Catchup: The Maggette Trade

Take a breath, young basketball fan. Pull your eyes away from the glitz and glamour of the freshly underway free agency season; divert your thoughts from idle fantasies of superstars and fresh starts and hypothetical 73-win teams. Far below all the churn, far below where even the sunlight can reach, the Golden State Warriors franchise inches along, as unattractive and irrelevant as ever.

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.

Let's Make A Deal

The Broussardian revelation that the league's best team has interest in Corey Maggette is exciting, to say the least. But here's the thing: a ball-dominant small forward is not exactly the kind of thing the Cavs are lacking. While Maggette is very good at what he does, his skill set doesn't marry all that well with Cleveland's current attack. Sure, he could provide offensive focus when LeBron's off the floor, but considering that LeBron has averaged about 44 minutes per playoff game over the course of his career, do they really need a B-team stud?

The Cavs may like Corey Maggette, but they'd love a big man. As such, the Warriors should offer them one. The Warriors should propose Corey Maggette and Ronny Turiaf for Zydrunas Ilgauskas. Like, now.

I love Ronny Turiaf. Love. He is my dirtiest dog; he is my brother from another mother. But let's be clear: there's not much point in a terrible team holding onto a consummate complementary piece like Ronny Turiaf. Ronny was put on this earth to be the third guy off the bench for a Finals contender, which is exactly what he was before the Warriors got their grubby off-brand paws on him. Ronny Turiaf on a 14-37 team is like a maraschino cherry on top of a cowpie. He can help the good get a bit better; he can't help the bad get good.

If the Warriors traded Maggette and Turiaf for expiring money, their '10-’11 roster would look like this:

Monta Ellis ($11M)
Andris Biedrins ($9M)
Vladimir Radmanovic ($6.9M)
Kelenna Azubuike ($3.4M)
Brandan Wright ($3.4M)
Stephen Curry ($2.9M)
Anthony Randolph ($2.0M)
Anthony Morrow ($1.0M cap hold/qualifying offer)
TOTAL: $39.6M

In other words, the team would have seven promising young players locked in (Monta, Biedrins, Curry, Randolph, ‘Buike, Wright, this summer's draft pick), plus Vlad (every rose has its thorn)… before extending Morrow, the Warriors could fit in a free agent who costs around $10 million. The Dubs could top the MLE, and in this free agency market, that could be worth something. Could it net you a David Lee or a Boozer? Who’s to say — quite possibly not. But it’d be an interesting amount of space in an interesting summer.

So, yeah. If I’m the Warriors, I double down here. I offer Ronny along with Maggette and promise to buy out Z within seconds. This is the trade; this is the moment; this is the window. The Warriors need to try their hardest to make this happen.

Trade Maggette, Already!

I'd really love to hear Craig Finn sing Corey Maggette's name. Where do you go to get that done? Is there a service where you can pay to make him sing certain syllables? Anyway, point being: it's still time to trade this guy. (Maggette, that is, not Finn -- I would NEVER trade Craig Finn.)

There's no reason to think that a fairly expensive, high-usage, bad-defense small forward will be a great fit for these Warriors anytime in the next couple years, and there's plenty of reason to think that his trade value will only go down from here. I really like Corey Maggette, and continue to think that he's badly misunderstood and underrated. But context and fit matter. And whether you're looking to buy this team or sell it, you should want that contract off the books, for expiring deals if possible. There aren't many places you can send him -- most bad teams aren't about to take on that kind of money, and most good teams are set on the wing -- but two plausible options remain, options where the Warriors would receive expiring deals in return.

1) Corey Maggette to Dallas for Josh Howard. Mark Cuban is getting antsy, and Maggette would give the Mavs needed offensive help. Their stat-nerdy front office would probably blanch at his defense more than most, but would also appreciate the value of his offense more than most. Howard's deal expires this summer.

2) Corey Maggette to Boston for expiring scrubs. The Celts would probably prefer a Hinrich type, but worth looking into. This trade would force the Warriors to waive two players to stay within roster limits, but it's getting to be that time of year... with no blockbusters on the horizon, saying goodbye to Speedy, Raja and even Devean is in the cards.

In both cases, it would be worth throwing in CJ as a sweetener if necessary. I also like CJ, but his upside isn't all that high, and the handwriting's on the wall for him here, to boot. He'll be leaving town as soon as he's able, and the Dubs should trade him for value while they can.

