In 04-05 Maggette averaged 22.2 points in 66 games while playing out of position at SG.  Before the 05-06 season Brand and Maggette were marketed as the Clippers complementary stars, and the big questions were whether Cassell and Mobley could be team players and good for chemistry, and Liv's injury problems.  And I should add that at this point I was in awe of Dunleavy, a 100% supporter, although I wasn't sure about his handling of Chris Wilcox, but he had done so many things so well that he was sitting on a giant pile of goodwill.  And at MD's urging, Brand shot out of the gate in fall 05 like a man possessed, and his handling of Cassell and Mobley was expert, chemistry was excellent, and the team was clearly at a new level.  They got off to a great start.  And Maggette was injured after 10-15 games.

We all know what happened from there.  I gave Dunleavy credit for getting Radman for Wilcox, and I'm not one of those who got stuck on the Ewing substitution, although having watched Dunleavy blow the 4th quarter against the Lakers he seemed to have a penchant for finding a way to lose.  But my belief is that you take the playoffs one step at a time, gain experience and learn how to win, and it seemed like the Clippers were on their way.  Maggette made some great contributions coming off the bench in the playoffs.

But I had certain Wilcox-era misgivings about MD's approach going into 06-07.  He didn't play Korolev in Russia, which seemed odd, and then didn't play him in the preseason, continuing to give big developmental minutes to journeymen wing players who would never make the team.  In general the Clippers didn't seem to be reacting well to their new status as an upper eschelon team.  I was still willing to give MD the benefit of the doubt, but from the beginning of training camp there seemed to be a gigantic double standard with Ross and Maggette:  MD badly wanted Ross to be a player that he was not, and wasn't going to give Maggette credit for being the player that he is.

I believe Dunleavy made an major error in judgment, and got way ahead of himself.  He thought the Clippers could be the Spurs and that Ross would be as effective as Bowen (Bowen made 89 3s last year, Ross made 2), and that Maggette could have the flexibility of a Ginobili or Jerry Stackhouse and do his damage in the 2nd and 4th quarters.  That was the plan, but it didn't take into account the fact that Brand, Kaman, and Cassell weren't the players they were the year before.  And it was aggressive and destructive psychologically to Maggette.  Instead of being sensitive, Dunleavy was stubborn.  And he sacrificed the most promising season in Clipper history because of it.

Basketball reflects basic human psychology.  Dunleavy was giving QRoss every opportunity, and at the same time he was expecting not just complete professionalism, but also psychological vitality from a player he was browbeating. When his plan wasn't working, he expected nightly cavalry charges from this player, while never showing any flexibility about making changes.  Maggette had seen what Dunleavy did to Wilcox, and he just didn't expect that he would receive that kind of treatment.  Ginobili was always an underdog, dark horse, and hustle/momentum player; Stackhouse was traded to a team that had a better player (Finley) at his position.  Maggette was a 20+ ppg starter who was trying to become an all-star alongside EB.  He thinks he can be Vince Carter or Paul Pierce if he's healthy.  He lost his starting job because of INJURY.  The Ross experiment might have worked, and it was worth trying for perhaps 5 games.   But it didn't, and how many times did we hear at the beginning of last year about the Clippers getting off to mysterious slow starts.  There were always excuses, Brand did too much in the offseason, the trip to Russia, Cassell and Kaman were banged up.  But there was never a solution, and never the obvious one:  put your best players on the floor, start the 20+ ppg scorer instead of the 5 ppg guy.

Maggette shouldn't have had to play his way into the starting lineup.  He had nothing to prove.  He obviously has the mentality of a scorer and a starter, that's who he is.  For any basketball player, sitting on the bench and losing minutes is difficult.  Maggette sat behind Odom, DMiles and QRichardson and earned his minutes the hard way.  He felt he had arrived, and he remembered going into the 05-06 season when he hoped to be an all-star.  And then, as the so-called 6th man, not only is the team getting off to slow starts, but Tim Thomas and Liv routinely go in the game before him.  Dunleavy keeps Ross and Mobley on the floor as much as possible, even when they're not very productive.  And Maggette plays on a very short leash, one or two bad plays and he's often out of the game and starters are back.  Some nights are better than others, but the main problem is the lack of consistency and a supportive atmosphere.  When you start, you know what the game is going to be like, how you like to try to get into your rhythm, who you'll be playing with.  Coming off the bench is completely different, and some players are naturally better at it than others.  Some are better at it by necessity, because they could never crack the starting lineup.  Dunleavy thought that Maggette could be that kind of player, but he was wrong.  And he was wrong about all sorts of other things, but he wouldn't change course, wouldn't give up.

