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Free McGee!

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Free McGee! 

Post#1 » by miller31time » Sat Jan 10, 2009 3:48 am

This thread will be a log of JaVale McGee's minutes and games played for the rest of the season.

I think it's absolutely ridiculous that he has been getting consistent DNP's and am actively petitioning for PT for JaVale McGee.

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1-9-09 @ Chicago Bulls

DNP - Coach's Decision

In a game that wasn't close until the end when the closest we got was 7pts behind, McGee received 0 minutes. To add insult to injury, one of the worst players in the NBA, Oleksiy Pecherov, known more for being a look-alike of Family Guy's Stewie than anything to do with basketball, got the nod over our 1st round pick.
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Re: Free McGee! 

Post#2 » by mhd » Sat Jan 10, 2009 3:49 am

I don't have a problem with OPEC playing. He hit shots out there. Java should be getting some PT though.
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Re: Free McGee! 

Post#3 » by miller31time » Sat Jan 10, 2009 3:53 am

mhd wrote:I don't have a problem with OPEC playing. He hit shots out there. Java should be getting some PT though.


That's not really the point (whether or not Pecherov played well). It's that he played....ahead of McGee. On our priority list of people to play, Pecherov ranks last and by a rather substantial margin.

Doesn't mean he didn't do a decent job in the minutes he DID get. But he DID get those minutes.
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Re: Free McGee! 

Post#4 » by dandridge 10 » Sat Jan 10, 2009 3:56 am

We all need to show up at the home games with "The Season's Over...FREE McGee" signs!
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Re: Free McGee! 

Post#5 » by Donkey McDonkerton » Sat Jan 10, 2009 4:17 am

When i get my hands on nines
If i had on bammerline
Cordourys kam will shine
Canary burgandy
I call it lemon red
Yellow diamonds in my ear
Call em lemonheads
Lemonhead end up dead
Ice like guinepeg
Gemstones flinstones
You could say i'm friends with fred


Now START HIM!
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Re: Free McGee! 

Post#6 » by JWizmentality » Sat Jan 10, 2009 4:18 am

No need to dis Opec like that. I think he's a decent player who hasn't seen the light of day. Worst player? Debrick begs to differ.
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Re: Free McGee! 

Post#7 » by hands11 » Sat Jan 10, 2009 4:25 am

I didnt even watch the game but it was playing in the back ground.

Heard the run where it was close but then nothing.

Another 1st quarter blow out. Not good.

I would be surprised if you didn't start to see more McGee eventually. Maybe even in the next game or two.

http://scores.espn.go.com/nba/boxscore?gameId=290109004

These box score scream SHOW CASE

While AJ and CB played mins they only shot 12 and 8 with rebound and assisted respectively.

The investment in showcasing and developing young has officially begun. Up until this game they were trying to still take the long shot at the playoffs. Now they have officially testing players. My read of the mins and stats on AJ, CB and DSong is that they were there to provide some structure.

My explanation for no McGee is this. There is time to develop him because he isn't going anywhere. They know they have Gold. The season is long still. There are plenty of game this year and next.

I think the players you saw play were a lot more the players they want to know if they are going to keep or trade. NY went off. That great. OP got PT again. Critt got more burn.

We can't do this all at once of it will be chaos.

Thats my take. I wouldn't worry to much about McGee getting minutes right now. We need to figure out what to do with these other players. Shows chase some for trade and evaluate some to see if we want to trade them.
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Re: Free McGee! 

Post#8 » by TheBigThree » Sat Jan 10, 2009 4:31 am

hands11 wrote:My explanation for no McGee is this. There is time to develop him because he isn't going anywhere. They know they have Gold. The season is long still. There are plenty of game this year and next.

I think the players you saw play were a lot more the players they want to know if they are going to keep or trade. NY went off. That great. OP got PT again. Critt got more burn.

We can't do this all at once of it will be chaos.

Thats my take. I wouldn't worry to much about McGee getting minutes right now. We need to figure out what to do with these other players. Shows chase some for trade and evaluate some to see if we want to trade them.
Exactomundo.

We know what we have in Javale. We need to push Blatche and work Pech in to find out what they can do. It's not like Tap isn't playing the young guys. On the contrary, he's giving NY, Critt, Dmac and Blatche solid minutes. Javale isn't going anywhere and certainly isn't going to turn into a beast instantaneously.

He'll get enough minutes to let him adjust to the NBA game. Right now, Blatche offers infinitely more than McGee does. I think McGee should certainly be off the bench in most situations before Etan, but you don't develop your young talent by throwing them all out there at once.
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Re: Free McGee! 

Post#9 » by miller31time » Sat Jan 10, 2009 4:36 am

TheBigThree wrote:
hands11 wrote:My explanation for no McGee is this. There is time to develop him because he isn't going anywhere. They know they have Gold. The season is long still. There are plenty of game this year and next.

I think the players you saw play were a lot more the players they want to know if they are going to keep or trade. NY went off. That great. OP got PT again. Critt got more burn.

We can't do this all at once of it will be chaos.

Thats my take. I wouldn't worry to much about McGee getting minutes right now. We need to figure out what to do with these other players. Shows chase some for trade and evaluate some to see if we want to trade them.
Exactomundo.

