By Geoff Lepper
48minutes.net

Your daily guided tour through the national and local media coverage of the always-entertaining Golden State Warriors.

PRINT MEDIA
San Francisco Chronicle (Rusty Simmons): I know there’s space to fill, but let’s cut to the chase: Monta Ellis is light years away from being named an All-Star.
As of Dec. 10, Ellis was at best 12th in the fan balloting for a starting spot, with less than 75,392 votes and a deficit of at least 206,153 to make up. (The reason we don’t have precise figures is that Ellis lags so far behind that he DOESN’T EVEN QUALIFY as one of the 11 leading vote-getters the league lists.)
The coaches, meanwhile, won’t even give a nanosecond of consideration to a guy from a team with a .269 winning percentage.
I’m sure the Warriors front-office likes to read the glowing quotes, but there is no chance whatsoever Ellis — or any other Warrior — becomes an All-Star until the team gets back on the right side of .500. None.

Contra Costa Times (Marcus Thompson II): Marcus recaps the expected returns later this week of Andris Biedrins and Ronny Turiaf, but drops this little nugget in the third graf: “… said guard Monta Ellis, who added that he will play tonight against the Memphis Grizzlies despite a contusion on his thigh that kept him out of practice Sunday and Monday.”
Hold up, what? It’s not even Christmas, and we’re already to the point where the lead dog has to sit out the practices in order to maintain his health for game days? And it’s an all-road back-to-back? Hoo boy. This is gonna be fun.

WEB MEDIA
Dime.com: Hey, at least Monta gets some love on the Lottery Bound All-Star Team.

BLOGOSPHERE
Inside The Warriors/Contra Costa Times (Marcus Thompson II): See yesterday’s commentary regarding similar quotes in the Chron from Don Nelson on how Anthony Randolph is going to be “blessed” as a player. Here’s one thing I haven’t seen addressed — if Randolph’s improved mid-range jumper (which, unfortunately, still hovers at the 30.0 percent mark in the 16-23 foot band) and ballhandling skills are the reasons he’s having success, then wouldn’t it make more sense to keep him at C, rather than put him up against PFs who are typically more agile and able to defend such a skill set? (To be clear: I’m not advocating that, because I think the Warriors will continue to sport a .269 winning percentage until they are able to defend and rebound on the defensive end, and having Randolph at PF alongside Andris Biedrins or Ronny Turiaf only helps in that area, but still, offensively … it seems like the move will make it tougher for Randolph to repeat the things flashes he’s had over the past few games.
Again, I’d love to see it, love to see it be successful, think it will eventually be successful — either in Oakland or on some other team. But I’ll believe Nelson when I see the results, see him give Randolph the latitude to play through mistakes as he relearns PF. Doing anything else would just be asking for a letdown.

CSNBayArea.com (Matt Steinmetz): Talking about the big men’s return and the Randolph re-birth.