JaVale McGee

[queridiculo]

The most impressive thing to me about McGee is how much more controlled he looks out there compared to when he first saw some action in summer league. It's nice to see him make progress rather quickly and he also seems to carry quite a bit of confidence out there on the floor.

Would be nice if Washington finally managed to score themselves one of those mid first round steals.

[dobrojim]

the most impressive thing to me was how competent he looked offensively

limited sample size but he appeared to possibly be our best offensive C right now.
Yes one could say that's damning with faint praise, but it's what struck me.

like most rooks/young players/bigs, key will be staying out of foul trouble
when he gets minutes.

[80sballboy]

I think it will be about matchups. He looked lost tonight in the first half agaisnt big Z and Veraejo.

[Scabs304]

With Haywood out I believe we should be seeing some minutes for McGee come this season and his 32nd ranking in the rookie crap rankings they have ESPN will be close to top 10 by the end of the year.

[MJG]

With Haywood out I believe we should be seeing some minutes for McGee come this season and his 32nd ranking in the rookie crap rankings they have ESPN will be close to top 10 by the end of the year.

It's pretty obvious that Thorpe has paid no attention to McGee past the first summer league games. I'm not saying he should be top five or anything, but the idea that there are 31 rookies better than him is ridiculous.

[hands11]

According to Ivan, McGee might be in the running for the starting role(!):

Etan Thomas, back after missing all of last season with a heart ailment, started the first four games of the preseason and was expected to assume the role in Haywood's absence, but when asked yesterday if Thomas would be the starting center against New Jersey on Oct. 29, Jordan said, "Don't know yet."

McGee was a surprise starter in the Wizards' 96-80 loss to New Orleans on Friday, and he responded with 15 points, two rebounds and two blocked shots in 21 minutes. McGee also collected a fan in Hornets all-star point guard Chris Paul, who said McGee belongs "in that Dwight Howard category" of athleticism after McGee blocked one of Paul's shots in the third quarter.
...
Jordan said he still likes the veteran Thomas's force, Blatche's skill and versatility and Songaila's shooting ability and knowledge of the offense. But McGee forced Jordan to pay him more attention in the Wizards' second preseason game against Memphis, an 89-80 win in which McGee scored 20 points on 8-of-12 shooting with eight rebounds and three blocks. McGee had two uneven performances against Detroit and New Orleans before Jordan decided to give McGee a look with the starters.

"Like I said, 'Knock, knock. Somebody is at the door, guys,' " Jordan said. "The opportunity is going to be there. If it opens up, be careful. Watch out, because he's progressing."

I doubt he'll actually end up starting, but it looks like he might be playing his way into the rotation.

Without any question, beyond any shadow of a doubt, McGee should start.

Blatche needs to play primarily at the 4. Etan needs to be, at best, a part-timer, bringing his "energy" against other second tier guys.

McGee needs minutes. He needs them in a unit with the vets who play under control and he needs them early in the game. Depending on matchups and who has the hot hand, maybe Blatche, maybe Songalia are in it down the stretch...

But, gosh darnit, EJ must start the kid.

Who's with me on this bus?

Sounds like the same argument I made for AB for years so yeah, I on that bus. And yes, AB needs most his minutes at the 4. This is the future.

McGee, AB, CB so lets see some of it. You could run several line ups with them.

McGee, AB, AJ, CB, AD would work for me. The kid could grow up in that line up. So could AB.

Then you come in with

AB, ET, DSONG, NY, and Brown

We have plenty of horses to ride still. That's not even mentioning DS, Dixon, DMAC

That;s 12 players and I didnt mention OP. How is that going to work ?

[hands11]

Gonna be hard to trade Etan until he shows he's fully healthy again. He's got this year plus an option for next year so he's far more expendable.

What are the chances Etan gets out of his contract?

This is the EG plan Stan. Nothing new going on here. It was a sure things we could get
a C which would be McGee or the G-Man. G-Man was gone, so we got McGee which was an awesome pick.

No way we were trading ET until his salary was friendly to trade. Well here we are. We have options. We can trade him or resign him for less and keep him as a 2nd string power forward.

EG is building this thing up. He will soon be in the bird seat able to make lots of moves. I think he is
committed to riding the AJ deal out with him retiring a Wiz. The only question is when will he get moved out of PF and were will he end up. His maturity and leadership is hard to replace. I personally think he can play 2nd string in several positions because of his 3 range.

So with Haywood, McGee and Blatche getting most the C and PF mins your set. Then were does CB end up. I could even see us going a little bigger at SF and moving CB to SG/SF. We could so manhandle teams with a big athletic powerful team. Let see how much one on one game CB added over the summer. If he did, this will open up our options.

McGee/AB, AB/ET/OP, AJ/DSONG/McGee, CB/NY/DS, AD/Brown

NY needs to play DS out of a job and OP needs to show something because we are crowded up front. I can't believe we extended him except maybe that makes him easier to trade cheap. Several players need to show up so we can settle on a direction.

[Pitbull]

*****BUMP****

Just because this thread should NEVER leave the first page...

