Write back at you: on Corey Maggette's role and nickname and skepticism over Brandan Wright

August 3, 10:07 AMGolden State Warriors ExaminerMatt Steinmetz

Previous Next

6 comments Print Email RSS Subscribe

Subscribe

Get alerts when there is a new article from the Golden State Warriors Examiner. Read Examiner.com's terms of use.

Email Address   Include other special offers from Examiner.com Terms of Use

These are "Mags"

As always, thanks for taking the time. Onto them:

WARRICK WROTE: I agree with the comment above, finger pointing will be at Monta Ellis not Corey Maggette. Ellis is the consensus replacement of Baron Davis as the PG and the franchise player. He’s the one getting the big bucks now. Mags is seen as the 2nd option on offense at best. I also bet against your prediction of coach Don Nelson using Mags as center next season. Thats going too far, Mags doesn't have the ability or skills necessary to play center. He has the strength but he is lacking everything else. Stephen Jackson is taller than him, and I never recall Sjax playing center. I could see him at PF though but that is pushing it. Saying Mags could play center is like saying that Andris Biedrins will play some wing position next season. However, since Nellie already won his 6 plus mil from Mark Cuban there is no telling what he would do. I agree though with your take on how Mags will help our half court offense.

MS: I'm making it official. If you're going to call Maggette "Mags" you've got to use two G's. From now on it's "Maggs." Don't you think it looks better? And we ain't talking mag wheels are we?

I’m not going to deny that Ellis is going to feel some heat if the team struggles, but I’ve got to disagree with a couple of your points.

First, why do you say Maggette is the No. 2 option? Maggette was the No. 11 scorer in the league last year, averaging 22.1 points per game. Do you really want Ellis trying to figure out the point guard position AND thinking he’s got to be the No. 1 option. Obvoiusly, this will all be figured out, but for simplicity sake at this point Maggette should be your No. 1 guy.

I’m also not sure why you’re scoffing at the notion of Maggette playing center. Al Harrington has played a fair amount of center under Nelson, and I don’t see a real big difference between the two if you’re going to go that route in the first place. Heck, Nelson had Davis guarding Marcus Camby last season.

By the way, before Biedrins came over, he did play on the wing as a teenager in Riga, Latvia. Warriors president of basketball ops Chris Mullin talks a lot about when he first went overseas to scout Biedrins and he was more perimeter than post.

This is "Maggs"

PETER S. WROTE:  Way to cover yourself Matt since you have said maybe one or two good things since Mags has signed. Having said that, good analysis in this piece. It really isn't fair that people will see him as Baron's replacement. But he should produce points and free throws and I am excited about that...

MS: Friendly reminder. We're using "Maggs." Just because I’m not crazy about how much money the Warriors paid for Maggette doesn’t mean the guy is useless. He has some positive qualities and talents that might dovetail nicely into what the Warriors are trying to do. It doesn’t have to be great or terrible, it can be somewhere in the middle … tilting some toward terrible.

I don’t think Maggette is a $10 million player. But he’s going to have an opportunity to do more than just score here, and it will be interesting to see how he responds. Will he be able to bring anything else to the table besides scoring?

If he can’t, his contract will hurt more by the year.

And this is Bosh, not Wright

FULMINATING WROTE:  Why are you so negative about Brandan Wright now? The guy was 19 and 205 lbs in the NBA last year yet his per minute statistics were excellent--better than Chris Bosh's as a frosh! You can't blame Wright for Nelly's insistence that Mickael Pietrus was a PF and that Harrington is a C. The lack of impact is a result of a lack of playing time--not the other way around.

MS: It’s not so much negative as trying to present another side of an argument. Nelson has caught tons of heat during his career and in the past couple of years here for not playing young players. Much of it fair.

OK, so he’s tough on rookies, etc. But he’s milked Biedrins and Ellis, two very young players, for everything they’ve been worth. Kelenna Azubuike had no NBA experience and Nelson threw him in there and gave him a shot.

The other side of the "Nelson is tough on rookies" argument is that Wright didn’t make himself valuable enough to play … or wasn’t good enough to play. I just refuse to believe it was as simple as Nelson didn't like him because he was young. 

There’s a hunger and inner fire issue with Wright. He had nagging injuries as a rookie and not all of them were the “hiding on the injured list” variety. He’s got small hands _ can’t even palm the ball _ which hurts him when finishing inside.

And he hasn’t yet shown he will be able to knock down a 15- to 18-footer with any kind of consistency. He’s going to need to do that in order to be more than a role player. I know he's young. I know he's got upside. But there haven't been enough signs, and Wright needs to take some of the responsibility for that.

♦ MASTERMIND: Good catch. Yeah, I omitted Deron Williams from this free-agent ranking list. That makes the list an even dozen. But so we don't have to change the order of anyone behind, how about we make Williams, who signed a four-year, $68 million extension with the Jazz, 1A? Thanks for reading.