Tuesday, June 22, 2010

corey maggette

Warriors Trade Corey Maggette to Milwaukee for Gadzuric, Bell

corey maggette
Just two days before the 2010 NBA Draft, league movement is picking up as the Warriors have agreed to trade small forward Corey Maggette to the Bucks for center Dan Gadzuric and wing Charlie Bell, reports Charles F. Gardner of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel.

The Bucks also pick up the No. 44 pick in Thursday's draft from the Warriors. Golden State grabbed that pick in a Monday swap with Portland, in which the Warriors gave the Blazers the No. 34 pick for No. 44 and cash.

The rumored deal drew attention early Tuesday before being completed in the evening.

The Warriors signed Maggette to a five-year, $48 million contract back in 2008, just after Baron Davis split for Los Angeles. It was considered a rich deal at the time, and last January we placed Maggette No. 9 on our Top 10 Most Difficult Players to Trade list. Despite the gaudy salary, Maggette does what he'd always advertised: he scores the ball in prolific fashion, and does so as efficiently as almost anyone else. The price may be steep, but you're getting something for those dollars.

His defense is worse than circumspect: he's a big minus on that end, which figures to draw concern from Bucks coach Scott Skiles, who won't hesitate to bench someone giving less than their all on defense. Optimists would argue Skiles will be able to milk some effort out of Maggette on that end, but seeing is believing, and we haven't seen defense from Maggette in years.


As for the players coming back to Golden State, we have two words of description: cap space. Gadzuric will see his long, lucrative deal end next summer. Bell has a player option in 2011-12 for $4.1 million he'll surely pick up. All told, the Warriors will take on an additional $1.5 million in salary this year but save more than $6 million in 2011-12 and $10.9 million in 2012-13.

Maggette could be seen as a replacement at the two-guard for John Salmons, the wing who Milwaukee acquired just before the trade deadline. Salmons helped the Bucks go on a magnificent tear leading up to the playoffs, where Milwaukee pushed the Hawks to seven games despite the injury absence of star pivot Andrew Bogut.

As reported by FanHouse's Chris Tomasson Tuesday, Salmons has exercised his opt-out clause and will be an unrestricted free agent as of July 1.

The Warriors have the No. 6 pick in Thursday's NBA Draft. The Bucks are scheduled to pick 16th.

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