Trade Rumor Du Jour: Monta Ellis

The San Francisco Chronicle is reporting today that the Lakers and Warriors have had trade talks concerning Monta Ellis. Though it's not clear who the Lakers would be giving up in return, some speculation has focused on Lamar Odom.

I've put together some thoughts on this over at SBN Los Angeles. I'll just link to them here because I'm lazy and don't feel writing it all again, but suffice it so say I'm not enamored with the idea. The thrust of my objections:

To begin with, he plays the same position as Kobe Bryant. More to the point, he occupies the same role as Kobe Bryant, as a high-volume shooter who wants the ball in his hands much of the time. Among shooting guards, Kobe and Monta had two of the four highest usage rates in the league last season. We've seen experiments like this before. Some of them (LeBron James and Dwyane Wade) have worked out pretty well. Others (Allen Iverson and Carmelo Anthony) have not. In either case, it means big men see their roles in the offense wither away. You can live with that when your starting center is Joel Anthony. But when you're taking shots away from Andrew Bynum and Pau Gasol, while shipping out the Sixth Man of the Year for the privilege, the net gains from the transaction become harder to discern.

What do y'all think? You on Team Monta? Or are you still a proud member of Team Odom?