FanHouse Corey Maggette

SEATTLE -- Jamal Crawford may be the league's most talented player yet to play in an All-Star Game or even a playoff game. Once a skinny, inexperienced but immensely talented 20-year-old tabbed part of the Bulls' post-Jordan resurrection, Crawford is now 29, just completed his ninth year in the NBA and at a crossroads.

He has a monumental decision on his hands in the next five weeks: Opt out of the final two years of his contract and become a free agent or return to an uncertain situation in Golden State, a team rich with talent but lacking direction after the firing of GM Chris Mullin who lost a power struggle with upper management.

One question for the San Antonio Spurs: Now what?

Sure, it's possible the Spurs can put together a nice effort on their homecourt in Game 5 on Tuesday night and push their series against the Mavericks to a sixth game in Dallas.

And maybe the Spurs could even follow that up with an unlikely Game 6 win on the road and make their first-round series a seven-gamer.

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As teams get eliminated from the 2009 NBA playoff picture, Fork 'Em figures out what went wrong.

Stuff definitely went wrong for the Golden State Warriors this year. The only real question is whether the trouble started when Baron Davis left or immediately afterward.

There will be an eternal debate in the Bay Area about whether or not the Warriors should have kept Davis, or at least made a better effort to keep him. Instead, Davis signed with the L.A. Clippers in July, and the Warriors' 2008-09 was irreparably altered.

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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.

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]

There has been lots of debate about Elton Brand "stiffing" the LA Clippers this past week. Some say he owed nothing to the team (or Baron Davis, if he did coax him to signing there); some feel he's a first class jerk.

Many people bring up what Carlos Boozer did to the Cavaliers a few years ago. Boozer had a *wink wink* deal with them to let him become an unrestricted free agent and then he'd resign with them (they could have kept him for $695K that season, but the Cavs were generously going to lock him up for $39M over six seasons). Once Boozer lost his restricted tag, he bolted to Utah.

And what do these two have in common? They both went to Duke.

Coincidence? Maybe. However, that fact isn't lost on a lot of people ... including those at the Hardwood Paroxysm who goes as far as calling these two "a-holes". And before you get your panties twisted, the guy who wrote that is a Duke die-hard.

This NBA free agency thing has been absolutely bonkers, hasn't it? Baron Davis opts out, signs with the Clippers. Elton Brand now has no reason to leave, as the Clips finally got him some help, so he goes ahead and ... signs with the Sixers for similar dollars. Huh? Corey Maggette, despite all the rumors, takes the big payday with Golden State.

And we're not finished. There's still the matter of Josh Smith and Andre Iguodala, as well as smaller pieces like James Posey, Sasha Vujacic, and Ronny Turiaf. Madness, people. Join me and my fellow FanHousers at 3PM EST to discuss.

After being left at the alter by both Baron Davis and Elton Brand, the Warriors finally found someone willing to take their money: Corey Maggette. According to the Los Angeles Daily News, Maggette agreed to a five-year, $50 million deal immediately after the Warriors learned that Brand had committed to the 76ers. Interestingly enough, he apparently jumped on the offer before giving the Clippers, who were also spurned by Brand, a chance to retain him.

Until this opening with Golden State, it looked like Maggette's best options involved taking the mid-level exception from one of the handful of interested contenders pursuing him, including the Spurs, Celtics, Pistons and Magic. He'll make a lot more money with the Warriors, but he'll also win a lot fewer games -- instead of battling for a title, he'll be in a fight to simply make the playoffs.

That said, it's not fair to say this simply came down to money, as the Warriors were also able to offer a lot more playing time than anyone else. With those other contenders, Maggette would have been a fourth or fifth option in the starting lineup -- if not relegated to the role of a super sub. But with the Warriors, Maggette has a chance to be "The Man," especially with Monta Ellis almost certainly taking on more of a distributor role in Davis' absence.

Not everyone thinks Maggette is up for being a team's No. 1 option, but it's hard to argue with his production or the fact that he's a perfect fit for Nellieball. He's uber-athletic and can shoot from long-distance, and while his defense is underrated, he won't be asked to play much under Don Nelson anyway. The Warriors still need a legitimate big man, but the Warriors could have done a lot worse than snagging Maggette.