Monday, July 11, 2011

Introducing Corey Maggette

Corey "Bad Porn" Maggette, perhaps known more for his infamous nickname, has always been an enigma in the league.

How does he score points? How does he evade paying child support for Jarrett Jack?

82games breaks down players' scoring tendencies down per possession to uncover these ugly tricks. For Bad Porn, his game is overwhelmingly simple: get fouled. Last year, 09-10 season, he was fouled on over 20 percent of his possessions. To break that down for you, that lead to him attempting the 9th most free throws in the league that season -- putting up a stat line at times that looked more like LeBron James than the Jerry Stackhouse-stylings observers have expected over the years.

In a perfect world, this sort of foul magnet witchcraft would be useful for the Bobcats' stagnant offense. But much of Maggette's effectiveness was limited this past season on the Bucks. It seems that the slower, more Bobcats-esque pace of Milwaukee removes much of Bad Porn's effectiveness. Playing on the lightning fast, VMI-style (side note: it's also worth mentioning Keith Benson and the Oakland Golden Grizzlies, Golden State's home city, both play at similarly electric paces) Warriors allowed Maggette to hide his defensive failings as well as rack up fouls against the weak-in-general league wide transition defenses.

Simply put, Maggette is good at abusing poor transition defense. Teams that don't get back quickly will find Maggette driving quickly and wildly towards the basket, awaiting a pass for an ugly transition jumper that looks like some slanted horror out of Dr. Caligari's Cabinet. But Bad Porn is only able to do this if his team is willing to run uptempo.

The Bobcats are one of the slowest teams in the league, and that pace does not look to accelerate with players like Kwame Brown anchoring our defense. We are expected to be a half court team regardless of the rumors swirling from the Charlotte front office.

Expect Bad Porn traded midseason (if there is one). I don't think he's part of MJ or Richard Cho's plans for a competitive 'Cats.

Post-Jackson, Post-Wallace, Post-Felton

The trio that made our magical '09 run special have all but left us. What remains is a skeleton crew of young player with upside (Augustin, Thomas, Henderson), a who's-who of underachieving journeymen (Kwame, Maggette, Matt Caroll) and a couple of highly-touted rookies (Walker, Biyombo).

This new crew, along with the recent addition of Richard Cho, gives me hope for a future years down the road. Perhaps we will see our obvious tanking makeup reap long-term rewards.

I'm excited to watch Corey "Bad Porn" Maggette brick layup after layup. I'm pumped to watch Kemba Walker's stepback jumper get blocked every attempt because he's like 5'9. I'm wet with perspiration just thinking about Biyombo's ability to dunk a lot.