[JWizmentality]

Look at all the pansies eat crow on the first page!! I was the first to defend him by the way.

[miller31time]

^^^^ Even a blind squirrel finds a nut once in a while.

[sashae]

This kid could really become something else. Between JaVale and Nick, reason for a little bit of optimism with this squad.

[JWizmentality]

^^^^ Even a blind squirrel finds a nut once in a while.

crunch crunch crunch millerboy!! Want some hotsauce on that bird.

[CrankyTodd]

I was fairly optimistic early on... I grant myself 500 "I told you so" points.

[yungal07]

^^^^ Even a blind squirrel finds a nut once in a while.

crunch crunch crunch millerboy!! Want some hotsauce on that bird.

LOL I was right behind you with Ruzious. Draft night had me pissed...everyone dumping on the kid without even seeing him step a foot on the court.

It's damn good to see some crow being eaten. And big ups to CCJ...he's a man if I've ever seen one.

[Rafael122]

Sad thing is it will take EJ half the season to realize he should start McGee.

[80sballboy]

LOL I was right behind you with Ruzious. Draft night had me pissed...everyone dumping on the kid without even seeing him step a foot on the court.

It's damn good to see some crow being eaten. And big ups to CCJ...he's a man if I've ever seen one.

We all dumped on him because we didn't see him (or much of him), but all the so-called pundits were saying he was years away from being an impact player, which made him sound like a reach in the mid-first round. Well, I'm wrong and so are they. F-Hollinger, C.Ford, Draft Express, Draft Sh., Stein, Bucher, etc.

[Ji]

NBAdraft.net nailed this


BAdraft.net at least loves him

trengths: Long athletic bigman who is absolutely bursting with potential ... Runs the floor exceptionally well ... Improving at a rapid pace on both ends of the floor. Has freakishly long arms: around a 7-6 wingspan which makes him a great rebounder and shot blocker ... Can really become a force defensively when he adds strength and discipline on opponent's shot fakes ... His length makes it extremely difficult for opponents to get shots over ... His offensive game is showing a lot of promise with developing back to the basket skills. He even shows some ability to face the basket and make drives or spot up ... Has a competitive spirit that is not apparent in many bigmen who picked up the game because of their size. A late bloomer who went underrecruited out of Chicago. McGee's parents were both professional basketball players so he has been around the game from a young age ... Shows solid form and touch on his shot ... Has a tremendous frame which should allow him to get much stronger and retain his great agility and athleticism ... Gives great effort and shows very good stamina for a bigman his age ... Added strength will give him better balance and make him a lot more effective imposing his will inside ... Has the potential to be a top 5-10 center in the league someday (if he's patient about entering the NBA) ... Has even shown the ability to knock down shots from college 3, no question influenced by the presence of Nick Fazekas last year

[jmrosenth]

^doclinkin and BruceO nailed it on page 5 or 6 of this thread.

I am hesitant to heep praise too early because it's the same thing I said about Blatche - he's already shown more than Kwame, except that you can tell, even from this early stage, that he has a motor and is going to be a solid player simply because he's going to outwork people on the floor. Damn it to hell that we don't have a healthy team.

[20MexicanosIn1Van]

With McGee playing much better than expected this early in his career, the question must be asked, what happens to McGee's role when Brendan comes back? What about Brendan's role?

I think McGee could play some power foward next to Brendan when the matchups are there. But when the other team has a quicker, more perimeter oriented PF I don't think so. With that said, I'd like to see McGee's primary role be to back up Brendan, assuming Brendan comes back fully healthy. However, I just see Eddie having Etan back up Brendan with McGee getting very limited minutes.

What will Eddie do? Will should Eddie do?

[Dat2U]

Most intriguing about McGee is that both parents were pros and his mom's a former WNBAer and a coach. The red flags are his dad and why is he so developmentally arrested, despite his mom's expertise. Is he just a late bloomer physically, or has he been an ADHD/ODD type in his past? How grounded is the dude?

Why hasn't he been better so far?

That's my excuse. I'm not sure what Javale's is. But your right, the son of professional basketball players, the length & athleticism, the level of competition & and then when you add in the lackluster numbers...all of that just doesn't add up. It's definitely a red flag.

Hopefully a light got turned on during the draft process. It sounds like his agent, an ex-football player, really put him through alot to get him ready. Hopefully some of that work ethic and mentality learned from that process will extend into his pro basketball career.

However for some reason, when I see him on video and read the scouting reports, Brad Sellers comes to mind. If I had to just guess, I'd say he may turn out to be a similar type player. Talented, but generally soft and a dissapointment overall.

Oh how I love being wrong!!! This kid is a monster! Putting up double/doubles already. Please EFJ don't wait any longer. This kid is our best center...by a long margin. It's ridiculous to start Etan over him. You just can't teach a 7-6 wingspan combined with excellent athleticism. What makes this kid effective right now is that he's got a motor and is busting his ass out there. He shouldn't get less than 30 minutes a night with lack of options on our roster.

With McGee & a healthy Brendan Haywood the Wizards are set at C for the forseeable future.