The expectation for the Golden State Warriors in the Monta Ellis kerfuffle was to lay down a light punishment or no punishment at all. NBA teams aren't in the business of pissing off their best players for dumb but largely benign mistakes. For every Ellis, I have no doubt dozens of ballers ride motorcycles, snowboard, base jump, run with scissors, microwave floppy disks and do other assorted silly things which could fall under behavior clauses in their contracts. Basically, there's little to gain in terms of material benefit or future deterrence in slapping Ellis with a punishment. Ellis will stop riding mopeds whether you punish him or not. Punishing Ellis isn't likely to make an impression on Anthony Randolph, though.

The Warriors disagree. Tim Kawakami reports the team has suspended Ellis without pay for 30 games. The guard expected to be out a few months, and would likely miss 30 games regardless. But the fine comes out heavy, almost $3 million. That's about 28% of this year's pay. (The Lakers took 10% of Vlad Radmanovic's cash when he injured himself snowboarding and lied to the team about it.) For a cat who'd only made minimum second-round scale money up to this point, that hurts.

Kawakami notes Ellis isn't around to answer questions, which leaves open the possibility Ellis and his camp aren't on board with this. It wouldn't be a stretch to imagine Ellis' agent working with the franchise to come up with the right "statement" to protect Golden State's stature while keeping the guard from losing too much. Based on the size of the fine and the lack of an Ellis presence in Oakland right now, it does not appear to be the case that Monta's camp is cool with this penalty.

(It's all worth noting that a Kawakami column from last week quoted Don Nelson and Chris Mullin as appearing to stand against significant punishment. The decision on the $3 million penalty came from team president Robert Rowell, Mullin's boss.)

If there's one guy who was left twisting in the wind this summer after Baron Davis took off for L.A. and Monta Ellis threw his newly $66-million-extended body off a moped, it was Stephen Jackson. Jackson was just as much a part of the free-wheeling Warriors that knocked off the Mavericks in '07 as Davis and Ellis. And while other people have received huge deals and have been the focus of conversations with Don Nelson and Chris Mullin, Jackson has been quiet, only asking occasionally, "Hey, what about me?"

The good news is that some things are turning up S-Jax. On top of all the charity work he's been doing and the likelihood that Jackson will be more prominently featured in the offense, it turns out Jackson had his grill fixed a few weeks ago. The Examiner reports that Jackson had plastic surgery to fix his gap-tooth and all the other damage that was caused by a rather nasty run-in a few years ago that featured "gun-play" and Jackson getting run over by a car.

But now Jackson has a new look to go with a constantly maturing attitude that's always been strong in the locker room but lacked restraint outside of it. Jackson's new and improved proactive disposition has to be music to the ears of a Warriors franchise in desperate need of positive leadership.

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Yesterday we had the overview; today we have the predictions. The Pacific Division appears to be no better than a two-team race, with a third team potentially in the mix, and the last two teams, well, finishing in last. Let's start things off in the cellar and work our way up, shall we?

The Los Angeles Clippers (again, regal) are going to have a tough go of it due to the enormous drop off in talent they have between their starting lineup and the players coming off the bench. In fact, if you want a visual of said drop off, go watch this, and pretend the guy jumping off the building is falling in the space between the talent of the Clippers' starting players and that of their bench players. And the parachute not opening represents the gigantic FAIL that the Clippers can expect this season anytime the bench takes the floor to try and hold onto a lead. It's not going to be pretty, folks.

Up north where the Golden State Warriors play, it won't be pretty either, at least for the first few months of the season. That's because their best player (apologies, Mr. Maggette) decided to engage in low-speed moped riding during the off-season (this still amazes me ... the moped = injury part), which will lead to his absence from the lineup, and an unavoidably bad start for the Warriors.

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A season ago, the Pacific Division was able to send just two of its teams to the playoffs, but one of them went all the way to the Finals. And while that's not likely to change this season -- at least the part about the two playoff teams -- each club definitely has its share of intriguing story lines.

Let's start off in Los Angeles, where the Lakers' playoff run last season took place with one of the team's key components on the sidelines. There are always many stories in Laker-land, but a lot of the team's fans seem to be most interested in this one: With the return of Andrew Bynum, do the Lakers have a shot to win 70 games?

Despite the recent flood of positive Andrew Bynum stories hitting the L.A. papers lately (seriously, his P.R. machine is working overtime), I'm not convinced that his addition to the lineup automatically makes the Lakers unstoppable. There's the whole thing about figuring out how to co-exist with Pau Gasol, and how Lamar Odom will perform (likely) playing further away from the basket. When you add in the fact that even if the team was capable of winning 70 games, there's really no motivation to do so, unless someone else is on the same ridiculous pace and it would mean home court advantage.

Now that the speculation has ended, and the truth is out about how Monta Ellis hurt himself, the question that arises is, should the team do anything about it? It's a bit of a tricky predicament. On the one hand, Monta's your team's franchise player now, so maybe you want to tread lightly and not do anything to start a rift between your $66M dollar man and the organization.

On the other hand, you can't pretend that your star player didn't blatantly ignore the conditions of his contract, and as a result, sustain an injury that will keep him out for a minimum of the first two months of the season. That aggression cannot stand, man! Or can it?

