The Javale McGee Appreciation Thread

[hands11]

McGee doesn't need someone to teach him the sky hook. If he wants a sky hook, he needs to get his butt in the gym and start shooting them. I taught it to myself during down moments at a basketball camp back in high school. I still break it out now and then in church league, and it's still a great weapon. Shoot, it's unblockable coming from me, and I'm old. Coming from someone with McGee's physical tools it'd be a devastating weapon.

He whipped out a shy hook the other day and it looked pretty awesome. That would be a great move for him to develop. It would be unstoppable.

The kids length and athleticism does may we dream of better days though. Defiantly a keeper.

So we have two pieces that should be here for years. Dray and McGee. Not a bad start if your rebuilding. Add a top draft pick and things aren't looking so bad. Plus Singleton is an upgrade over DMAC. Another nice little piece.

We are getting there. It's a rebuild. Just looking for long term pieces right now. If we aren't locked into any bad long term contract, we will be able to fill in the missing pieces.

Is Singleton really someone we should keep around though? He misses every jumper I've seen him shoot.

He was playing pretty well until he got the ankle sprain. Dude get a second look.

[hands11]

Was that a record amount of FT for the kid? 9-10 against Boston was by far his most this year.

Very nice game for the kid. 2-3 9-10 and 5 blocks 13 pts. only 1 board though

[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

Same way he hit 9-10 FTs, he can hit face up jump shots. I stand by what I said about a taller Larry Nance.

[likwitdesi]

Ever since getting raped by Marc Gasol, his defensive game has just gotten that much better.

[Ruzious]

Same way he hit 9-10 FTs, he can hit face up jump shots. I stand by what I said about a taller Larry Nance.

Maybe he can, but do you really want an athletic 7 footer taking jump shots? What's the point of being an athletic 7 footer if you try to play like a 6'4 guard? Btw, his eFG% on jump shots this season is .205. Now, the sky hook idea - that's what I'd love to see.

[closg00]

Same way he hit 9-10 FTs, he can hit face up jump shots. I stand by what I said about a taller Larry Nance.

+1 Pull-up one of the YouTube clips of McGee in the Drew SL and you will see him draining shots with ease from many spots on the floor. All facets of McGee's game should be encouraged as it can only be of benefit to the Wizards down the road.

As we predicted, McGee needed more minutes, not towel waving time on the bench. Were it not for all of those insane DNP's courtesy of Flip, the McGee we are seeing now could have been helping us sooner while getting better.

[TheSecretWeapon]

I feel like I'm watching a different player. 9-10 from the FT line is terrific, but it raised his percentage for the season to just .618. His rookie year he shot .660. As a pro, he's shooting .650 from the FT line, which is a BIG improvement from the .514 he shot in college.

This "nice game" included 1 rebound in 31 minutes. For a 7-footer with long arms and a 33-inch vertical.

As for his defense, I'm not seeing a lot of improvement. He gets the spectacular block, but he's still out of position a lot, slow to rotate, slow to see plays develop. Plus, he gets overpowered by everyone. The latest update from 82games shows his opponent PER has gone from 29.0 to 28.5. When he's on the floor, the opposing center transmogrifies into a mid-90s Shaq.

I want him to succeed as much as anyone else does, but his results thus far don't indicate that all he needed was more playing time. It's revealing why he wasn't getting playing time in the first place. It's good that he's getting minutes, and hopefully getting an understanding of how much work he needs to put in. But he has a loooooooooooong ways to go.

[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

Javale's PER is 16.4. It was 17.0 last season, his first.

Per-36 minutes he averages 13.1 points, 7.3 rebounds, 4.4 blocks, and (only) 1.8 turnovers.

I think the Wizards should have saved their money on Oberto, and invested playing time in McGee long ago. Javale has scored in double figures 4 of the last 5 games, and 7 of the last 10.

I don't see that as having a long way to go, TSW. I think Javale's going to have a monster game pretty soon. Something like a 20/10/8 block game. Teams can't stop Blatche and Javale, for the most part.

[nate33]

I thought McGee was much better on defensive rotations and really impeded the Celtics around the rim. McGee still has major problems holding his position againsts beasts like Perkins and M.Gasol, but I can live with that. Hopefully, McGee takes the weight room seriously this summer and starts packing on some muscle. I was just happy that McGee showed much more awareness on defense.

He still needs to learn how to box out.

