I don’t think that there’s any question that we don’t have a plan. Keeping him won’t fool anyone into believing that we do.

he has really shown that he can be valuable to pretty much any team as a 6th man. That said, in games where he’s absent, you really don’t miss him that much. He is one of the best iso players, but his passing ability, court vision, selfishness, make him not really an asset to the team, just instant scoring…

If we could trade him (along with a few others benchies) to get that coveted PG we all know we need, I’d do it in a heatbeat. I’d also not mind having him for another few seasons if we can’t trade him.

Comparing Jax’s shot selection to Maggs misses a bunch. Maggette is scoring 19 points on 13 attempts, getting to the line regularly and coverting 47% of the shots he takes. That’s ridiculously efficient. Jax is hiting about 41% of his shots and takes 4 more attempts to score 2 more points.

That’s the real problem. He won’t sustain this for the contract because guys his age don’t. If there’s a buyer willing to take on his salary for a marginally useful piece in return, it’s going to be better for long term management. He’s playing real well, but at 34, I wouldn’t expect anything close to this.

I’m not contending that Maggette’s at the level of Duncan and Chauncey. I was responding to this specific point by jae:

He won’t sustain this for the contract because guys his age don’t.

The riskiest year of Maggette’s contract is the fourth one — his age-32 season. Jae’s point is that most guys get significantly worse at that point. I think he’s overstating the case. Here are all the players in the league, good and bad, that are 32 years old:

Kevin Garnett, Stephon Marbury, Raja Bell, Brad Miller, Tim Thomas, Wally Szczerbiak, Chauncey Billups, Maceo Baston, Jeff Foster, Rasho Nesterovic, Brian Skinner, Greg Buckner, Damon Jones, Vince Carter, Eduardo Najera, James Posey, Rafer Alston, Raef LaFrentz, Michael Ruffin, Calvin Booth, Tim Duncan, Matt Harpring, Antawn Jamison.

A lot of these players are bad, but that’s not the point. The point is, how many of these guys are dramatically worse than they used to be? Not too many, that I can see. LaFrentz is done, of course, and Marbury is Marbury. Duncan and Garnett have each maybe lost a step, but they’re still two of the ten best players in the league… Carter and Billups are playing as well as they ever have. Most of those guys are pretty much doing what they usually do. Being 32 isn’t as much of a death knell for NBA players as it used to be.

There are three caveats I can think of, none of which strike me as terribly important.

• “You’re forgetting all the guys who washed out of the league by 32. Most players aren’t even playing more at that age.” True. But Maggette is a guy who has played at a fairly high level, year in and year out, for about a decade. Guys like that don’t tend to wash out of the league by 32. The crop of players listed above is the most appropriate group to measure future Maggette against.

• “Maybe these guys’ stats are still okay, but their defense has gotten worse as they’ve aged.” Possible… I think there’s something to the idea that defensive ability goes first. But Duncan, KG, Billups, Bell and others on this list still seem up to the task. More to the point, this is Corey Maggette. What defensive ability does he have to lose?

• “Corey Maggette is way more banged-up than almost all of these guys.” This is the most salient point. A lot of these guys actually are pretty banged up — Duncan and Garnett have quietly taken horrible poundings over the years, and guys like Bell and Posey are extremely physical players — but Maggette plays a more physical style than most. He’s a good bet to miss 15 or 20 games every year.

But every time Maggette gets hurt, he comes back at his previous level, and that’s not a fluke. As his guns can attest, the guy is a gym rat… he’s more committed to physical conditioning than most guys on the above list. He knows how to play hurt, and how to play well hurt (it’s not like he’s currently healthy). His injuries conceal the fact that he’s actually one of the more consistent players in the league… he’s turned in the same pretty-good season for years on end now. What he does works. He needs strong legs to do it, but he’s kept those legs strong despite a bunch of injuries to them.

That’s not to say that he couldn’t get hurt to the point where he misses a season or retires. Any long-term NBA contract’s one freak injury away from being an albatross, and Maggette’s a somewhat better candidate for a freak injury than most. Barring that, I’m not convinced that we’re going to see his level of play downgrade significantly over the next couple years. When the guy gets hurt, he tends to get healthy again, and to play exactly the way he’d been playing.

Is it a great contract? No. A good one? Not really. Should we trade him if we can? Sure… ’Buike’s not as good yet, but he’s cheaper, younger and healthier. Point is, the Maggette contract’s not a guaranteed disaster for the franchise. There’s a good chance it works out just fine.

or momentum changes. or was it more stat stuffer stuff?

the ball movement is way better without him. now if he was driving and kicking out to morrow for 3, i’d be impressed, i’ve never seen that. i wonder how much more of an impact morrow would have if those ball hogging players would just pass him the ball. he slows down the offense, we have to many talented players for any one individual pound the rock. did u see how stale the game against the clippers got when maggette kept charging into people, even barnett and fitz commented.

Oh yeah, I forgot. You won 48 games last year and made the second round the year before that without shooting a lot of free throws. I think the 110 points allowed per game have a lot more to do with the losing record than not getting to the line, unless you get to the line about 50 times per game. And the point is when he shoots all those free throws it ruins the tempo of the game that the Warriors need to be successful. Phoenix was last in the league in free throw attempts for the past several years and have been one of the elite teams in the league, hell they got screwed out of at least one trip to the Finals during that span. Amount of free throw attempts isn’t necessarily important, it’s team percentage.

because the Warriors’ half court set involves ball movement, which Maggette ruins every time he gets his hands on the ball. The team is at its best when everyone is touching the ball and it is swinging.