If the deal really was scal, Ta, walker, giddens, Baby for Maggette and Randolph you'd almost have to do that deal.
1. Our window is now. The Lakers are stacked; Lebron is getting better and may improve drastically next year with a change of scenery: a pre-arranged union with Bosh or Wade or teaming up with Brookly Bound Nyets with Devin Harris, Lee, CDR and Lopez. Adding Maggette coming off the bench for players that have barely played so far this year would certainly make us better now and improve our chances in this window.
2. We've proven we're very good without Baby. He's a bit superfluous on this roster; nice to have around if another player is injured, but if KG or Perk is out for the playoffs, i think we're pretty screwed if Baby is getting big minutes. As such, I'd much rather be trying to develop a potential game changer like Randolph than a career backup like Davis as the 5th big.
3. Financially, it's ok. THough I've written a bunch about making a splash in the 2012 free agency market, this is realistically a long shot as Ray or pierce getting longer than 2 or 1 year extensions respectively ruins those plans. So who cares if Maggette's deal goes long since we're not free agent players for the foreseeable future anyway? Payroll is about 85 million now. That means we can assume ownership is okay with spending 85 million for a contender. subtract the 10.75 that scal, baby, Giddens, ta, walker make, then add the 10.75 that Maggette and Randolph make, back to around 85 mill. Next year, Rondo's extension kicks in at around 8 mil or so, but Ray's salary will be nowhere near his 18.75 mil that it is now; can't see him getting more than 9-10 on the open market as no teams with cap room are pining for a 34 year old shooting guard. Add it all up, and a roster of Rondo, Allen, Pierce, KG, Perk, Randolph, Wallace, Maggette, and fill in house-types for min contracts or a little above would have the same payroll as this year.