JaVale McGee

[dobrojim]

After that opening sequence featuring back2back dunks, can there be
any doubt that this kid has arrived. Any team that doesn't have a really
high leapin C (and fast) better watch out for that play on the tipoff.

[pancakes3]

difference: McGee runs the pick and roll, Blatche runs the pick and pop. See what happens when you roll?? Now we just need someone who can run the guard part's role of the pick and roll... a quick guard who is great at taking shots off the dribble...

[NbdyBeatsTheWiz]

[quote="pancakes3"]i don't know about posting up. someone else said he was a tyson chandler clone, which i think is fairly accurate. the hornets just let him run loose and throw Ooops to him. Granted we have nobody on our roster that can throw a decent oop... [quote]

I'm not a huge fan of Dixon's NBA game, but when he's in the game he seems to always be looking for McGee. I can't remember which game it was- I think the last time we played the Knicks at home- where Dixon must have thrown half a dozen alley-oops to him. One was a little off and led to McGee missing the dunk, but all the others seemed well timed and well placed.

Matter of fact, it seems Dixon is looking to shoot a lot less and pass more than his last run on the Wiz, but maybe my memory is fuzzy, and that's something for another thread anyways...

[forbes20]

I think he's a cross between Chandler and Camby,... more so like Camby, BUT more athletic than both!! Camby has an outside shot and blocks more shots. McGee has work to do on his rebounding, but I love his athletism and energy. He is going to be awesome.
I can't see Chandler making that steal last night, out racing two guards, and taking off from d*amn near the foul line.

Granted we're only 12 games or so into the season, but at this point, if there was a 2008 Draft redo, where would GM's take McGee? Where would you all as "GMs" take McGee??

I don't see him falling any lower than maybe 4th. I think the top 3 stay the same, adn McGee is 4th.

Full 2008 NBA Draft results
TEAM SELECTION
1. Chicago Bulls Derrick Rose
2. Miami Heat Michael Beasley
3. Minnesota Timberwolves O.J. Mayo
4. Seattle SuperSonics Russell Westbrook
5. Memphis Grizzlies Kevin Love
6. New York Knicks Danilo Gallianari
7. LA Clippers Eric Gordon
8. Milwaukee Bucks Joe Alexander
9. Charlotte Bobcats D.J. Augustin
10. New Jersey Nets Brook Lopez
11. Indiana Pacers Jerryd Bayless
12. Sacramento Kings Jason Thompson
13. Portland Trailblazers Brandon Rush
14. Golden State Warriors Anthony Randolph
15. Phoenix (From Atlanta) Robin Lopez
16. Philadelphia 76ers Marreese Speights
17. Toronto Raptors Roy Hibbert
18. Washington Wizards JaVale McGee

[miller31time]

I'd say 4th is about right.

[Donkey McDonkerton]

Are we homers? Someone post a topic on the general board and let's see where he would go.

[fishercob]

I think I will always remember last night's opening sequence. The set play off the tip was nice. The blocked J at the top of the key, tip to himself, one dribble and hammer dunk was ridiculous. I don't know if there are more than a handful of NBA players, let alone rookies, capable of that play.

Just as Easy Ed was talking about the importance of keeping one of Tawn and Butler on the floor at all times, when Brendan is healthy it would be just devastating to keep two of McGee, Haywood and Blatche on the floor most of the time. Which brings me to...

Can McGee be a forward? I don't see why not. He's already got the foundations of both a face-up and low post game. He has touch. He has range. You can tell his J is going to improve. He's got the body type and quickness to stay with most PFs -- and the length to make up for it. Off the top of my head, I just don't see any glaring tools that McGee lacks that say KG or Rasheed Wallace had at the same age. The sky is really the limit for this kid, and the best part is he seems to have that desire.

[nate33]

I think I will always remember last night's opening sequence. The set play off the tip was nice. The blocked J at the top of the key, tip to himself, one dribble and hammer dunk was ridiculous. I don't know if there are more than a handful of NBA players, let alone rookies, capable of that play.

Just as Easy Ed was talking about the importance of keeping one of Tawn and Butler on the floor at all times, when Brendan is healthy it would be just devastating to keep two of McGee, Haywood and Blatche on the floor most of the time. Which brings me to...