Larry Riley, your team is 13-35... now is no time to get timid about sucking. HOLD STEADY. Make things worse, so that they someday might get better. Trade Corey Maggette, and increase the chances that this pitiful team might enjoy a constructive summer.

The Maggette Fallacies

Our man Corey has been getting a little recognition of late, as will often happen when you average 28 points over the course of a month. It's nice to see an oft-maligned player get some credit. But much of this recent praise has been as wrongheaded as the criticism that preceded it... a year and a half into his Warriors tenure, most fans are still not seeing the guy with clear eyes. As such, it seems like a good time to identify and eradicate the ten most common misconceptions about Corey Maggette.

1) That he only recently became good. Corey Maggette didn't just get good in January... this is the third straight month that he's shot over .540 from the field. He didn't just get good this season, either; while his .640 TS% would represent a career-high, he's been over .580 in each of the four previous years and stands at .581 for his career (the 44th-best mark in league history). When you account for pace, you find that he's scored this often before, he's rebounded this well before, he's passed this well before (actually much better than this), and he's defended this well before. His current level of production is in keeping with what he did in his last five seasons with the Clippers. Corey Maggette is a good player, and has been for years... if you play him at his natural position (something that you'd think wouldn't be all that hard), he will help your team win games.

2) That his selfishness hurts your offensive rhythm. Offenses always profit from the presence of Corey Maggette. This season, we score 4.6 more points per 100 possessions with him on the floor than we do without him. Last season -- his least effective in six years, as he was injured and playing out of position -- we scored 1.1 more points per 100 possessions with him. The '07-'08 Clippers scored 4.8 more points per 100 possessions with him; the '06-'07 Clippers scored 4.4 more points per 100 possessions with him; the '05-'06 Clippers scored 7.4 more points per 100 possessions with him. Every offense he's ever played for, good or bad, has scored more points when he played, and more often than not, his presence has made a big difference, to the tune of four points per game or more. I don't know about you, but I measure "offensive rhythm" by how good a team is at scoring, y'know, basketball points. And Corey Maggette, both through scoring efficiently and pushing your opponent towards the penalty, always helps you score points.

Let's Get A Gun.

The big NBA buzz of the day comes from Utah. The Jazz have apparently come to grips with the mediocrity of their current roster... as such, they're looking to make some moves and shed some payroll, with only Deron Williams deemed untouchable. There are two caveats: they'd like to remain somewhat competitive, and they want to shed payroll this year, to limit their luxury tax penalties. That makes things a bit tricky, as plain old expiring contracts will not help them. The only way they can significantly ease their '09-'10 burden is by acquiring contracts they won't actually have to pay in full: non-guaranteed contracts, partially guaranteed contracts, and contracts that are largely covered by insurance.

Happily, we have one of the latter: Speedy's contract! His expiring deal nets him $5.2 million, but as his injuries have prevented him from playing, insurance covers 80% of that cost. In other words, Speedy has a $5.2 million cap hold but only a $1.04 million price tag, making him an automatic money-saver for any team that acquires with him with real contracts. This is exactly the kind of deal the Jazz are looking for, and there aren't many like it in the league.

In other words: pick up the phone, Larry Riley, and get Kevin O'Connor on the horn. It's time to try to leverage Speedy's contract into a deal that helps us. It's time we tried to clear our future books... and it's time we tried to land a stud in the process. A complementary player better-suited to our needs than almost any other. A guy who doesn't need the ball in his hands to be an effective player. A guy who doesn't need a coherent scheme around him to be a defensive asset; a guy who defends the rim, and yet has a better assist/turnover ratio than any Warrior except for CJ. A guy whose winning ways are evinced by his having led his perennial playoff team in net plus-minus in five of the last six seasons.

Start Corey Maggette. Constantly.

The Nellie meme that I find the most tiring, save the one about how he should be something other than fired: the endless talk about his creativity as a coach. It's not that it's strictly untrue... even now, he will still bust out some interesting little plays once or twice a game. There is still a great basketball brain buried somewhere beneath all of that flesh and dishonesty and recently-savored gin and apathy and evil and partially-digested lobster-topped skirt steak. But Nellie's current overarching game plan is about as uncreative as it gets. Facing the Cavs? GO SMALL! The Pacers are banged-up? GO SMALL! Spurs are in town? DID I STUTTER I SAID GO SMALL! That shit ain't exactly "Up." I wish Nellie actually would try something genuinely weird, as opposed to the same failed attempt to create mismatches night after night after night.

