The Javale McGee Appreciation Thread

[Nivek]

Re: McGee's shot blocking. Last season, his block percentage (per b-r.com) was 8.0 -- meaning, he blocked 8% of FGA while on the floor. This season, it's 7.9. Since the league started recording blocks (in the 70s; I think in the 73-74 season), there have been 61 player seasons of 500 or more total minutes and a block percentage 7.5% or higher. Manute did it 8 times. Shawn Bradley is next with 7, then Mourning, McIlvaine and Ostertag with 5 each. Eaton did it 4 times. Ratliff and Foyle 3 each.

Looking at the list of top shot blockers in league history, it's not exactly a who's who of great centers. Here's the top 10 in block percentage with a minimum of 2000 career minutes:

1. Manute 10.2
2. McIlvaine 8.8
3. Bradley 7.8
4. Ratliff 7.2
5. Ostertag 7.0
6. Chris Andersen 6.9
7. Eaton 6.9
8. Roy Rogers 6.8
9. Javale McGee 6.7
10. Alonzo Mourning 6.6

Camby is 15th; Mutombo 16th; Tree Rollins 17; David Robinson 25th; AK47 28th; Hakeem 31st. Bumping the minutes cutoff to 10,000 career minutes doesn't make the list a ton better. Mourning moves to 6th; Mutombo to 9th. Brendan Haywood is 23rd.

Finally, for what it's worth, here's the complete list of player seasons that met the following critieria: at least 350 total minutes (McGee is at 368 so far this season); a rebound rate of 18 or higher (McGee is at 18.3 so far) and a block percentage of 7.5 or higher (McGee: 7.9) --

1. Greg Oden, 2009-10 (502 minutes)
2. Javale McGee, 2010-11 (368)
3. Amir Johnson, 2007-08 (764)
4. Dikembe Mutombo, 1995-96 (2713)
5. Dikembe Mutombo, 1994-95 (3100)
6. Greg Ostertag, 1999-00 (1606)
7. Greg Ostertag, 1997-98 (1228)

That's the list.

[tontoz]

One area that he has a lot of room to improve on is defensive rebounding. It seems lately he has been going hard for offensive rebounds but his defensive rebounding is still pretty weak.

[sashae]

I was curious to see if any players early on in their career were doing what JaVale's doing this year in terms of rebounding and blocks, so I looked for players that, in their first 5 seasons, averaged 4+ ORB/G, and 2.5 BPG.

The list?
David Robinson
Shaq
Dwight
Hakeem
Hakeem
Shaq
Hakeem
Hakeem
Dikembe
Elton Brand
Dikembe
Javale.

That's it. That's the list. Pretty heady company.

[Nivek]

Here's an even more exclusive list -- first 5 seasons, minimum 300 minutes, orb% 15+; drb% 18+; blk% 7.5+

1. Oden
2. McGee

[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

McGee waving bye to Brand is a viral video today.

http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/blog/ball_d ... nba-288916

doclinkin, seeing dude in pain but yet smiling and waving goodbye to Brand reminds of the metaphysical profile you put up on Javale. He's the type of dude that's going to drive himself to the limit, and hopefully not beyond. Javale's not soft, just of slight build. Now that he's not scared of the contact he is a beast out there.

Not to defend what Elton did, he needs to be more careful when dealing with 7-foot, 127-pound men that are bounding in mid air toward a basket to dunk a ball in it, but I can understand why he fouled McGee, and why he was somewhat surprised it all went wrong.

The really, really good thing is he's becoming a fan favorite and the league's going to love him. McGee better practice his FT shooting, because his trips to the line are about to double or triple. Nobody will get away with what Brand tried.

Things are really looking up.

[montestewart]

46 minutes tonight, not too shabby either.

I missed the game, but looking at the box score, that's the number that impressed me the most. The kid finally has stamina! That might be the single biggest reason for him improvement. If you're always out of breath, it's hard to play.

He got that figure because Yi's injured and it's an overtime game, but he best thing about that figure is that he was pretty solid throughout. Sure he looked tired at times, but nothing like I've seen in the past with fewer minutes, and he was playing at a pretty intense level. If I had the patience to rewatch games, I might see that he's conserving by no constantly leaping when there's no need to, because it seems like I'm seeing a little of that, but it might just be an illusion stemming from his overall improvement.

