Posts tagged CoreyMaggette at FanHouse

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Yesterday we had the overview; today we have the predictions. The Pacific Division appears to be no better than a two-team race, with a third team potentially in the mix, and the last two teams, well, finishing in last. Let's start things off in the cellar and work our way up, shall we?

The Los Angeles Clippers (again, regal) are going to have a tough go of it due to the enormous drop off in talent they have between their starting lineup and the players coming off the bench. In fact, if you want a visual of said drop off, go watch this, and pretend the guy jumping off the building is falling in the space between the talent of the Clippers' starting players and that of their bench players. And the parachute not opening represents the gigantic FAIL that the Clippers can expect this season anytime the bench takes the floor to try and hold onto a lead. It's not going to be pretty, folks.

Up north where the Golden State Warriors play, it won't be pretty either, at least for the first few months of the season. That's because their best player (apologies, Mr. Maggette) decided to engage in low-speed moped riding during the off-season (this still amazes me ... the moped = injury part), which will lead to his absence from the lineup, and an unavoidably bad start for the Warriors.

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A season ago, the Pacific Division was able to send just two of its teams to the playoffs, but one of them went all the way to the Finals. And while that's not likely to change this season -- at least the part about the two playoff teams -- each club definitely has its share of intriguing story lines.

Let's start off in Los Angeles, where the Lakers' playoff run last season took place with one of the team's key components on the sidelines. There are always many stories in Laker-land, but a lot of the team's fans seem to be most interested in this one: With the return of Andrew Bynum, do the Lakers have a shot to win 70 games?

Despite the recent flood of positive Andrew Bynum stories hitting the L.A. papers lately (seriously, his P.R. machine is working overtime), I'm not convinced that his addition to the lineup automatically makes the Lakers unstoppable. There's the whole thing about figuring out how to co-exist with Pau Gasol, and how Lamar Odom will perform (likely) playing further away from the basket. When you add in the fact that even if the team was capable of winning 70 games, there's really no motivation to do so, unless someone else is on the same ridiculous pace and it would mean home court advantage.

Chris Mullin is a rock. He is an island.

He is incredibly chill about losing his $66 million point-guard for 4 months.

As reported by the irreplaceable Tim Kawakami, Mullin told local reporters that though disheartened by the loss of Monta Ellis for the start of the season, he is not in panic mode. Kawakami reports that Mullin and Don Nelson are looking at their options, including inserting Marcus Williams as starter, or going to a bigger lineup with Stephen Jackson and Corey Maggette. Mullin also said he will be going to a long-scheduled meeting in Chicago with former Clipper Shaun Livingston. Livingston, as you may know, kind of has his own injury issues to work out, but Mullin says he's not in any rush because he "has enough ball-handlers, even without Ellis."

While the Warriors are archetypically comprised of big men that can run and score, they still need a central point guard, and preferably one with speed, to execute Don Nelson's offense. The idea of a Stephen Jackson-Corey Maggette-Brandon Wright/Anthony Randolph-Al Harrington- Andris Biedrins lineup is fascinating, though. It would be like a fleet of giraffes. Not going to frighten you in any respect, but you will stop and watch it for a while, just because it's so bizarre. My first thought when I heard about the Ellis injury, other than "Fate is cruel" was "They should look at Livingston." Livingston had a ton of talent and potential before his knee exploded like the Fourth of July, and he's worth taking a look at.

Hey, at least you can see the worst case coming in that scenario.

And the hits just keep on coming.

Less than two months after losing Baron Davis in free agency to the Los Angeles Clippers and anointing Monta Ellis as their point guard of the future (a risky proposition in and of itself), the Golden State Warriors have now lost Ellis to an ankle and shoudler injury for 3-4 months, keeping him out until near the beginning of the year at least.

ESPN reports that Ellis was scheduled to undergo surgery on Wednesday to repair a torn deltoid ligament, and also has sustained a severe ankle sprain that will require his leg to be immobilized for six weeks. That would be when training camp starts, for those keeping score. The injury occured when Ellis was working out at home in Jackson, Mississippi.

So just to review, the Dubs lost their star player to free agency, signed Corey Maggette who's not really considered elite by anyone's standards, almost lost Kelenna Azubuike to an offer from the Clippers before matching, traded for the Nets' Marcus Williams, and then started to hear Stephen Jackson grumbling about his contract. Now they are face to face with the reality that their $66 million dollar investment is down and out for the first two months of the regular season at least. So if you know a diehard Warriors fan, you might want to give them a call, send them a candygram, possibly talk them off the ledge. The sky may not be falling, but it sure looks closer than it did three months ago.

No, silly Europeans, Andris Biedrins is for Nellie!

The Warriors shored up their remaining free agent quandary today, according to the infinitely reliable Marc Stein over at the WWL. Stein says the Dubs have given Biedrins a 6 year, $63 million contract, with a player option for the fifth year. Tim Kawakami respectfully disagrees with Stein's report on the amount, putting the number at $54 million. Six years, $54 million seems a little more reasonable for the top big man on a team that was, you know, kind of terrible at both defense and rebounding. Still, Don Nelson is big on Biedrins, and after Baron Davis absconded to LA, the Warriors needed to shore up their roster in-house.

