JaVale McGee Discussion, news and highlights.

[Saberestar]

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[Saberestar]

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[Biff]

I'm not a fan of McGee but he's a big body and can at least cover centers. Not many good options I suppose, so this is probably best we could do.

[Revived]

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[Mulhollanddrive]

I guess he's proven himself on championship teams so that's the appeal.

[RunDogGun]

I like the pick up, the only problem is its five months too late. It would be nice if we had Queta to learn from McGee and Ayton.

[LV-Suns]

My favorite McGee moment.

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[Revived]

My favorite McGee moment.

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I find this one to be so much more impressive than the Tucker one. Not only because Tucker is way shorter than McGee but McGee actually went for the block and is a good shot blocker. Plus we won this series.

But his dunk over Tucker gets talked about more because of it being on the biggest stage which is understandable.

[darealjuice]

My favorite McGee moment.

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I find this one to be so much more impressive than the Tucker one. Not only because Tucker is way shorter than McGee but McGee actually went for the block and is a good shot blocker. Plus we won this series.

But his dunk over Tucker gets talked about more because of it being on the biggest stage which is understandable.

That reverse dunk on the Cavs was pretty sweet too

[RedIndian]

McGee's playing time in the playoffs:

16-17 (GSW) - 9.3 mpg
17-18 (GSW) - 12.2 mpg
19-20 (LAL) - 9.6 mpg
20-21 (DEN) - 8.5 mpg

I think we're overestimating McGee's possible playoff impact. He's not going to be very playable in the playoffs - will be very matchup and situation dependent. I expect him to play against the Lakers and Jazz when we need size.

He can strictly only play drop coverage. Not capable of switching, so I don't see him playing much against the Clips, Mavs or Nuggets.

I also think we're underestimating the value of Saric. Saric was never a great defensive presence, but his ability to set screens, keep the ball moving, hit the top of the key 3, and make reads of the short roll were very valuable from an offensive standpoint. We'll miss that this year. Frank is a poor substitute.

Maybe Stix is good enough to replace that, we'll see. I wish we'd gone for a higher upside 3rd stringer like Hartenstein.

[Saberestar]

McGee's playing time in the playoffs:

16-17 (GSW) - 9.3 mpg
17-18 (GSW) - 12.2 mpg
19-20 (LAL) - 9.6 mpg
20-21 (DEN) - 8.5 mpg

I think we're overestimating McGee's possible playoff impact. He's not going to be very playable in the playoffs - will be very matchup and situation dependent. I expect him to play against the Lakers and Jazz when we need size.

He can strictly only play drop coverage. Not capable of switching, so I don't see him playing much against the Clips, Mavs or Nuggets.

I also think we're underestimating the value of Saric. Saric was never a great defensive presence, but his ability to set screens, keep the ball moving, hit the top of the key 3, and make reads of the short roll were very valuable from an offensive standpoint. We'll miss that this year. Frank is a poor substitute.

Maybe Stix is good enough to replace that, we'll see. I wish we'd gone for a higher upside 3rd stringer like Hartenstein.

I agree with all of that but we need to see the positives things that he brings to the table.

I am not a McGee's fan but I understand why he was signed by James Jones. He has nice strengths in his game.

1.He is a great finisher at the rim. Literally one of the best in the league.

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2.He is a great rim protector.

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3. He is not an slow old school C.

Yeah, he is not as switchable as Ayton, but he is not an slow C by any means. He is active, plays with passion and he is agile for his size. He can defend the pick&roll with drop coverage better than other traditional Cs because of that.

4. Rebounding.

Needless to say that he is a tremendous offensive rebounder because of his length and motor. He is always a putback threat.

Not as great as a defensive rebounder, but a good one for sure.

5. Improved awareness.

One of his biggest weaknesses was his low basketball IQ, but with years under his belt he has improved a lot in that area.

He plays more within his role and does not commit too many mistakes.

So yeah, he probably will not be as good as Saric passing the ball or taking decisions on shot rolls but I can envision him being OK for us even on that type of plays.

[darealjuice]

Isn't 8-12 minutes pretty much exactly what we want out of McGee in the playoffs though? Ayton averaged 36 minutes per game in the playoffs, and we were desperately missing rebounding and rim protection during the minutes he was off the court. McGee fills that need. He's a career back-up, if he was consistently getting big minutes in the playoffs he wouldn't be on a $5M contract coming off the bench.

