ellis and his contract? I don’t know, dude, you wrote in previous articles about Ellis coming back, and what it can mean to the team in terms of bringing the team together. Now you’re back to talking about trading him?

MS: Let me be clear: I don’t want to trade Ellis.

But what I am saying is this: Because of the Warriors current salary structure, in order for them to make a productive deal, I think they’re going to have to include a tough pill to swallow: An Ellis, an Anthony Randolph or a Brandan Wright.

I don’t think the Warriors will be able to move Corey Maggette, Stephen Jackson or Jamal Crawford without including one of those three players.

It’s simple, really. Whether it’s Maggette, Jackson or Crawford, none of those contracts are “desirable.” What that means is the Warriors will have to “sweeten” any deal involving them.

Which means giving up something or somebody they don’t want to give up. The player most likely to go, however, is Wright.

All I’m saying is that because of the way the Warriors’ cap situation is, they now have to be open to trading some pieces they might not want to trade … otherwise they might find themselves unable to make any kind of productive move, meaning this could be the team for a while.

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A’S IN 2009 WROTE: It needs to be a three-way: Maggette, Ronny Turiaf and Marcus Williams to Clippers for Marcus Camby, Jason Hart and Ricky Davis to Miami and then Shawn Marion to the Warriors.

MS: I would do that in a second if I were the Warriors, but I just don’t see what’s in it for the Clippers. Getting Maggette back? I don’t think so.

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DAVID E. WROTE: Nelson would be a great blogger. He knows how to make copy--say one thing one day and something different the next. Seems to me Nelson's praise of Chris Duhon last night was an "I told you so" to someone in the organization and maybe this was more of it.

MS: There is no doubt Don Nelson has a reputation for accompanying every sound bite with an agenda. I agree about the high praise for Duhon.

Problem with that praise is that if Nelson really believes that, he should have believed it before the game. If I’m not mistaken, Duhon laid a big number on the Warriors  last year in a real bad loss to the Bulls at Oracle.

Of course, Nelson has a reputation for sending messages through the media. It’s just that this year the messages are cryptic and indecipherable.