[fishercob]

McGee's a human highlight reel, but when you take a more sober look at his actual production, there are a bunch of red flags, as TSW details.I would love it if he became the multiple all-star that the FO believes, but I have my doubts.

I worry about his similarities to Nick Young -- by the time the team realizes that he's not in their future, he's going to have lost the bulk of his trade value. I'd be looking to move him this summer while his value is high -- see how the lotto shakes out and if I can move him to get into the top 3, or potentially for another lotto pick.

Again, it's frustrating they let Haywood go for so cheap. I'd much rather have him on this team for the next 3 years with a decent return for Javale than I would have McGee trying to figure out how to be a consistently productive NBA center while he burns up his rookie contract and potentially loses trade value.

[dobrojim]

agree with Ruz (iirc) that I thought his D was pretty decent last night.
Bos was constantly changing shots and getting stuffed when the kid
was in, part of the reason they shot so poorly for much of the game.
When they did shoot better it was Allen from outside.

I would be more concerned about his rebounding last night except that
as a team, we were doing fine in a similar fashion to what the Haywood
effect used to be.

Agree with TSW that he really doesn't or maybe SHOULDN"T need a
teacher to learn the sky hook. He's making big $$$ by any reasonable
std and should be self-motivated (highly). That said I know that when
I have others to work out with AND for, it makes it much easier to do the
necessary work. Yesterday I ran 28 slow miles. But if a friend hadn't
been there running with me, my miles might've totalled 20-21 instead.

[nate33]

Yesterday I ran 28 slow miles. But if a friend hadn't
been there running with me, my miles might've totalled 20-21 instead.

You're a weak-minded pu$$y.

[Donkey McDonkerton]

Yesterday I ran 28 slow miles. But if a friend hadn't
been there running with me, my miles might've totalled 20-21 instead.

You're a weak-minded pu$$y.

[nate33]

I worry about his similarities to Nick Young -- by the time the team realizes that he's not in their future, he's going to have lost the bulk of his trade value. I'd be looking to move him this summer while his value is high -- see how the lotto shakes out and if I can move him to get into the top 3, or potentially for another lotto pick.

There is a HUGE difference between a SG and a center.

For shooting guards, their role in the pro's isn't much different than in college. There isn't much of a mental adjustment. Almost without exception, shooting guards show serious promise by their second season, or in their third season at the latest. If your SG isn't getting it done in his 3rd season, he probably won't get it done ever. Most SG's peak at 26 or 27 and then plateau or start their decline.

It's completely different for centers. It takes a long time for guys who are used to dominating against 6-8 "centers" in college to physically adjust to the pro game. There are also a lot of mental adjustments because pro centers have so much help defensive responsibility. It's very common for centers to take, 3, 4, or 5 years to figure the pro game out. Most centers don't even peak until age 30-32. Chandler didn't get good until his 4th year and didn't peak until his 7th. Jermaine O'Neal didn't get good until his 4th year and peaked in his 10th year. Camby didn't get good until his 5th year. Dwight Howard showed significant improvement in each of his first 5 seasons with his 5th being his best. Andrew Bogut is finally blowing up in this, his 5th year.

I can completely understand giving up on Young. It would be foolish to give up on McGee.

[hands11]

Javale's PER is 16.4. It was 17.0 last season, his first.

Per-36 minutes he averages 13.1 points, 7.3 rebounds, 4.4 blocks, and (only) 1.8 turnovers.

I think the Wizards should have saved their money on Oberto, and invested playing time in McGee long ago. Javale has scored in double figures 4 of the last 5 games, and 7 of the last 10.

I don't see that as having a long way to go, TSW. I think Javale's going to have a monster game pretty soon. Something like a 20/10/8 block game. Teams can't stop Blatche and Javale, for the most part.

The Dynamic Duo. They ganged up on Boston pretty well.

Seems one thing Flip and EJ do have in common is not investing the playing time for the right players until they are presented with no other choice. No Haywood, we get McGee. No AJ, we get Blatche.

Said from the start, the success of our season was more dependant on McGee developing than anything. Even back when we had Haywood, AJ and CB.

BEEFCAKES

[fishercob]

I worry about his similarities to Nick Young -- by the time the team realizes that he's not in their future, he's going to have lost the bulk of his trade value. I'd be looking to move him this summer while his value is high -- see how the lotto shakes out and if I can move him to get into the top 3, or potentially for another lotto pick.

There is a HUGE difference between a SG and a center.