Can McGee be a forward? I don't see why not. He's already got the foundations of both a face-up and low post game. He has touch. He has range. You can tell his J is going to improve. He's got the body type and quickness to stay with most PFs -- and the length to make up for it. Off the top of my head, I just don't see any glaring tools that McGee lacks that say KG or Rasheed Wallace had at the same age. The sky is really the limit for this kid, and the best part is he seems to have that desire.

I think he can play forward, just not yet. He needs to tighten up some of his technique, particularly his footwork on D, before he's ready to play forward. Maybe next year. More likely in 2 years.

[nate33]

The top 18 picks, pace-adjusted per-40, ranked by PER. The last column is actual minutes played per game:

Code: Select all

Player        PER  PTS  REB  AST  STL  BLK   TO  TS%  MIN
speights,mar 19.9 17.5 11.0  1.9  1.6  2.7  2.2 .508 12.1
rose,derrick 18.5 19.7  4.1  5.9  1.1  0.2  2.9 .546 37.6
mcgee,javale 18.1 18.1 10.8  0.5  0.7  2.0  1.6 .529 19.9
thompson,jas 16.8 16.9 10.4  1.5  1.3  0.7  2.7 .567 26.9
mayo,o.j.    16.7 21.5  4.8  2.4  1.3  0.1  2.7 .539 38.2
augustin,d.j 16.5 19.3  3.4  6.6  0.7  0.0  2.8 .551 27.6
lopez,brook  16.1 15.1 11.3  1.1  1.3  2.3  2.3 .528 24.9
beasley,mich 15.4 20.1  7.5  1.8  1.0  0.9  2.7 .512 29.9
lopez,robin  15.1 14.7  7.2  0.0  1.3  3.1  1.9 .564 11.5
westbrook,ru 14.2 18.4  4.9  5.7  2.4  0.5  3.9 .438 25.5
love,kevin   13.7 14.1 10.3  1.9  0.9  1.4  2.0 .474 23.7
gordon,eric  13.7 16.0  2.7  3.8  2.5  0.6  3.2 .547 15.2
hibbert,roy  11.9 11.6  8.5  4.1  1.4  4.1  3.4 .455 10.3
randolph,ant  9.2 14.4 12.8  2.5  0.6  3.8  4.7 .365 15.3
rush,brandon  9.0 13.2  4.5  1.1  1.1  1.1  2.4 .492 21.0
alexander,jo  7.9 12.0  7.1  1.6  1.2  1.2  3.2 .506 13.4
bayless,jerr -1.3 10.4  4.6  4.6  1.2  0.0  6.9 .369  7.4

If you rule out Speights due to low minute-count, McGee looks like the 2nd best rookie in the league so far. Perhaps Mayo gets the benefit of the doubt given the huge minutes he logs as a rookie. He doesn't get a chance to sit down when he's rattled and needs to regroup.

[hands11]

Yes, but will both be willing to accept their roles to co-exist? We already know Wood had difficulty co-existing with Etan seemingly out of sophomoric jealously and definitely because of minutes lost. Will Wood be able to stomach McCheese? And, more importantly, will McCheese's growth on the court suffer if he and Wood were to compete for minutes on the floor? These are the questions the organization has to be asking itself and hopefully planning around.

Haywood had a problem coexisting with Etan because he knew he was demonstrably the superior player. There was no justification for Etan to get as many minutes as he did. I'd be mad too if I were Haywood. (And believe it or not, I am not Haywood )

I don't think Haywood would have the same problem with McGee. He never grumbled about Blatche last season, and McGee is better. As long as Haywood gets 27-28 minutes, he'll be fine.

All good points but one last question: What if McCheese were to show signs as early as next year that he could be among the elite centers in the league (hopefully optimistic admittedly). What then does the organization do with Haywood who would be in a contract year? Does it roll the dice and deal him in hopes that McCheese is the real deal or does it sign Haywood to another contract and tie up the dollars that could be spent for other needs?

Sign Haywood. It's having these 2 center healthy together that is going to give us the advantage.

