Larry Riley, pre-draft talk: On Klay Thompson, Biyombo, and “very likely” not trading Monta Ellis

Very little wind-up necessaray to the following partial transcript to Warriors GM Larry Riley’s 55-minute pre-draft session with writers.

He said it’s “very unlikely” that Monta Ellis would be traded on or before draft night, and said two reports about specific trade talk were “fabrications.”

You can take that however you want to take it, but didn’t sound like an absolute rule out to me, and I don’t believe Riley’s the one who can rule it out, anyway.

Riley also noted that he, owner Joe Lacob and new coach Mark Jackson were all big fans of Ellis.

Interesting to note the names of front-office people that Riley did not list as Ellis’ top fans.

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Q: You’ve said you’re not shopping Monta Ellis. Have you fielded calls on him? Are teams asking, ‘What will it take to get Monta Ellis?’

-RILEY: No, nobody’s saying, ‘What will it take to get Monta Ellis?’ We’re in a situation where the calls are no more than they normally are right around the trade deadline…

Let’s face it, I like Monta. But Mark Jackson likes Monta and Joe Lacob likes Monta. This is one of those things where there have been at least two stories that were absolute fabrications.

Some of those things that are coming out that are even an insult to the people on the other side.

-Q: So are you saying Monta will not be traded on draft night?

-RILEY: Oh, it’s very likely that he will not be traded on draft night or even through the summer. I’m not looking at that happening. It would take something that I don’t see for that to happen.

-Q: Can you describe what the conversations have been like with other teams?

-RILEY: Mild inquiries where people try to steal him because they think that his name’s out there… Somebody’s trying to create the atmosphere that we’re going to trade him. Somebody wrote the other day that we’re going to get 70 cents on the dollar or something to that effect. I don’t think it was any of you guys.

Listen, how many guys are better than Monta Ellis at the 2-spot? We’re OK… Yes, we’ve got to help our defense. But Mark Jackson likes him. The coaching staff, which is only two guys right now, feels like they can play with our two small guards.

And a lot of people are now looking at what Dallas did in the playoffs. How many 2-guards are better than Monta Ellis? It’s a darn short list. Maybe two or you can talk to some people who’ll say three or four. I would say he’s in the top five 2-guards in this league.

He’s pretty special and we would be stupid to deny that we have a special player in Monta Ellis.

-Q: If you keep Ellis and Curry, can you afford to draft another player who is suspect on defense?

-RILEY: That’s up to Bob Myers. (Silence, and then laughs.)

-Q: What?

-RILEY: No. That’s a fair question. How do you create either enough cap space if there is a guy available in the summer and all of that kind of thing, or how do you make a trade to go get somebody that makes a difference sitting behind those guys defensively. And that’s the thing we’ve been working on diligently all spring.