Detroit trades Ben Gordon + future 1st rounder for Corey Maggette

[jsab4807]

https://twitter.com/WojYahooNBA/stat...69658181361664

[whitney777]

The NBA always has weird trades for salary cap purposes.

[key2win]

Sources: Pistons deal Ben Gordon, protected pick to Bobcats for Corey Maggette - Yahoo! Sports

I cant wait until Gladdy sees this thread. LOL! He must love this trade. Leave it to the Bobcats to do something stupid again.

NEW YORK – The Detroit Pistons have traded Ben Gordon and a lottery-protected draft pick in 2013 to the Charlotte Bobcats for Corey Maggette, league sources told Yahoo! Sports on Tuesday night.

The deal will save the Pistons approximately $14.7 million on the two years remaining on Gordon's contract. He's slated to make $25.6 million over the term of his deal.

Maggette has $10.9 million left on an expiring contract.

After signing a five-year, $55 million free-agent contract with Detroit in 2009, Gordon struggled in his three years with the Pistons. He averaged 12.5 points per game a season ago. Gordon had been one of the league's prolific young scorers in his first five seasons with the Bulls.

Maggette, 32, will join his sixth NBA team. He averaged 15 points for the Bobcats last season.

The Pistons' draft pick is also protected through the eighth selection in 2014 and No. 1 in 2015. It is unprotected if the deal extends to 2016.

[gladdyontherise]

Michael Jordan is my hero.

[jsab4807]

If the Pistons weren't dumb enough to give Ben Gordon a huge contract in the first place, they wouldn't have had to give up a 1st rounder to move him.

[arod1973]

I think its a good move for Charlotte...They get a proven scorer who only has 2 years left on the huge deal anyway plus a Draft Pick..

It's not like Charlotte needs the money right now...no one is going to come there as a free agent..they need to build through the draft...

I was actually hoping the Bulls would go back after Gordon, they could use a 2 guard..though his defense has always been a huge issue..

[gladdyontherise]

If the Pistons weren't dumb enough to give Ben Gordon a huge contract in the first place, they wouldn't have had to give up a 1st rounder to move him.

You're 100% right, but atleast now they got rid of the deal. Bobcats will end up getting that pick next season though, I'd guess.

[wheeler281]

too much for Maggette but like Jeremy said they had to package the pick with Gordon, Great move for Charlotte!

[leiber88]

Pick wont be for at least 2 years since Pistons will be in lottery next year.

[key2win]

NBA Sunday: Retirement Near for Maggette? | HOOPSWORLD | Basketball News & NBA Rumors

This new should make Gladdy happy. It least means Maggette wont be there for more than one season. LOL!

The Detroit Pistons are, to put it bluntly, in a bit of a funk as a franchise. While drafting Greg Monroe clearly has worked out well for them, the rest of the team is an odd mixture of veterans on the downward slope of their careers and young players who have yet to tap into their potential.

Corey Maggette, acquired this summer in a salary-shedding deal that brought in his expiring contract in exchange for the considerably more expensive Ben Gordon, appears to be a member of Column A. That doesn’t mean he’s heading into this season with designs of cheering from the bench in street clothes, however. Maggette still thinks he has some juice left in the tank, and the Pistons will swear they made the move for his veteran presence just as much as they made the move for his desirable contract.

Either way, he’s grateful for a fresh start, even this late in his career.

“It’s year 13 and still counting,” Maggette told HOOPSWORLD. “It’s a new team and we have a lot of good young talent there.”

Monroe is among that good young talent, but players like Brandon Knight and Andre Drummond show promise for the future, as well. However much he may play this year, Maggette is looking forward to helping these kids grow.

“[I want to] help out the young guys,” he said. “I was with the team for the last couple of weeks, training with the guys and getting familiar with them. We’ve got a great nucleus, a lot of good people there. I’m just looking forward to the season.”

Last season, Maggette played just under half of the Bobcats’ 66 games because of nagging injuries, so the fact that he’s as healthy as he’s been in almost a year means he should be looking forward to the season. His lone season in Charlotte was not productive in so many ways, but if he’s going to have any success in Detroit, the first step will be keeping that knee in proper working condition.

“I’m just trying to stay healthy and keep my body in shape,”Magette said. That’s the biggest thing as you get older. I had surgery on my knee this offseason, so I’m making sure that’s alright. I’m taking it slow, but it’s pretty much healed. You just have to be a little bit more cautious as you get older.

“For me, it’s more about longevity and being able to watch these young guys grow as I continue my career.”

But how much longer will that career continue? Maggette doesn’t know, and he probably won’t have much of an idea until he’s able to test his degenerating body over the course of a full season. Retirement, he admits, is an option.

“I work hard, but we’ll see how long I want to go on after this year,” he said. “We’ll go from there.”

Detroit isn’t expected to make the playoffs this season, but it’s definitely a better situation than the one he faced in Charlotte last season. At least the Bobcats’ record-setting badness allowed him to stay out of uniform long enough to properly heal, and that should help him have some measure of success in a Pistons uniform this fall.

If nothing else, the Pistons saved themselves some money by offloading Gordon’s extra year, but they certainly hope they’ve gotten more than an expiring contract in Maggette.