48 mins. 2 talented 7-10 center, 12 fouls to give. One nimble, one with power. And with both, we are protected against injury. This is were I want us to be. Then add AB, AJ, CB, GA, NY

This is a very talented team as soon as we are all healthy. They could content with these players and a good coach like Tapps.

[hands11]

No thats photoshopped, because i have seen the original somewhere and you can tell, if you brang him down to where he was, we would be looking up slightly up at the rim. He isnt even looking at the rim in that picture.

LOL to funny. His feet are at that guys shoulders. That like 6 feet off the ground. If he was that tall and could jump that high he would have been the #1 pick. Twice..

His stomach is at the rim..

[ZonkertheBrainless]

You can merge this to random thoughts if you want, just wanted to get an answer right away first. Heh.

I can google standing reach, and I can google vertical leap, and get some answers, but who has the highest combined standing reach + vertical leap? Don't they measure both these things at the combine?

[ZonkertheBrainless]

Bah, this belongs in the Javale McGee thread. Didn't occur to me.

[ZonkertheBrainless]

So you guys were talking about McGee's combined vertical and standing leap. Is there a database of those numbers at the draft place somewhere, so you can see who is the highest "reacher" in the nba?

[hands11]

i don't know about posting up. someone else said he was a tyson chandler clone, which i think is fairly accurate. the hornets just let him run loose and throw Ooops to him. Granted we have nobody on our roster that can throw a decent oop, we can still use mcgee in the pick and roll game, definitely. He would have to have a clear lane to pass to him, because i don't think he's strong enough to finish after contact/in traffic.

The kid has a better stroke then Chandler. He already have a baseline turnaround.

This kid is going to be better the Chandler and way sooner.

This is game changing talent in the raw your watching. This is what is going to put us over the top.
Haywood and McGee manning the center.

I could even image a super tall line up of Haywood, McGee, Blatche, CB, GA

This team does have made talent. Far from EG sucking, this team is stacked.

[hands11]

I just read some of the posts right after the pick and I am laughing

People thought he was like the WORST PICK IN THE WORLD, and wanted Chalmers, Hickson etc.

BTW Chalmers may be doing well for Miami, but they dont have a PG and I would have been pissed cuz he got busted with marijuana at the Rookie symposium.

Except the brave, the few, the proud. Read the Sig.

First on the bus baby. I wish I would find that draft thread we did.

[hands11]

I love the Kid's demeanor. There was one play where he fell to the ground and a Warriors player tried to help him up as the teams went to the sidelines after a timeout. JaVale wouldn't grab his hand to get helped up. I liked that.

During the post game interview he was all business Phil and Steve kept trying to get him to smile but he was all business he finally cracked a smile at the end. The kid is the real deal.

Great pick-up

Yeah, I saw that and it caught my eye that he didn't take the help up.

[pancakes3]

me too. i guess it was pretty glaring... i thought it was a tad bit unsportsmanlike, but hey... different strokes for different folks.

[GilArenas88]

I love that, its exactly what this team needs, some toughness, so what if its unsportsmanlike. We got enough guys who are sportsman, we need some grit and meaness.

[fishercob]

I think I will always remember last night's opening sequence. The set play off the tip was nice. The blocked J at the top of the key, tip to himself, one dribble and hammer dunk was ridiculous. I don't know if there are more than a handful of NBA players, let alone rookies, capable of that play.

Just as Easy Ed was talking about the importance of keeping one of Tawn and Butler on the floor at all times, when Brendan is healthy it would be just devastating to keep two of McGee, Haywood and Blatche on the floor most of the time. Which brings me to...

Can McGee be a forward? I don't see why not. He's already got the foundations of both a face-up and low post game. He has touch. He has range. You can tell his J is going to improve. He's got the body type and quickness to stay with most PFs -- and the length to make up for it. Off the top of my head, I just don't see any glaring tools that McGee lacks that say KG or Rasheed Wallace had at the same age. The sky is really the limit for this kid, and the best part is he seems to have that desire.

I think he can play forward, just not yet. He needs to tighten up some of his technique, particularly his footwork on D, before he's ready to play forward. Maybe next year. More likely in 2 years.

Nate, you're probably right that he should focus on C for now. But especially when Haywood is back -- likley next season -- the Wiz should do whatever they can to get Haywood and McGee on the floor together for stretches.