There's some thinking in the Bay Area that says the Warriors should do nothing, for fear of Ellis carrying a grudge that could end up ruining the franchise, Chris Webber-style. But non-action by the franchise sets a bad precedent, and sends the wrong message that they'll let players slide when they do something that they know damn well they shouldn't be doing.

I'm not saying that the Warriors should fine Ellis something crazy like 10% of his contract, as the Lakers eventually did when Vladimir Radmanovic decided to go on a little snowboarding trip. But they have to do something. A small "slap on the wrist" fine and a stern (lowercase "s") statement through the media would do the trick. Just enough to let Ellis and the team know that the organization won't tolerate these kinds of actions from their players, but not enough to damage their relationship with the new face of the franchise.

NBA Essentials ranks our six favorite stories of the day.

1. Ft. Worth Star-Telegram. Dirk follows Shaq's lead, announces his retirement date a few years ahead of time.

2. San Jose Mercury News. Chris Mullin doesn't seem at all mad at Monta Ellis. Turns out Mully is a Vespa enthusiast too.

3. Sacramento Bee. Randy Brown tried to punk Kevin Martin. It would have been a good one.

4. Indy Cornrows. Making the case for bringing Mike Dunleavy Jr. -- possibly Indiana's best scorer -- off the bench.

5. Blazers Edge. How trade sausage is made.

6. Toronto Star. The new Raptors road alts are pretty hot. Every fanbase wants black jerseys.

So to recap: explosive guard, devastating transition weapon, millionaire franchise player.

Moped enthusiast.

When the truth came out that Monta Ellis was injured in a non-basketball activity. We all had our guesses. ATV accident was mine. But then, I went to Missouri and am just used to guards getting hurt on ATVs. But nowhere did I hear the word moped bandied about. I mean, really. Who gets injured on a moped, let alone gets injured on a moped after signing a $66 million extension?

Monta Ellis, of course.

The origin of his torn deltoid and high-ankle sprain came out today in a report by the San Francisco Chronicle, which termed it a "low-speed accident." Well thank God for that. If Ellis had really ramped that baby up, just imagine what could have happened. I'm also curious as to how he managed to sustain an accident at "low-speed" on a moped. Don't you essentially have to run it directly into something? Did a turtle jump out in front of it? Isn't Monta supposed to be, you know, light on his feet?

In our continuing theme of NBA players doing unfathomably stupid things, Monta Ellis confessed to the Warriors yesterday that he was not injured while playing basketball as he previously indicated. In case I wasn't clear, that would mean he lied to the people that gave him a 6 year, $66 million extension. A report in the Mercury Times indicates that Ellis contacted team officials and told them he did not injure his ankle in the gym and was not playing basketball when the injury happened. The injury occurred outdoors, which of course leads the mind to a variety of things that your mom would probably tell you to stop doing right now, since, you know, you just signed yourself a $66 million dollar deal.

The report indicates that Ellis and the Warriors are working to resolve the situation and put it behind them, but a lot of that depends on how Ellis heals. Odds are that everything heals okay, and it's not a big deal outside of a small fine and maybe a game or two suspension for violating the terms of his contract. But if, in a worst-case scenario, there's any long term damage stemming from the injury, go ahead and tuck it away that the Warriors have an out to void Ellis' contract.

Note to NBA players: It's understandable that you want to have some summer fun, especially in celebration of the largest contract you've ever had. But maybe go to the beach and sit. Buy yourself a nice book and a pillow. Or enjoy an exciting game of Scrabble with friends. Just don't do things that could lead to not only injury, but an embarrassment as you try and deceive the team that rewarded your efforts.

FanHouse's Tom Ziller argues his ranking of the top 50 players in the NBA.

Not to be selfish, but Monta Ellis' aerial wolf hunting expedition -- or whatever led to his ankle injury -- really screwed up this here ranking. I had slotted him here, in the mid-30s, based on the idea he'd be Golden State's warrior. A player who dropped 25 a night on a steady river of absurd Barbosian dashes through the lane.

Ellis has already arrived on the scene -- he followed a Most Improved trophy (bah) with a season of better actual improvement. But moving from hot stuff to star, that's what I expected to happen this season when I slotted dude here at #37. Needless to say, it's not going to happen.

It's really kind of surprising that athletes tend to think they're not going to get caught when they lie about injuries. I mean, essentially when you sign that new $66 million dollar contract, you're putting a price on your body and what it can do. So when you damage that product, the people that paid for it are probably going to ask some questions.

It's beginning to sound more and more like Monta Ellis did that damage doing something he was specifically not supposed to do.

Following earlier reports that the Warriors were investigating how Ellis sustained his ankle sprain and torn deltoid ligament that will keep him sidelined until the start of next year, ESPN has learned that there's quite a bit fishy about the accompanying injuries Ellis sustained at the same time. It would appear that there are "cuts and abrasions" that aren't congruent to a basketball injury.

Ruh-roh, Reorge.

The consequences for Ellis could be costly, both financially and from a relationship with management standpoint. They rewarded his play with not only the contract, but the reins of the franchise as their star player and point guard of the future. And the injury is one thing, but injury in possible violation of the terms of his contract is quite another. If the injury was sustained in a way that was in violation of those terms, and Ellis was to have severe longterm health issues ... let's just stop there. TrueHoop, for one, wonders whether these kind of contract restrictions are positive or not.

By the way, somebody want to ask Shaun Livingston what he thinks about this situation?