pancakes3 wrote:I don't think McGee will ever be a good man-to-man defender no matter how many nuances he lears but he could wreck havoc on the weak side if he's paired with someone with more heft like Blatche or Haywood. McGee's rail thin and any competent big man can easily seal him off with a drop step or a spin move. However, if you stick him on a PF, especially a perimeter oriented PF like Dirk, Turk, or Yi, his length will be very effective defensively. This goes back to the earlier discussions about making McGee a PF, which i still think is a good idea especially since Blatche is proving to be an adequate Center.
also, wiz D, how exactly does a wide base translate to a weak base or a wide base translate to poor lateral acceleration, or how lateral acceleration even applies to post defense?
if you watched songalia d up rasheed wallace out on the perimeter, you would see an example of wide base. The further you feet are spread, the the more space you defend to your right and to your left. Teh trick is, when your feet are spread wide, the only way to explode left or right is if you squat. If your feet are spread wide and your center of gravity isn't low, you can't get enough strength from your legs to slide with power. The lower your center of gravity, the easier it is for you to keep balance. McGee is constantly loosing his balance when he tries to keep up.
You have to be able to respond in both to your left and your right in order to cut a defender off. When you are in a low base stance, you only have one leg to give you enough force to slide because the other legs is not touching the ground. When you are sliding, you chest is always facing offensive player otherwise teh ref will call a blocking foul. You have to tremendous power in both legs while at the same time squating. The power is almost the same aswhat an ice skater uses when they are thrusting except you can never be standing straight up, you have to always keep the lowest possible center of gravity. The problem it looks like with Mcgee is that he has bad knees and can't really get into a low squat position like darius or even Blatche.....same problem GIL has. You look at their leg structure and they never practice squating and moving sideways their whole lives so their knees arent use to strain. All of sudden, in mid life they are asked to squat low center gravity and thrust side ways and their knees get torn up. When you are in squating position with a wide base, your ankles aren't til the normal position as when youare standing completely straight...I don't know its hard to explain. I can just see that Mcgee can't get low the ground and still slide his feet. . He has a high center of gravity and his knees seem really bad...just like gilberts when he is trying to get to low the ground
The real issue with Gilbert is that his knees are experience tremendous forces when he squats really low the ground like a running back. You see this with DWade. He has tremendous agilty because he keep a low center of gravity and still accelerate. Its like a sport car...the lower a car is the ground..the tighter turns in can make at high speed without flipping over. The problem is that if your knees arent use to being at a really low center of gravity, they get damaged. that is what happening to alot of poor perimeter defenders who are working to be average defender. they are told what they need to do and when they try to get a lower center of gravity, their knees give out because they haven't at all most of their life. Its like trying to make your knuckles punch through concrete. Over time, the bones get really strong based on the pressure they experience...but if you try punch through concrete with out years of training, your kunckles are going to break. Bones get denser based on the forces that they experience. grunfeld doesn't understand this concept when it comes to defense, low center of gravity, and the time it takes for a person's body to be able to absorb teh forces when they never cared about doing it before.--Mcgee has never cared to get low to ground and practice is lateral acceleration until the nba while his memesis..Dwight, Dwade, and K.G. Howeard and Dwade...have. Whenever you see a player bang against the court with hands..and get into a wide stance...that's when you know they are about to play lockdown D. Its amazing to see Kevin Garnett do get that low and he is seven feet tall. Only true ballers know the importance of low center of gravity and lateral acceleration. Its sprint sliding...same muscles you use in ice skating. If you ever ice skate before, you know that you have to get low if you want power.
.AT teh same time to thrust your body quick enough left or right to cut off a driving lane. The closer your feet are together, the less the more space your give some to drive past you. A post player has to get around your feet in order to get past you. the closer they are together, the easier. And if you don't have explosiveness to move your body (ice skating people) to beat a post player to the spot..you will probably be called for the foul. Mcgee is constantly getting beat to spot and has to foul to prevent the easy lay up because he doesn't have one the strenght to knock a driver off balance with a slight nudge and two he doesn't have the leg strenght to beat a player to a spot moving sideways.
MOst of the time you develop these skills in you play football. In footballl, linemen normally have to get into a low squaiting position. Cornerbacks otten times have to run backpedal left and right while still facing tothe quarterback and when you tackle in football, you have to bend your knees and to get your power.
McGee and Gilbert have straight forward speed, they don't have ice skater speed, roller blade thrust speed. The problem is once you get to full speed with your rollerblades, you have to be able to stop just as quickly and this is where the knee damage comes into play if haven't built up your bone density...just as trying amateurs trying to punch through concrete. Gil and Mcgee are amateur because they haven't practices their entires lives getting low and now they pay for it when they have to go against the best of the best.
When you look at javale's quadricep...they are super undeveloped. You would normally expect to see tremendous oversize quadricep muscles for a player his size since he has to accelerate nearly 260 lbs on weight on leg and the only mucles to accelerate his entire body sideways would one quadricep muscle. My advice to him would be to first start practicing sprinting and backpedaling because their is no way you can backpedal fast without having a low center of gravity. Once hand secondly he should spend at least two hour sliding sideways across the gym on the out of bounds lines keeping a low center of gravity. if you did that everyday..he might have a chance but I think the clock is ticking against him. He is only 20 and still growing but not for long.
Lets hope he kept that football coach that help him in the predraft process..hopefully he hired him full time or hte wizards management hired him part time or something for their investment.
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