Three days after Black Monday, the issue no longer is whether or not Monta Ellis and Stephen Curry are going to play together. That's going to happen. Heck, it's happening already.The real question is, how much?
"We had a scrimmage (Wednesday night), the last 20 or so minutes we were on the same team," Curry said of Ellis and himself. "He was running the point and I was running the two. Defensively, we played against Kelenna (Azubuike) and Corey (Maggette). It was fun because offensively we got into the open court and we had (Anthony) Morrow on the other side.
"And that's kind of a deadly attack, I think, the way Monta can penetrate and really attack and then have two shooters on each side ... a lot of different threats. That was fun last night."
The main reason Curry will play this year, and by default play alongside Ellis, is that last season the Warriors weren't a very smart team; they couldn't pass and their decision-making was borderline awful.
Those all would seem to be areas that Curry can impact in a positive way, regardless of his smallish stature or slight build. In fact, Warriors coach Don Nelson hasn't ruled out starting Ellis and Curry together in the backcourt.
Nelson said he has settled on four of the Warriors' five starters: Ellis, Stephen Jackson, Anthony Randolph and Andris Biedrins.
"There's only one spot that's up for grabs and that's the two spot," Nelson said. "We'll see how that works itself out. I haven't decided, really. I'm going to take my time with that one."
Obviously, that could go to Curry. But even if it doesn't ... even if it goes to Morrow or Azubuike, Curry is going to get playing time. And he's going to overlap with Ellis, if for no other reason than Ellis is likely to log big minutes.
Curry said his biggest challenges so far at the pro level are getting over ball screens at the defensive end and adjusting to the "length" of defenders when he gets into the lane to finish or make a pass.
"When you have a guy like Anthony Randolph, who's a 7-footer, and when you get into the lane and he has his arms out, that limits the space you have to make a pass," Curry said. "That's an adjustment. I had a lot of deflected passes the first couple of practices. Just getting used to not everyone being 6-foot-5. There are 7-foot guys to navigate the ball around now."And once again, Curry said Ellis' comments about not wanting to play alongside him from Monday weren't a big deal.
"Actually, if you remember when I got drafted the first thing I heard was ... 'Are you ready to be traded to Phoenix for Amare (Stoudemire)?' So, I've already seen it, what the NBA was like on my first day. It's not about any of that. It's about coming onto the court and producing."
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