This repellent franchise has, however, made a rather interesting excretion in recent weeks. After a throat-clearing cash-netting second-round pick downgrade, the zombie FO sent Corey Maggette (and said downgraded second-rounder) to the Bucks for Dan Gadzuric and Charlie Bell. Maggette is a very good player coming off of a career year... by several metrics, he was one of the 25 most productive players in basketball last year, and he was certainly the most productive player on the Warriors. Gadzuric and Bell are scrubs, and bad ones. Maggette is a favorite of this blog; conversely, players don't get any more boring than Bell and Gadzuric.
Personally, I don't like this trade.
I love this trade. I would pick this trade up at the airport during rush hour. I would accompany this trade to "When In Rome", and like it. I would help put this trade through medical school. While this trade sits near the window, reading New Kings Of Non-Fiction, I would sit and stare at the sunlight glinting through the trade's auburn hair, with a dopey grin on my face. I am head over heels for this trade.
How do I love this trade? Let me count the ways:
1) Cap relief. About $15.6 million of it, to be exact (warning: not exact). As a result of this swap, the Warriors' payroll actually rises a bit this year, but shrinks by six million in '11-'12 and almost eleven million in '12-'13. More flexibility, less ballast for a prospective owner to take on.
2) The end of smallball. In the nightmare scenario where Nellie continues to coach this team, he'll be deprived of the weapon he most egregiously misuses.
3) No other talent lost. The Randolphs and Wrights of the world weren't needed to sweeten this deal... the Warriors didn't cost themselves any other chips here. (Okay, yes, the second-round pick. But a team that's been able to grab CJ Watson, Anthony Morrow, Reggie Williams and Anthony Tolliver from the free-talent pile shouldn't be leery of giving up a second-rounder. Let's all take a breath here.)
4) More playing time. Some have suggested that the Warriors now need a small forward... these folks may want to work on their counting skills. If anything, the Dubs still don't have enough minutes for Monta, Morrow, 'Buike and Reggie Williams, the latter of whom would have been buried on a healthy and Maggette'd Warriors roster. That would've been an idiotic waste of resources, given the polish Reggie showed last year.
5) Signs of sanity. After the relinquishing of Baron and the dumps of J-Rich, Crawford and Jack, you might've forgiven the front office for not wanting to be raked over the coals yet again by shipping a name out of town. But they stayed the course and did the right thing here, PR be damned. The impending sale of the team actually has the front office operating with a coherent philosophy for the first time in over a decade... these guys have committed to a fire sale, and the franchise will be better for it.
6) Greener pastures for Corey. Maggette now joins a rising Bucks team that he'll fit like a glove; between him and Drew Gooden, they've already done enough in this offseason to put them in the 50-win tier for next season. Corey Maggette's second trip to the postseason is just about assured.
When it happens, get ready for a raft of articles claiming that "Corey Maggette has finally learned how to win." When you see the articles, recognize them for the inane and simplistic nonsense that they are. Corey Maggette is not Jamal Crawford... he's not a guy whose teams have lost partly because of his presence. He's a guy whose teams have lost despite his presence, whose teams have been crappy enough to outweigh the contributions of one of the fifty greatest scorers the league's ever seen. Corey Maggette knows how to win, and always has. It's his teammates and coaches who haven't figured it out.
In his two years in Oakland, Corey Maggette played through a cascade of injuries, always with a smile on his face. He played out of position over 70% of the time, seeing more minutes at center than at his original position of shooting guard. He was a well-liked teammate, an energetic contributor in the community. Most of all, he scored often and efficiently... his .615 TS% last season was the best by any swingman. And yet, when he was traded for trash, the response of many Warriors fans was, "Good riddance: that bum doesn't know how to win."
Corey Maggette is now on a team with some talent, coached by a man that actually tries to earn his paycheck. In that environment, he will excel, both in the regular season and thereafter. And while many ignorant fans will never know better, here's hoping some haters recognize the truth.
It wasn't you, Corey... it was us. You deserved better. And I, for one, am glad to see you'll finally get it.
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