And I’m telling you: CJ Watson and/or Belinelli are going to have value at some point…

Would anyone care to see a Monta Ellis tribute since one of the most exciting players in the game is going to be shelved for awhile?

Both Turiaf and Mullin have stated that he has more offense than he showed in LA, and the dude scored 16 ppg on a Gonzaga team that also had Adam Morrison. He runs the floor well and is an underrated passer, and could easily set career-highs around 9 points, 5 boards, 1.8 assists, and 1.6 blocks in just 22 minutes of action. Not bad if you ask me.

RE: Jackson vs. Maggette…

The short answer is: I think Maggette is a safer pick this year. Let’s start with their contracts. Maggette just signed a lucrative long-term deal that many people are questioning. This means A) Nelson & Mullin think he’s a great fit for their system, B) Maggette is excited to play run & gun and will want to prove the haters wrong, and C) Corey will get plenty of minutes.

Yes, I’m projecting more minutes for Jackson, but if one of them suddenly sees his minutes drop to 30, it will be S-Jack, NOT Maggette. Why would I even consider that a possibility? Well, I’m not expecting them to win as many games this year. They’ll fight for that 8th spot once again, but they’ll likely have more bumps in the road this time. The W’s roster is incredibly young (Maggette, Harrington & Jackson are the only guys over 25), so plenty of mistakes will be made along the way. And if the Warriors are down 20 points and playing poorly, Maggette will have no problem staying in to “get his,” but Jackson would rather be on the bench.

Do NOT underestimate the fact that Capt. Jack blossomed when he teamed up with Capt. Baron. Stephen is expected to be one of the leaders once again, but he’ll likely be more volatile with Baron gone. And if the Warriors are out of the playoff hunt sooner than expected, I think Jackson will sit more often to give guys like Belinelli & Randolph more minutes (again, Maggette will stay in because of 50 million reasons). So I downgraded Jack because of all that.

But if you want to look at stats, you should first look at the 2.5 threes made (his best category) and 36.3% 3P for Jackson last season. Both were career-highs, and both are likely to fall in ‘08-09. Stephen’s assists could go up with Baron gone, but I expect the rest of his numbers to decrease as well.

“and they have same FT%…”

C’mon now D. Jackson’s 5.1 FTA last season was a career-high, whereas Maggette has attempted over 8 freebies per game for 5 years in a row and shot over 80% FT for 7 in a row. Mark my words: Maggette will MAKE twice as many free throws as Jax ATTEMPTS this season. If you compare their ppg from last season, Corey’s 22.1 doesn’t look much better than Jack’s 20.1. But in ‘08-09, I’m expecting that to be much closer to 24/18 in favor of Maggette. Big difference there. And did you miss the part where I said the Warriors were 2nd in steals last season? Their transition offense relies on them forcing a lot of turnovers, so I fully expect Maggette to set a career-high in steals as he gambles more often defensively.

All that being said, there’s only a one round difference between the two! Both guys are solid fantasy picks, and if you want to draft Jackson before Maggette, you shouldn’t hesitate to do so because of my August “round by round” suggestions.Sure, additional unwritten thoughts are going into every decision, but my October rankings could look very different.

Reading their career stats, last year stats and last three years stats, in my opinion, Jackson is slightly better or better in BPG, SPG & APG and Maggette is slightly better or better in RBG and PPG, Maggette is considerably better in FG% and Jackson is considerably better in 3PG… and they have same FT%…

If you really expect couple of minutes more playing time for Jackson where you expect a substantial improvement in Maggette’s stats (or the opposite for Jackson) to justify slating Maggette a round earlier compared to Jackson?

I agree GSW paid way too much for Maggs and I’m not sure the Roni don’t call me Roni Turiaf is going to be much of an impact player. yeah, he is high energy and he does get blocks, but he is not much of an offensive threat. Maybe he will surprise me with more pt.