It's unknown at this point what effect Biedrins' position on the NBA Overseas Defection Watch had on the urgency for the Warriors to get the deal done, if any, but anyway, go ahead and cross him off the list. And, barring injury or a team losing their mind in a trade (we're looking at you, Atlanta), this should pretty much lock up the Warriors roster next year, with both Anthony Randolph and Richard Hendrix signed. So for better or worse, it's Monta Ellis, Kelenna Azubuike, and Andris Biedrins resigned, Mickael Pietrus and Baron Davis gone with the wind, and Corey Maggette and Ronny Turiaf newly acquired. Your guess is as good as ours as far as next season goes.

Apparently Chris Mullin enjoyed his time in Vegas, got some time in by the pool, then came home and decided to clean the slate on his offseason To-Do list all in a matter of days. Here's a little sneak peak at that list.

1. Match Kelenna Azubuike.
2. Re-sign Monta Ellis to a 6 year, $67 Million contract.
3. Pick up dry cleaning.
4. Send basket of rotten fruit to Elgin Baylor.

Well, you can scratch out #2, as today the Warriors agreed to just such a contract with Ellis. Which is good, because as Tim Kawakami put it tonight, if they hadn't, they wouldn't be "a real franchise, anymore." After Baron Davis skipped town (sorry Warriors fans, I'm not trying to keep bringing it up, but it kind of caused a ripple effect), the Warriors needed to batten down the hatches and take care of their roster. And while the biggest acquisition they got was Corey Maggette, they did lock up a young scorer with incredible speed and considerable upside for six years, along with Ronny Turiaf and securing Azabuike.

The question now becomes if they overspent on Ellis, which is something only Ellis can decide. Have I mentioned this kid needs a nickname?

The Clippers have apparently decided that the rest of their cap space would be best spent on the Warriors' restricted free agent Kelenna Azubuike. L.A. made a play for their second player from the Bay area this summer by offering Azubuike a three year deal worth $9M.

The Warriors are loaded at Azubuike's position (he can really play the two or the three), and with guys like Stephen Jackson, Monta Ellis, and Corey Maggette all likely to be ahead of him in the rotation, I'd say that there's a pretty good chance of the Clippers getting their man here.

As a side note, the fact that Azubuike had his best game of the season against the Clippers probably helped him out a little at the negotiating table. Kelenna poured in 33 points on 12-17 shooting in his team's second game of the season, punctuated by this highlight-reel-dunk on Chris Kaman.

Remember a while back when Gilbert Arenas was thinking about not blogging anymore? Contrary to what we all believed, it appeared that he didn't enjoy all the attention from the media he received when he said something that was perceived to be wacky or downright controversial. Well, after a hiatus of over two months, Gilbert is back with a monster effort that deals mostly with his international tour for adidas. But there are also some gems in there where Gilbert gives his opinions on some of the recent free agent moves that have gone down.

Besides basically saying that he doesn't see the Elton Brand, Baron Davis, or Corey Maggette deals as being the best fit for those respective teams, he also breaks out the laughter when thinking about the deal that sent Richard Jefferson to Milwaukee.

Richard Jefferson going to Milwaukee .... HAHAHA! Oh man, now that is funny. When I heard that, I started laughing. Oh man, did I start laughing. You know why? Because every player hates Milwaukee. Nobody wants to live in Milwaukee. I'm sorry, Milwaukee, to come down hard on you, but no one in the NBA wants to play in Milwaukee. From him going from New Jersey, actually from New York (because he lives in New York), from New York to Milwaukee is like going ... let's just say it's not going to sit well with you. That was a funny one when I heard that one.

While this is something we discussed at the time the trade happened, it's pretty hilarious to see Gilbert going LOL on the deal and adding in the part about every player hating Milwaukee. The Bucks and Wizards always seem to play extremely competitive games; this recent post from Gilbert will simply add a little something extra to the fire.

[via SLAM]

After losing Baron Davis and losing out on Elton Brand, most pundits have quickly assumed the Warriors would stay true to their lottery roots for the immediate future. Chris Mullin insists he'll be able to keep restricted free agents Monta Ellis and Andris Biedrins, and the likelihood of the Lakers matching Ronny Turiaf's offer sheet looks smaller and smaller each day. Corey Maggette is in town, and Don Nelson has been saying Ellis will be able to play point full-time for the Dubs.

Could this team actually be pretty good?

If preseason prognostications are iffy, ones made in the middle of July are downright laughable. But hear me out. Davis was an elite point guard -- a potent scorer, an efficient ball-handler, a strong rebounder, and a good passer. His shooting, though, is suspect. Ellis is also a strong rebounder, he cut his turnovers way down last season, and he's almost as potent a scorer as Davis already, at age 22. While Ellis doesn't and probably will not rack up assists, he's a much more efficient shooter. He boasts no range but realizes this and refuses the three ... unlike Davis, who despite mediocre three-point shooting percentages his entire career still took a third of his shots from deep last year.

The central question that will decide the immediate success of the Warriors: do the other players need a point guard to set them up? Maggette is already a firm 'no.' He played with some unholy combination of Brevin Knight and decrepit Sam Cassell last year, and had some of the best scoring and shooting numbers of his already-strong career. Stephen Jackson's basically a point-forward who has little trouble creating.

Biedrins could use some inside dishes, but currently gets most of his production on clean-up duty. No one knows who will get the heavy minutes at power forward -- Al Harrington could be shipped out, Brandan Wright may or may not be ready, Turiaf figures to be a bench player.

Losing Davis hurts, because he combined with Ellis created one of the most potent backcourts in the league. But the quality of the new Warriors could surprise you. Depending on the rest of the West, Golden State could still threaten playoff contention.