The Maggette Flap

“Corey Maggette is precisely the same player today that he was in Los Angeles — an efficient, albeit single-dimensional, scorer. The notion that anyone should be surprised, alarmed, outraged, or disappointed that Corey Maggette won’t hit a cutter, pass out on a drive, or generally do anything in the halfcourt that makes his teammates better, is absurd.”

Indeed.

Though I’d quibble that Corey can make his teammates better in the halfcourt (in the right system) in two ways:

1) Getting his team into the penalty earlier, which brings about extra FT’s for his teammates.
2) That he demands coverage means his man can’t leave him to help, letting his teammates play a more advantageous 4 on 4.

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More generally, efficient one-dimensional players really need the right system around them to succeed.

Corey is a hatchet, not a Swiss Army knife, and the Warriors suffer from a lack of versatile tools at the moment.

To leap off of Petey’s comment, what is this right system?

MDSr and Nellie run completely opposite systems and the results are about the same. In fact, given increased freedom, Maggette’s FG% has dropped somewhat this year. MDSr’s inside out game marginally helped Maggette by putting him in those positions to magnify his talents. Wing isos and getting Corey moving after a post entry pass so he only needed one dribble to get to the hoop.

Players are who they are. Coaches don’t matter. Systems don’t matter.

But here is the remaining question: When Corey’s athleticism starts to fail, and it may during this very contract, will he be able to remake himself ala Brent Barry, or will he fall off a cliff as he is increasingly forced to rely on that streaky jumper?

I’m grateful that is no longer a concern for the Clippers.

“But here is the remaining question: When Corey’s athleticism starts to fail, and it may during this very contract, will he be able to remake himself ala Brent Barry, or will he fall off a cliff as he is increasingly forced to rely on that streaky jumper?”

I think we all know that Corey will highly likely be overpaid in the last year or two of his current contract.

“Players are who they are. Coaches don’t matter. Systems don’t matter.”

Mildly disagree.

Corey does what Corey does at a semi-elite level. It’s beyond his pay grade to find a way to employ his talents in a winning formula. Just because it’ll likely never happen in his career doesn’t mean someone couldn’t have found a way to do it. There are worse problems than finding a way to deal with a guy who can score the basketball in volume at high efficiency.

Or, put another way, Rajon Rondo is who Rajon Rondo is, but in the system he’s playing in, he’s better than he really is.

Leave Maggette alone. Please. We’ve got handful of problems right here in LA.
Heaven’s sake don’t drag GSW into our ditch.

Maggs is Maggs and regardless of whats written and whats said he played hard and long for the Clips, albeit in his own style. Take a least 6 wins off last seasons tally if he wasn’t on court.