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https://sports.vice.com/article/mont...ericks-machine

Monta Ellis and the Dallas Mavericks Machine

Written By: Patrick Redford
Contributor

The Mavericks are locked in a close game with New Orleans when Monta Ellis checks in for Devin Harris half-way through the fourth quarter. Last night, Ellis hurt his elbow and went 1-11 as Memphis muscled the Mavericks aside without resistance, but here he is despite doctor's orders. Tonight, Anthony Davis is his usual unguardable self, Jrue Holiday is coming alive, and the Mavs look tired and in trouble, caught between the burly Grizzlies and Davis's inscrutable athleticism. Ellis could stand to have a day off to rest his tweaked joint, but instead he gets a squirrelly team desperately trying to stay on playoff pace. The NBA schedule is merciless like that.

But Ellis's niche, his habitat, is exactly this type of mucky situation, and after New Orleans cuts it to three with four minutes left, he comes alive. Davis switches onto him, and instead of navigating away from danger, he elects to take the overland route and sinks a stand-up three right in his face. Next time down the court, he runs a give-and-go with Dirk, pinballs into and through traffic, and switches hands right at the rim for a layup. Warning lights are flashing, sirens are going off. Monty Williams is yelling "STAY AWAY FROM OPEN WINDOWS!" but Monta keeps on ripping. By the time the dust settles, Ellis has scored 13 in a row and won the game singlehandedly.

Conceptually, "Monta Ellis: Dallas Maverick" doesn't make sense. Rick Carlisle has constructed the team to play off Dirk Nowitzki in a clean, orderly manner. Their 2011 title team was the less talented one in every playoff series, but they were an overwhelmingly coherent testament to the idea that chemistry matters. Ellis has a reputation, unfairly or not, as a voluminous and inefficient gunner. The idea that his talents and disposition are detrimental to winning basketball games has dogged him his whole career.

In Golden State, Ellis carried himself like a superstar but seldom produced like one. The excesses and failings of the "We Believe"-era Warriors were pinned on Ellis more than anyone and he made himself into an Oakland pariah. Ellis was the organizational rot that had to be cleared out in order for Steph Curry to ascend to MVP-level. For all his scoring ability and style, he led too many shitty teams and so became a sharp edge to be rounded off by a new ownership group. It doesn't help that the trade that exiled him to Milwaukee turned the Warriors into title favorites three years later.

His year in Wisconsin was boring and uneventful. The Bucks got swept by the Heat, he compared himself to Dwyane Wade, and shared a backcourt with Brandon Jennings, a louder, shittier carbon copy of Ellis's worst tendencies. At that point, Ellis looked like next in a long, semi-anonymous line of players who, despite their obvious talents, deflated when they got to new teams. Josh Smith, for example, is putting on a depressing slide into irrelevance clinic this year. As for Ellis, his game wasn't a good fit for the new era of passing offenses, analytics, and tall combo guards, so the narrative doomed him to the margins of the NBA.

But Ellis abruptly got his career back on the rails with an unlikely team without having to compromise his anarchic tendencies. Dallas is an ornate origami crane, where every player fits in a specific role within Carlisle's offense. They are routinely efficient because Nowitzki has refused to erode and management surrounds him with the right type of player. Shooters on the perimeter, a lockdown small forward, and elite rebounding post players. It's all very wholesome and sensible, which seems like the least Monta team ever constructed, but Dallas has a 17-7 record and the best offense in the league.

The trick is creating an ecosystem where Ellis's scoundrel nature elevates everyone. The Mavericks need him to take chances and create weird angles because it kickstarts their machine-like offense into a higher gear. Their normal placid efficiency becomes unpredictable and scary when Ellis takes the reigns. In a historically competitive Western Conference, every elite team has their systems and they will stick to them, so matchups become vitally important. What makes Dallas suited for the playoffs is Ellis's ability to go rogue and spin the offense into motion. They're a machine that learned to feel, and Monta Ellis is their heart.