[WizarDynasty]

Its in his Dna. The first player in the nba with all-american --gold medal basketball winning basketball pot playing mother. His dna has to be one of the most valuable dna strands in the world.

[Ed Wood]

Its in his Dna. The first player in the nba with all-american --gold medal basketball winning basketball pot playing mother. His dna has to be one of the most valuable dna strands in the world.

In an alternate universe where realgm isn't a family friendly site the internet just imploded from the number of off color jokes I posted in response to this.

[Wizards2Lottery]

Its in his Dna. The first player in the nba with all-american --gold medal basketball winning basketball pot playing mother. His dna has to be one of the most valuable dna strands in the world.

Genetics is my field of study. Greatest. Quote. Ever. I want to analyze McGee's DNA.

[hands11]

McGee waving bye to Brand is a viral video today.

http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/blog/ball_d ... nba-288916

doclinkin, seeing dude in pain but yet smiling and waving goodbye to Brand reminds of the metaphysical profile you put up on Javale. He's the type of dude that's going to drive himself to the limit, and hopefully not beyond. Javale's not soft, just of slight build. Now that he's not scared of the contact he is a beast out there.

Not to defend what Elton did, he needs to be more careful when dealing with 7-foot, 127-pound men that are bounding in mid air toward a basket to dunk a ball in it, but I can understand why he fouled McGee, and why he was somewhat surprised it all went wrong.

The really, really good thing is he's becoming a fan favorite and the league's going to love him. McGee better practice his FT shooting, because his trips to the line are about to double or triple. Nobody will get away with what Brand tried.

Things are really looking up.

This is just the beginning is so true. McGee, while he has had some exposure is still not on the radar so to speak. He is going to be challenged in new ways once people start to scheme for him. They will poke and prod and try to take him out of his game. Then, we get to see how he adjusts. This is were listening to your coaches and having that trust in what they say matters a lot.

The good news is, he is so athletic so they shouldn't stop him. So someone else mentioned, this asthma is not longer limiting him. And the kid has heart so that shouldn't either.

Oh, and how about this.

McGee PER 20.7 Highest on the team
Wall PER 20
Nick is next in line with PER 16.2

And her is the crazy thing. With everything McGee has been showing and with Wall the #1, I think the Nick story is getting overshadowed. If he keep up with he is doing and continues to fill out the stat line, a prayer I have had for him for a while besides his scoring, then we could have two extremely talent young player to go along with Wall.

Now as good as that looks for the future, we still have this season to play. Things should be pretty interesting when you consider we also have Gil, Howard and Dray. All vets who are recovering from injuries and still haven't reached their peak this year.

Playoffs this year ? Always though it was doable if we could keep close to .450 while we gel.

[Mr. Grundle]

I love what McGee's been doing on the glass, but lets not get too crazy now. He did it against Detroit and Philly, two teams pretty much void of a true starting C. McGee still has to prove he can go out and not get absolutely destroyed by the Dwight's and Shaq's of the league. I know you can't shut these guys down but he's gotta be able to at least put up a fight against these guys. I'll be interested to see what he does in the next two games against Horford and Dwight.

[hands11]

Hey there Mr Grundle

Ok. So you want to put a little bit of " hey, lets not be to far ahead of ourselves " into the thread.

That has it's place I guess. But I'm not sure anyone has in the HOF just yet, but you have to admit, what we are seeing is the effort and the results we have wanted to see. I think my last post addressed that it will get more challenging as he plays tougher match up and as team scheme for him.

BUT

There still is not reasonable limit on his game. He COULD be a unique type of player.

But this is what is music to my ears. From the WP.

"I just don't want to get yelled at anymore," McGee said. "I'm not really worried about getting points, I'm just trying to get rebounds."

Nice thing is, if he gets a lot of rebounds and runs like he does, he is going to get points along the way. Maybe you could just sip the Kool Aid. Its a sweet batch.

[Rafael122]

So remember a few weeks ago, we were talking about how Flip may be too harsh on guys like McGee and Blatche? Maybe what he has said and done is working. Like I've said in the past, Flip knows these players better than we do, he knows which buttons to push.

[Dat2U]

Funny, just had a flash back. I though I remembered someone on the board arguing that McGee wasn't athletic. Was that a dream or did that really happen ?