You know what really would be weird? You know what would be weird and might actually work?

Turning Corey Maggette back into a small forward, and starting him.

Every quarter.

Franchise Fix #6: Clear The Decks

Franchise Fix #5: Know Your Star

Franchise Fix #4: Select A Core

Franchise Fix #3: Set A Date

Franchise Fix #2: Let It Rain

Franchise Fix #1: Fire A Legend

Franchise Fix #0: Where We're At

As our reality gets more noxious than ever, our hypothetical Worriers front office keeps chuggin' along. But where the previous Fixes have generally been no-brainers and easy tweaks, we now face the first genuinely tough choices of our administration.

Let there be no mistake: I like Corey Maggette. I like the calm, dogged way in which he makes basketball unwatchable... I get a kick out of the constant "this can't be happening" look of shock he gives the refs. I respect the fact that he has accepted a new and ill-fitting position, a bench role and a dramatic cut in his minutes without ever complaining, and I resent that he doesn't get credit for that. I also like C.J. Watson. I like his stoic, dorky gaze and ill-advised faux-hawk; I like his willingness to take big shots in big moments; I like the mix of can-do truisms and trash-talk that is his Twitter feed. These are two of my favorite Warriors.

I also recognize just how much they contribute to this misbegotten team. Maggette and CJ are two of the three most underrated Warriors, the other being Brandan Wright. All three of those guys help us far more on offense than people seem to realize, and hurt us far less on defense than people seem to realize; when healthy, all three are unequivocal assets. When I see that Maggette and CJ rank first and third on the team in Win Shares and second and third on the team in Win %, it doesn't surprise me. Maggette has quite possibly been our best player this year, and Steph Curry can't currently hold CJ's jockstrap. These guys are good players. Good guys. Good Warriors.

So when I say that Franchise Fix #6 is trading away Corey Maggette and C.J. Watson, it's not because I dislike them or that I think we'd be better without them. I would hate to see them leave, and in the short term, their departures will make us much, much worse. But to make our '11-'12 omelette, these are the first two eggs we'll have to break.

In Defense Of Corey Maggette

Marcus Thompson had a nice feature about Corey Maggette up yesterday, that has inspired discussion at GSOM and elsewhere. A lot of the talk focuses on what a dandy guy he is -- that he's a good teammate and runs his own charitable foundation and buys the guys Louis Vuitton and P.F. Chang's and whatnot. The suggestion is that you shouldn't boo a guy like that just because he takes some ill-advised jumpers. And I'd tend to agree: save your booing for wrestling shows, people, because God knows they could use some heat these days. But I'm not interested in defending Corey Maggette the person. I'm interested in defending Corey Maggette the player.

Let’s be very clear: what Corey Maggette does on offense works. It’s ugly as hell when he's hitting and downright nauseating when he isn't, but it is absolutely effective. Maggette’s career true shooting percentage is .577, the 49th-best figure on record (meaning since 1977). Over the course of his career, Maggette has been a more efficient scorer than Karl Malone, Pau Gasol, Carlos Boozer, Chris Paul and Michael friggin’ Jordan. Monta got a $66M contract based on a year with a .580 TS%, a figure that’s increasingly looking like an outlier in the context of his career… Maggette has scored more efficiently than that in five out of the last seven years. The worst TS% of Maggette’s career is .553, recorded during his rookie season. That’s not only well above league average, it’s higher than any season total Baron Davis or Stephen Jackson has ever recorded. And this year, Maggette’s at .578. It’s not like he’s lost a step.

The impressive thing about Maggette’s efficiency is that he keeps it high despite shooting so often. Corey is also 56th-best in the league in usage since 1977, using 25.4% of his team’s possessions. Call him a gunner if you like, but when a guy scores this efficiently, you want him shooting a lot. Maggette not only scores more efficiently than Ray Allen, he scores more often than Ray Allen. In fact, only seven players have scored both more efficiently and more often than Maggette since 1977: Adrian Dantley, David Robinson, ‘Zo, Shaq, Dirk, Yao and Amar’e. That doesn’t mean that Maggette is actually the eighth-best scorer of the last thirty years, because he’s not… combining the lists unfairly cherry-picks in his favor. Still and all, this guy has been a truly elite scorer for a long time. If any Warrior has earned the benefit of the doubt when making offensive decisions, it’s him. Yet Warriors fans have less patience for him than for anyone.