Doug Christie needed someone he could count on to handle whatever came his way. He wanted to revive the Sacramento Kings’ defense and needed someone he could push, prod and critique and be met with a nod.
Now the interim head coach of the Kings after Mike Brown was fired in late December, Christie wanted someone to guard the stars. The Kings had a few injuries and needed a defender who could make life hard enough for the opposing ballhandler to let the Kings offense do its thing.
Over the past few weeks, Keon Ellis has established he is that guy.
Christie knows this role well. It’s what defined his NBA career as a player.
He was a Kobe Bryant stopper once upon a time, the defensive stalwart on the early 2000s Kings teams that battled Bryant’s Los Angeles Lakers during their three-peat run. He filled a similar role to Ellis, hitting his 3s and driving the energy on defense.
It was hard to understand why, after Ellis showed he could be an effective starter late last season, Brown wasn’t committing to Ellis this time around. He decided to take Kevin Huerter out of the starting lineup in early December, giving Ellis a brief trial run before settling on Malik Monk as the replacement.
Christie knows Ellis’ features and faults well. He was in the staff meetings where Brown would map out rotations and understood the rationale for Ellis’ erratic role. His defense was swarming in some ways but needed refinement in others.
He would overrun closeouts and rotations, commit predictable fouls and have a few tells to cue scorers on how to get by him. But there was so much upside if he could get room to fail.
Christie gave him that, recognizing that the team needed to embrace mistakes if things were going to improve.
“I think anybody, if you can go out there and not mistake worry, it just opens up another level of confidence for you,” Ellis told The Athletic. “(Christie) told us from day one that mistakes are going to happen and don’t look at (your teammate), he just watched it too. Just go out and don’t let it happen again and try to learn from it.”
With Keegan Murray sitting out with left ankle soreness, Christie called up Ellis to the starting lineup and the second-year guard responded with four steals in a win over the Philadelphia 76ers on Jan. 1. When De’Aaron Fox went down, Ellis remained in the starting lineup and the Kings went on a six-game winning streak, moving from 12th to ninth in the Western Conference and back in playoff contention. The highlight was Ellis’ 15 deflections in a double overtime win against the Miami Heat on Jan. 6, pushing him up to second in the NBA in deflections per 36 minutes.
“He’s one of those players that has those things you really can’t teach. It’s just an instinct,” Christie said. “He has the slipperiness to get through screens and then he has the heart to just play until his tank is empty and I truly appreciate that.”
In the one game since Christie’s promotion in which the Kings were healthy, Ellis returned to the bench. In the next game against Milwaukee, he was back as a starter and put up 18 points in a loss to Milwaukee. Things are likely never going to be stable for Ellis, but he continues to work through it as his teammates praise his willingness to take what he’s given.
“He’s been a professional,” Domantas Sabonis said. “For the past couple of years, the ups and downs, he’s stayed working, staying ready and he’s taking advantage of the opportunity.”
In the game against the Celtics, Ellis was supposed to sub back in for teammate Devin Carter but told his coach to let Carter stay in the game because he was playing so well. Whatever the role, starting or on the bench, Ellis embraces it.
“It doesn’t play with his ego that way,” Christie said. “He plays for his teammates and he’s a joy to coach and a joy to be around.”
Most players who just earned a temporary promotion wouldn’t be so willing to let go of their minutes. Particularly with how Ellis’ minutes have been 10 minutes one night and 30 the next this season.
“I think you just gotta understand it’s a team game. So whatever the coaches are seeing, I don’t get mad at that,” Ellis said. “I just roll with it and know my time will roll back around. It’s a team sport, so just go out there to encourage the guys that are on the floor because they’re the ones that are gonna win it for us.”
Ellis has a lot of work to do to become a true defensive ace, but this stretch has been a reminder of how he transforms the Kings on that end. Sabonis has shown signs of improvement guarding the pick-and-roll this season, but Ellis’ ball swarming has made his life easier.
Ellis is good at swiping for deflections at the point of attack, often deterring ballhandlers from attacking their first option as intended. While he gives up some dribble penetration as one of the league’s lightest players at 175 pounds, he can defend from behind and get a hand on the ball to disrupt the play and clean up his miscues.
“Domas and everybody is like don’t worry about things going wrong. Just play hard,” Ellis said. “It just gives you more confidence to go out there and play your game and don’t worry about mistakes.”
Ellis faced a true test of his veracity as a starter when the Kings visited Boston last week. The Celtics put Ellis to the test right away, having Jaylen Brown hammer him in the post on their first possession of the game. The Kings guard kept getting buried in the paint, so Christie went over to talk to Ellis at the next timeout to share some perspective.
“I’ve stopped the best players in the world, in the history of this game, and that happens,” Christie said. “Guys are going to get the best in you. I believe in you. Don’t foul. There are different ways that we want to cover him, so go to a second way. Use your toolbox too and communicate with your teammates. That’s what he started to do.”
Christie told Ellis not to worry about Brown scoring because it was keeping the Celtics from getting up 3s anyway. Sure enough, the Kings ended up outshooting Boston from beyond the 3-point arc and won convincingly.
Ellis didn’t care that he struggled to defend early on or even ceded his minutes to his teammate. He was just happy to be making a difference for a team rolling for the first time all season.
“Winning feels good,” Ellis said. “We’re connected right now. But we have to continue to fight.”
(Photo of Steph Curry and Keon Ellis: Eakin Howard / Getty Images)
