MONTA ELLIS


Monta "Mississippi Bullet" Ellis has been voted as a starting guard for the West All Stars. He has had a long and storied career in the NLL. Initially drafted by Cleveland with the 40th overall pick in 2005 he had a slow rookie season but quickly started to show his merit earning a part time starting job with Cleveland in his sophomore year and he took home the 6th Man of the Year award with that seasons performance. Since then he has averaged points in the mid 20s per game, and he earnt All NBA 2nd team honors in 2011/2012 season. But this year he has stepped up his scoring and efficiency averaging nearly 33 ppg which ranks him 2nd in the race to the scoring title and shooting over 46% while in Phoenix.

His mid season trade from the Clips to the Suns for what is effectively three 1st rounders (Shabazz, Hood, Pho 2015 1st) and Ben Gordon still looks like a win-win for both participants and shows his value as a player. It sure trumps his previous trade value, which was Sonny Weems and Luc Mbah a Moute.

Without him in the team the Suns were sub .500 and on the outside looking in at the playoffs, now with him onboard and playing the best in his career the Suns are hot and are well entrenched in the playoff race. He has won 35% of his teams player of the game awards and is 5th in the MVP race in the league.

Monta has always been one not to shrink from the Lime Light, back when he was in high school, he faced and Oak Hill team loaded with Josh Smith and Rajon Rondo, wanting to make an impression he went out and scored 42 points. Prior to being drafted Draft Express has a glowing report on him, "He appears to be the closest thing we've seen to Dajuan Wagner since Wagner himself". High praise to say the least.