If there is one thing people who are huge fans of sports love doing is they always try to find a comparison between two players. It is an easy way to connect the history of the game and the guys playing right now. Even if the comparisons aren’t 100% accurate, it allows people to bridge that gap.
In his prime, Corey Maggette was one of the most physically talented athletes in the NBA. He had the perfect height and weight for a wing player at 6’6 tall and 225 pounds. He was able to play on both sides of the court, defend multiple positions, and add some versatility to his game as well.
All of that adds up to Maggette being looked at as a guy who could very well fit into the modern game right now. Although no one is a direct comparison, there are a few players that share some of the same qualities he brought to the game.
DeMar DeRozan
On paper, both of these guys are very athletic wing players who can score over 20 points a game in a variety of ways. Maggette was a stronger and more physical player than DeRozan, but he never quite had some of the same individual success. DeRozan is a four-time All-Star and a two time All-NBA player, and he found a way to peek at 27 points per game in the 2016–2017 season.
Maggette’s strength allows him to play a few more positions, but DeRozan is the more consistent scorer. Still, there might not be a better overall comparison in the NBA right now, unless it is the guy below.
Rudy Gay
A current teammate of DeMar DeRozan who also compares to Corey Maggette pretty well is Rudy Gay. He is a couple of inches taller than both DeRozan and Maggette, but there are quite a few similarities when comparing primes.
There is a stretch in Gay’s career where he was consistently averaging right around 20 points per game. He doesn’t take a lot of three-pointers, but neither did Maggette. He has always been pretty efficient at the line, but he might not get there at the same consistency as the others.
Gay compares to Corey Maggette pretty well in the fact that he never made an All-Star team or All-NBA. They are two of the best players in their generation not to get any recognition that way.
PJ Tucker
A lot of basketball fans look at PJ Tucker as a guy who does a lot of dirty work for the Houston Rockets. At times, he even plays the center position, despite only being about 6’5 tall. That might not exactly describe the play of Maggette, but there are some qualities worth mentioning.
In the modern NBA, it would not be a surprise at all to see Corey Magette lineup as a power forward or center occasionally. He has the size and versatility to go up against players who don’t look exactly like him. He would also be able to stretch the floor and create mismatches against certain teams.
Where this comparison fails to work is the fact that Tucker has never averaged over 10 points a game in his NBA career. He did show signs of scoring consistently while in college but never became much in the NBA. Maggette has a better career, but these guys compare fairly well to show what type of positions a player at his high school play at this level.
James Harden
This final comparison might be a stretch for some people, given the fact that Harden has now turned into a consistent scoring champion and an MVP candidate every single year. Maggette didn’t quite have that type of prime, but he was one of the first players to rely on getting to the line to score efficiently.
It was a pretty big deal in 2004-2005 when Maggette averaged ten free throws per contest. He was able to average his career-high for a season at 22.2 points per game, and his 86% shooting percentage from the line was a big reason why.
Harden has basically taken the skill of scoring consistently and getting to the line to the extreme. His average is 10 or 11 free throws per contest every single year, and he shoots at right around the same percentage as Maggette.
No one actually thinks of Maggette as a guy who could morph into a player averaging over 30 points per game, but no one knows for sure in the right system. If he was growing up in today’s game, Maggette like Bryant very well could be shooting more three-pointers, and become consistent enough that it would open up the rest of his game as well. That would at least get him on the All-Star team a few times, and maybe a spot on All-NBA at the end of the year.