Nellie says Monta Ellis is way past itchy, but Warriors are holding him back

January 6, 7:14 PMGolden State Warriors ExaminerMatt Steinmetz

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Monta Ellis: "Chomping at the bit," says Nelson 

Just going to try to skim the surface with some things tonight. ...

First, true story about the Monta Ellis video from the previous post.

And it's proof I have no idea with that thing. You'll notice that near the end of the clip, I followed Andris Biedrins with the camera. I should have followed Ellis.

You might see he begins to gather himself as the camera moves away from him.

Yes, he dunked.

More important, Warriors coach Don Nelson made it clear that Ellis is "chomping at the bit" to get back, but that the Warriors are holding him back at this point.

Said Nelson: "He wants to play and we're being very conservative. But he's getting close to getting a practice in. He feels he's ready. ... We want to make a good decision and not hurry him back too fast. We're holding him back more than anything."

Nelson all but confirmed that Ellis had been telling people close to him that he wanted to play back on Dec. 26, against Boston.

"There will be no rushing back," Nelson said. "If we had rushed him back he would have been playing two weeks ago. Because he wanted to play."

♦

Nelson said that he thought Jermareo Davidson had a solid first practice for the team.

I asked Nelson the difference between Davidson and Richard Hendrix, whom the Warriors waived.

"Hendrix is more of an inside player," Nelson said. "Davidson has the ability to shoot the jump shot and is a little longer. They both rebound. I don't know much about Davidson. This is the first time I've seen him but he's better than I thought he would be."

♦

Nelson also said rookie Anthony Randolph has had a nice little practice run. Nelson said early during the team's road trip that Randolph was going to be put "on ice" for a while.

"Randolph has had three good practices now, where's played hard and played pretty well," Nelson said.

Don't expect too much to change too soon. Nelson tempered that later by saying Randolph still wasn't quite NBA-ready.