He wasn’t.

Bench role players about to enter UFA are worth 2 2nds at best.

Everyone just read the reports that the kings wanted a 1st and that there were a lot of teams after him and just assumed they would get 1

The kings this year have been lowkey actively making his life on court as hard as possible. His career splits of 46/41/77 are a little more realistic than a down year where he’s not playing as much and sharing the court with ³⁄₄ guys who can’t shoot. Nobody was ever trading a super valuable first for him, but a contender in need of an excellent defender who can stand in the corner and knock down 3s would’ve moved a late or moderately protected 1st most likely

You’re prioritizing a 43 game sample size over a 150 game sample size prior to this year where he was wayyy better than this

This season has been a case of malpractice by the Kings with inconsistent playing time. But when he was a significant rotational piece, he was very efficient from all areas on the court (49/43/85 splits) last season and does everything you ask along with his elite point of attack defense. I see him as a guard version of Herb Jones whose asking price was 2 FRPS. While i dont think he can ever be a top 2 offensive option on a championship team, every team needs someone like him and under the CBA, securing high-level role players may be more impactful than a swing-for-the-fence supermax guy

Iirc, Keon was worth a first a couple years ago because of his contract and his play. I think with the expiring contract and down year, he’s no longer worth that and is worth a second. At least that’s what I recall.

This season is being focused on too much. Look at his last two full and complete seasons. He was a volume 3 point shooter consistently over 40% from deep, over 1.5 steals a game defensively and just last season he finished with 2nd most deflections only behind Dyson Daniels.

A LATE FRP is totally reasonable for a two way younger player of Keon’s abilities, literally just a bit better than a SRP and he’s absolutely worth a late FRP or 2 SRPs for what he produces on the court.

Hes barely cracked any playing time this season as the Kings don’t know what they’re doing, but he’s got two full seasons of proven abilities to look at. He’s arguably the best success story of going from undrafted 2 way contract to proper NBA player behind a guy like AR.

You’re forgetting we are holding him hostage. With a decent coach and GM he’s going to be the 6th man on most teams at worst imo. He shot over 40% from 3 before this version of Lavines teams sucked the will to play out of every one of our players.

Honestly, and most Kings fans know this, Ellis is a player you want to develop. I don’t think it’s unrealistic to say he’s going to develop into a premier 3 and D guard shooting +40% and averaging 15ish points a game. I don’t think he’s worth a first right now, but give it a season and he will be. We’d rather play Westbrook and Shroder over him anyways

I see him potentially being another Derrick White

There’s a lot of really good guards in the east A big reason the Pacers were able to nearly coast to the finals in the Eastern conference is they had many POA defensive players to throw out there.

And it’s not necessarily just his value, the Cavs are cash strapped, the new collective bargaining agreement teams are looking for valuable players at a low cost.

You get at least an MLE level player who will help a ton in the playoffs that salary wise costs less than the guaranteed minimum you take it

Most fans will just go based off his stats from this season-and it’s just invalid because it tells me most people haven’t paid attention the Kings or what’s going on behind the scenes.

Keon got iced out of the lineup this season.

Based on his play last year as a defensive guard and 3 point shooting at his contract value, he was worth a first.

Just our front office is so inept they cratered his value

Even Alex Caruso wouldn’t have done much better with how the Kings handled Keon this season. The Cavaliers have utterly fleeced us, this malpractice of the FO should be investigated.

If the Cavs would be smart enough to actually use him, he’d give Derrick White a run for his money as the best 3&D guard in the east, he is a shooting guard that defends like a hound, makes incredible effort, super smart to get steals and deflections, and shoots the 3 like a demon.

His biggest weakness is his size and his lack of ability to create shots for himself. His best ability is making incredible impact on the floor without ever needing the ball in his hands. Every championship team needs this kind of guy

What trades have the Wolves been involved in since hiring TC, have been leaked to the media ahead of time?

The Gobert trade and the KAT deal both materialized out nowhere and got done within a day of first rumors.

I disregard any Wolves leaks as just speculation based on how tight of a ship Connelly runs.

They have Jaylen Clark for a guard defender with poor offense already. I would assume they are more focused on finding a ball handler.

Only reason I knew is bc a good portion of the Thunder sub think you can’t have too many undersized defensive guards and wanted to Trae for him

Yeah, i assumed it was Keon, and then they said “first round pick,” and i was like, “oh, i must be wrong. What other Ellis is in the league?”

Because you’re focusing on this year. I mentioned this to someone yesterday but this year’s minute splits in Sacramento are absolute insanity.  This years stats are not an indication of any player’s ability. Last year from Jan to the end of the season which is a 49 game sample size, he was hitting 2 3s at 44% and getting 1.7 steals per game while being the primary defender on ball handlers. And that’s not all. The last 2 months of the year before when he actually got minutes, he was hitting 1.9 3s at 45%. That’s a 23 game sample size too. Another 1.6 steals per game while committing under 3 fouls per game. 

He’s a low usage plug and play 3nD guard who has shown an ability to get lots of deflections and hit 3s at a very good rate. He’s just hasn’t gotten a chance to do it consistently in Sacramento where dougie for some reason thinks sabonis/precious/derozan/lavine/Westbrook is their best lineup. None of those guys is a plus defender. Outside of Lavine none of those guys is a great shooter. None of them should in the long term plans of Sacramento but here we are. 

wtf monta ellis doin in trade rumours in 2026

Why do yall speak about Keon and his abilities so disingenuously like that… what about his last two full seasons where he had real playing time and a role? Oh right, 2nd in the league in deflections behind only The Great Barrier Thief, over 1.5+ steals a game, over 40% from 3 on great volume & can put the ball on the floor when needed.

Only using this year and his few minutes in this chaos rebuild year is shenanigans, be like randomly taking 3 weeks of Wemby not scoring 20+ every game and saying “he ain’t shit”

I mean fwiw the author in the full piece already introduced his full name. It’s fine to be just Ellis after Keon Ellis was named, and this headline just pulls a quote. Would have been nice for OP to do some bracketed editorializing, but sometimes mods get freaky about titling convention

Swindled how. Hunter sucks

Hunter didn’t work, they needed a defender like Ellis and with Garland’s injury stuff and Ball falling flat, they needed a back up pg. They also shed a lot salary in the process.

Cleveland won the trade. Ellis isn’t that good but Hunter is genuinely awful

Also they got a good backup PG in Schroder which they really needed

Do you actively judge every defender based on their lowlights ?

Every good defender gets blown by sometimes

I too remember whenever an all-nba offense player beats a defenser. That never happens!