[matt131]

Isn't 8-12 minutes pretty much exactly what we want out of McGee in the playoffs though? Ayton averaged 36 minutes per game in the playoffs, and we were desperately missing rebounding and rim protection during the minutes he was off the court. McGee fills that need. He's a career back-up, if he was consistently getting big minutes in the playoffs he wouldn't be on a $5M contract coming off the bench.

Exactly, he's a bench guy for a reason. If he could defend like Ayton the dude would be worth more than 5 mil per year. I think the ability to have great shot blocking on the court for 48 minutes as well as pressure to roll to the rim on offense for 48 minutes is pretty good! We'll have to find a way to replace the other things Saric did, but we needed someone like McGee last year even with Saric in the lineup. Good to have him off the bench for sure.

[bwgood77]

McGee's playing time in the playoffs:

16-17 (GSW) - 9.3 mpg
17-18 (GSW) - 12.2 mpg
19-20 (LAL) - 9.6 mpg
20-21 (DEN) - 8.5 mpg

I think we're overestimating McGee's possible playoff impact. He's not going to be very playable in the playoffs - will be very matchup and situation dependent. I expect him to play against the Lakers and Jazz when we need size.

He can strictly only play drop coverage. Not capable of switching, so I don't see him playing much against the Clips, Mavs or Nuggets.

I also think we're underestimating the value of Saric. Saric was never a great defensive presence, but his ability to set screens, keep the ball moving, hit the top of the key 3, and make reads of the short roll were very valuable from an offensive standpoint. We'll miss that this year. Frank is a poor substitute.

Maybe Stix is good enough to replace that, we'll see. I wish we'd gone for a higher upside 3rd stringer like Hartenstein.

He's fine when Ayton is off the floor. Ayton played in the mid 30 minutes...sometimes high and a couple games 40. We may need to use a little bit of small ball, Stix or Frank, but not much. I think JaVale is capable of playing more if needed.

[Saberestar]

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[bwgood77]

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Well when they mentioned "playing for the Suns next year" his mom said "Go Suns!" so I guess that's a pretty good indication it will become official soon. He may just be making his way to Phx in the next couple days or they may be waiting to see if they get the DPE or something and are able to preserve the full MLE, though I don't think they really need it.

[Mulhollanddrive]

If he's on $5m I think that's over the DPE

[Barkley6]

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Well when they mentioned "playing for the Suns next year" his mom said "Go Suns!" so I guess that's a pretty good indication it will become official soon. He may just be making his way to Phx in the next couple days or they may be waiting to see if they get the DPE or something and are able to preserve the full MLE, though I don't think they really need it.

I'd be pretty upset if they signed McGee using the DPE, meaning they had the full MLE available during FA and didn't use it, there were definitely players that could have helped this team that signed for all or part of the MLE.

Additionally, we see players agree to deals all the time that require the team they are signing with to make moves to make the signing possible (trades, releases, etc. to clear cap space or roster spots).

Just to put it into some perspective, if we are using the DPE to sign McGee, we could have split the MLE and retained Craig and signed Jeff Green. I'd rather Craig AND Green than Kevin Love or Thad Young at this point.

[Saberestar]

He is on a $5M contract, DPE would be at most $4.25M.

[bwgood77]

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Well when they mentioned "playing for the Suns next year" his mom said "Go Suns!" so I guess that's a pretty good indication it will become official soon. He may just be making his way to Phx in the next couple days or they may be waiting to see if they get the DPE or something and are able to preserve the full MLE, though I don't think they really need it.

I'd be pretty upset if they signed McGee using the DPE, meaning they had the full MLE available during FA and didn't use it, there were definitely players that could have helped this team that signed for all or part of the MLE.

Additionally, we see players agree to deals all the time that require the team they are signing with to make moves to make the signing possible (trades, releases, etc. to clear cap space or roster spots).

Just to put it into some perspective, if we are using the DPE to sign McGee, we could have split the MLE and retained Craig and signed Jeff Green. I'd rather Craig AND Green than Kevin Love or Thad Young at this point.

I'd do think they'd spend $10 million though for 10th/11th guys that are not really much better than minimum guys. I am unsure who we could have gotten that would make us better. I don't want Love. Young would have been good with the MLE, but he's not a FA. Or a good guard but we got one.

If we could have used it for a true needle mover, maybe.