nate33 wrote:McGee has always been way worse than his numbers. He scores with decent efficiency, rebounds and blocks shots; but he plays terrible defense, he doesn't box out, he doesn't rotate well, and he always wants to do the flashy thing rather than the nuts-and-bolts stuff that helps teams win games.
His on/off numbers have been horrific every year of his entire career except his 3rd season when his backups were the equally horrific Kevin Seraphin and Yi Jianlian.
He was just as bad in Denver so it's laughable for him to be criticizing the Wizards organization when he hasn't improved one iota in his 3-1/2 years away from Washington.
Wizards always seem to have a little dysfunction going on, so it's easy for ex-Wizards to legitimately point out organizational shortcomings if they're so inclined, but McGee doesn't seem to show much humility or accountability. By the end of his current contract, he will have earned $50 million in the NBA, almost all of that paid on potential. He might have easily doubled or even tripled that had he tried to grow his game.
McGee's failure to live up to potential seems very similar to Blatche's failure, both of them envisioning themselves as effective away from the basket, while coaches (and the stat sheet) saw them more effective protecting the rim, getting rebounds and high percentage scores close in. Had they accepted and committed to learning that role, both would have been better off.Alternatively, had either of them developed a deadly 3 pointer, able to hit 40% on high volume…but that never happened.
Maybe, as CCJ hopes, he might still find himself, as he still has the raw skills, but he's on his third team. How much more situation shopping can he do? I always thought he was a nice guy, if a bit of a lunkhead, so I wish him well, and I still think he should have won that dunk contest.