Playing on fresh legs against inferior competition in the 2nd quarter is a more complicated equation than it seems.  My view is that Dunleavy created an environment and situation where he expected his starters to thrive and Maggette would be expendable.  MD was confused and willful when his starters failed to perform as expected, and the psychological gamesmanship with Maggette had reached a level of advanced toxicity.  With some guys you say you're the guy, I believe in you, and I know you'll do your best and work hard for me.  Dunleavy has done that to a remarkable degree with Kaman, he did it with Cassell and Mobley and got good results, and he worked well with Brand.  He stuck with Tim Thomas, and kept playing him through some very weak stretches, while Singleton, Davis, and Korolev got single digit minutes over the course of weeks.  And he simply decided to give his support and encouragement to Ross, while denying it to Maggette.  I think that and the historical context above explains how and why Maggette played poorly at the beginning of the season.  The reasons are primarily psychological, and don't seem illogical to me at all.  And it crushed Clipper fortunes and hopes and angered a lot of fans like myself.  But I also know that everybody sees players in different ways, and there's another side to this argument, and some people will always see Maggette as the problem, not the solution.

And this being the Clippers, irony takes the day.  So much of what MD coveted and loved has been taken from him:  EB, Liv's unlimited potential, Kaman's slow rise, eager innocence  and increasing focus.  And now he has little except for what he so actively rejected and disdained, a Paul Pierce-like star in Maggette, with no strategy left except to give him the green light.

John R (err, MDSr), enough of the silliness.  Please. The only one who's "hating" is you.  

Let's look critically at the situation.  I think that it is almost universally accepted that MDSr incorrectly benched and unprofessionally handled Corey Maggette, his second best player, and the team's second leading scorer, last year.  Corey played as well as he could despite the fact that he did not start as he should have.  As a result, the team tanked.  He was out there for much of the time with the second unit, such that it was.  Corey would come in at the end of the first quarter or beginning of the second quarter, invariably when the team was losing.  

The fact they were losing as a result is not surprising to those of us who understand the game since the Clips had only one consistent scorer out there to start the game.  That's not conservativsm.  That's stupidity.  Maybe MDSr thought that Kaman and Mobley would be proven scorers last year.  If he did, when it became obvious by 12/1 that they were not he should have moved then.  

Conservative play wins, John R?  Please explain what you mean by the term.  (I have a feeling that we'll be waiting a long time for your "explanation.")  The teams that you reference all have three proven scorers and multiple all stars.  Two proven scorers, at least, are in the starting lineups for all of those teams.  To contrast, the Clippers have no all stars, two proven scorers, and benched one of those.    

What's conservative about benching one of the two proven scorers on your team in favor of an inconsistent defensive stopper?  In short, it's not conservative, it's stupid.  Did that win for the Clippers last year?  Clearly the fact that MDSr was forced (by Sterling) to reinsert Maggette into the starting lineup answers that question.  

Do we really need to get into the Ewing / Raja Bell nightmare?  Great conservative play calling there.  

MDSr spent much of last year trying to get STerling to trade Maggette for his own son, MDJr. (i.e., nepotism).  Sterling told a friend of mine that he wasn't going to bow to MDSr's constant pressure no matter what.

IMO the Clippers should buy out MDSr as soon as possible and spend their money a real coach who commands the respect of the players and who doesn't make bonehead moves. Yes, MDSr opened up Sterling's checkbook but unfortunately he's squandered that opportunity.  Let's use this lost year to rebuild the entire team, including the coaching.