For shooting guards, their role in the pro's isn't much different than in college. There isn't much of a mental adjustment. Almost without exception, shooting guards show serious promise by their second season, or in their third season at the latest. If your SG isn't getting it done in his 3rd season, he probably won't get it done ever. Most SG's peak at 26 or 27 and then plateau or start their decline.

It's completely different for centers. It takes a long time for guys who are used to dominating against 6-8 "centers" in college to physically adjust to the pro game. There are also a lot of mental adjustments because pro centers have so much help defensive responsibility. It's very common for centers to take, 3, 4, or 5 years to figure the pro game out. Most centers don't even peak until age 30-32. Chandler didn't get good until his 4th year and didn't peak until his 7th. Jermaine O'Neal didn't get good until his 4th year and peaked in his 10th year. Camby didn't get good until his 5th year. Dwight Howard showed significant improvement in each of his first 5 seasons with his 5th being his best. Andrew Bogut is finally blowing up in this, his 5th year.

I can completely understand giving up on Young. It would be foolish to give up on McGee.

I understand what you're saying, and I'm not proposing "giving up on McGee." But I would actively look for opportunities to sell high based on bigtime future value. What if the Wiz could trade him and the 9th pick for #1 or #2? What if they could trade him and #30 for another mid-to-high lotto pick?

I'm in no way interested in dumping him for cheap, but I think the questions about him realizing his potential are fair enough that we'd be foolish to not consider moving him for a high return. And again, we'd have far more options in this respect if we still had Haywood and his Bird Rights. The fact that we got so little for him is going to burn me for a while.

[TheSecretWeapon]

Javale's PER is 16.4. It was 17.0 last season, his first.

Per-36 minutes he averages 13.1 points, 7.3 rebounds, 4.4 blocks, and (only) 1.8 turnovers.

I think the Wizards should have saved their money on Oberto, and invested playing time in McGee long ago. Javale has scored in double figures 4 of the last 5 games, and 7 of the last 10.

I don't see that as having a long way to go, TSW. I think Javale's going to have a monster game pretty soon. Something like a 20/10/8 block game. Teams can't stop Blatche and Javale, for the most part.

The blocks are very impressive. The turnovers are pretty good. The scoring and rebounding are not impressive for a center.

Looking only at his per minute numbers as a starter, here's McGee category by category compared to the 38 centers who have received at least 350 minutes so far this season:

- Points -- 20th
- Rebounds -- 33rd
- Blocks -- 1st
- Turnovers -- 15th (12th using turnover percentage)
- Usage -- 16th
- Offensive Rating -- 25th
- Defensive Rating -- 23rd
- efg -- 23rd
- TS% -- 25th
- FT% -- 29th
- PER -- 17th

These are his per minute numbers solely from the 9 games he's started and compared only to centers. It's good to be optimistic and hopeful about McGee. But it's also good to be realistic about where he is now. I think the idea that he's close to being good if only he'll get in better shape or get more minutes or some other third thing, could ultimately be detrimental to his development if it discourages him from working on his game.

And what the numbers suggest is a guy who's a below-average scorer, a sub-standard rebounder, a poor shooter, and a poor defender. So, yeah -- I think McGee still has a long way to go.

[nate33]

I don't disagree with any of that, TSW. Over the past 9 games, McGee has been somewhere between "bad" and "dreadful". However, I think he played much better last night against the Celtics. He had a positive impact when he was on the court and he wasn't killing us on D nearly as bad as he usually does.

[montestewart]

I don't disagree with any of that, TSW. Over the past 9 games, McGee has been somewhere between "bad" and "dreadful". However, I think he played much better last night against the Celtics. He had a positive impact when he was on the court and he wasn't killing us on D nearly as bad as he usually does.

The thing about last night is it was against a good team with well-known and well-established veteran bigs, and McGee appeared to be throwing them off a bit. As has been observed, the Cs perhaps took the game too lightly and sleepwalked until the 4th, making the Wizards generally look pretty good on defense until then. I'll wait to see if McGee has entered a new phase in his development or it was just an aberration, but he sure looked different on defense yesterday, not flawless to be sure, but definitely better. As a Wizards fan, I grab into whatever I can.

[dobrojim]

Yesterday I ran 28 slow miles. But if a friend hadn't
been there running with me, my miles might've totalled 20-21 instead.

You're a weak-minded pu$$y.

yeah yeah - next thing I'll start crying about being name-called.