That was me but you took what I said totally out of context. My quote was a response to the ridiculous notion that McGee was really a PF in a C's body. I said McGee was a C through and through and that's the only position he should play. No doubt McGee is an athletic freak, but I said he's not the most explosive athlete. What makes him very unique is his combination of athleticism AND length not athleticism alone. Match him up against alot of smaller & quicker PFs and his athleticism wouldn't standout as much as it does against bigger & slower Cs.

It doesn't matter anyway. We now know for certain McGee is a pure C and that's where he's potential matchup nightmare every night now that he has activity level to go with his length & athleticism. It's a great time to be a Wizard fan with Wall & McGee showing they can difference makers for us now and in the many years to come.

[Zonkerbl]

I think the Javalevator has the potential to score 50 points a game a la Wil the Stilt. And get 20 rebounds a game.

[Mr. Grundle]

Don't get me wrong Hands, I love McGee. I think he might be the most interesting and exciting player to watch in the NBA. McGee and Wall as the future will be hella fun to watch even if they aren't a championship core. I'm just saying, he's gonna have to learn how to man up opposing centers if we're going to go anywhere with him.

[verbal8]

I think the Javalevator has the potential to score 50 points a game a la Wil the Stilt. And get 20 rebounds a game.

I think McGee is a lot closer to being able to grab 20 rebounds than scoring 50 points. After all he did get 18 boards in the Sixers game. Just a slight improvement(which he has already made progress) in his defensive rebounding and he should hit that mark a few times this season.

In terms of scoring 50 points, I think that would take developing a reliable back to the basket game for that to happen. The only centers to score 45 points in the last 5 years are Dwight Howard and Shaq. Each did it one time. I think McGee looking to convert easy looks and get put-backs is better for the Wizards than a guy looking to score 50.

[hands11]

Don't get me wrong Hands, I love McGee. I think he might be the most interesting and exciting player to watch in the NBA. McGee and Wall as the future will be hella fun to watch even if they aren't a championship core. I'm just saying, he's gonna have to learn how to man up opposing centers if we're going to go anywhere with him.

Definitely. New post moves aren't likely to come during the year. For now, I believe we are getting as much or more than most would have expected from him. And that is all mostly mental. It is mostly focus. Statements like he made and the actions of the last 6 games are all I expect from him right now.

Rebounds, staying down on blocks, blocks, put backs, pass outs, alley ops, and the occasional jump shot or drive. That should be McGee this year. Now if he can just add better position D. If he does that, I give him an A for the year.

This is still a talented team. I wouldn't worry to much about what they do vs ATL, ORL, and MIA. They are going to hit patches like this in the schedule.

They are not there yet. If they steal 1 game I would say that was a huge success. But I don't expect it so I won't get down on them one bit if they loose all 3. I expected the board to turn very negative over their 0-3 run. But they will have a change to get things near .500. There are tough patches and easier ones. Main thing is to win the easier ones.

Thu, Nov 25 @ Atlanta 5-9
Sat, Nov 27 vs Orlando 5-10
Mon, Nov 29 @ Miami 5-11
Wed, Dec 1 @ Toronto 6-11 First Road Win.
Fri, Dec 3 vs Portland 6-12 If we get lucky, First back to back wins. This would be a big win.
Sun, Dec 5 @ Phoenix 7-12 They jump out for the first game of the road trip.
Tue, Dec 7 @ Los Angeles 7-13 Ah, not even competitive.
Wed, Dec 8 @ Sacramento 7-14 This would be another huge win on a back to back but I put an L
Fri, Dec 10 vs NY Knicks 7-15 another winbable game but they beat up on us last game.
Tue, Dec 14 vs Los Angeles 7-16
Thu, Dec 16 @ New Jersey 8-16 .333%

By this time Howard should be getting ready. I tried to keep it real with the predictions. At 8-16 the board will be in a piss poor mood. But we could win some more of these games like Portland, SAC and NY. If so, we are

11-13 .458% and looking pretty damn sweet for our first 24 games.

Amazing the different 3 games can make for your hopes so early in the season.

[hands11]

I think the Javalevator has the potential to score 50 points a game a la Wil the Stilt. And get 20 rebounds a game.

Ah, getting on the Wi.. bandwagon.

From your lips to Gods ears brother.

[Scabs304]

McGee leads the league in Blocks/PF. 1.08 he has a full .18 lead on Tim Duncan..... Not sure if this is indicitive of his lack of defense outside of blocking or just his ability not to foul on block attempts this year?