We know what we have in Javale. We need to push Blatche and work Pech in to find out what they can do. It's not like Tap isn't playing the young guys. On the contrary, he's giving NY, Critt, Dmac and Blatche solid minutes. Javale isn't going anywhere and certainly isn't going to turn into a beast instantaneously.

He'll get enough minutes to let him adjust to the NBA game. Right now, Blatche offers infinitely more than McGee does. I think McGee should certainly be off the bench in most situations before Etan, but you don't develop your young talent by throwing them all out there at once.


This isn't about "knowing what we have" in McGee. It's about making a decent rookie with tons of potential actually get a head-start on fulfilling this potential.

Make no mistake about it, the Wizards are not going into next season expecting 30-40 wins and a low seed in the playoffs. We're getting Gil back. We're getting Haywood back. We're getting a top-3 pick. We are going to have expectations of a 45-50-win-team.

We aren't going to have time to groom the youngin's. What we need to do is get the grooming done NOW.

If you can give me any reason whatsoever to play Caron Butler and Antawn Jamison 40+ minutes a night, please do so. Are we show-casing them? Are we trying to find out "what we have" in them? Ugh...
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Re: Free McGee! 

Post#10 » by NbdyBeatsTheWiz » Sat Jan 10, 2009 4:38 am

It just seems the showcase vs. developing young talent is unbalanced when there's no guarantee we can trade Etan after we've been trying for years. There's no guarantee we trade ANYbody for that matter. But it looks like we're trying so hard to "showcase" that people like Javale are piling up DNPs. And its not like it would only be for development, there are games where he almost undoubtedly could have helped.

When I go to a Wiz game next month I'll DEFINITELY be printing "Free McGee" on some highlighter yellow shirts at work and handing them out to my section.
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Re: Free McGee! 

Post#11 » by miller31time » Sat Jan 10, 2009 4:40 am

I'd also like to add that these DNP's and watching Pesh head to the scorers table....they aren't doing JaVale any good in the confidence department.

If there's one thing you absolutely CANNOT take away from a young player with loads of potential, it's confidence. I believe that's happening right now, and it's making me sick.
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Re: Free McGee! 

Post#12 » by TheBigThree » Sat Jan 10, 2009 4:43 am

miller31time wrote:
TheBigThree wrote:
hands11 wrote:My explanation for no McGee is this. There is time to develop him because he isn't going anywhere. They know they have Gold. The season is long still. There are plenty of game this year and next.

I think the players you saw play were a lot more the players they want to know if they are going to keep or trade. NY went off. That great. OP got PT again. Critt got more burn.

We can't do this all at once of it will be chaos.

Thats my take. I wouldn't worry to much about McGee getting minutes right now. We need to figure out what to do with these other players. Shows chase some for trade and evaluate some to see if we want to trade them.
Exactomundo.

We know what we have in Javale. We need to push Blatche and work Pech in to find out what they can do. It's not like Tap isn't playing the young guys. On the contrary, he's giving NY, Critt, Dmac and Blatche solid minutes. Javale isn't going anywhere and certainly isn't going to turn into a beast instantaneously.

He'll get enough minutes to let him adjust to the NBA game. Right now, Blatche offers infinitely more than McGee does. I think McGee should certainly be off the bench in most situations before Etan, but you don't develop your young talent by throwing them all out there at once.


This isn't about "knowing what we have" in McGee. It's about making a decent rookie with tons of potential actually get a head-start on fulfilling this potential.

Make no mistake about it, the Wizards are not going into next season expecting 30-40 wins and a low seed in the playoffs. We're getting Gil back. We're getting Haywood back. We're getting a top-3 pick. We are going to have expectations of a 45-50-win-team.

We aren't going to have time to groom the youngin's. What we need to do is get the grooming done NOW.

If you can give me any reason whatsoever to play Caron Butler and Antawn Jamison 40+ minutes a night, please do so. Are we show-casing them? Are we trying to find out "what we have" in them? Ugh...
Which is exactly what Tap is doing.

It's not like McGee has been getting DNP's all season. I think you know how Tap works. He gives players a week or two to see what they have, then switches it up. AJ and Caron, barring injury, are going to log minutes, considering we don't have any reason to experiment with those positions. Besides them, Tap is experimenting and mixing stuff up.

How exactly do you propose we find out what we have in Pech, Blatche and McGee without cutting back one of their minutes? I don't really understand it. Do you not see that Tap is at least making an effort to play the young guys? Just because McGee hasn't gotten much burn over the past week doesn't mean Tap isn't trying to develop our young talent.

Like I said, you can't just throw them all out there and expect them to perform properly. You need veterans there to lead them through it.

Again, expect McGee to get minutes, but the season is still early.
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Re: Free McGee! 

Post#13 » by miller31time » Sat Jan 10, 2009 4:52 am

TheBigThree wrote:Which is exactly what Tap is doing.

It's not like McGee has been getting DNP's all season. I think you know how Tap works. He gives players a week or two to see what they have, then switches it up. AJ and Caron, barring injury, are going to log minutes, considering we don't have any reason to experiment with those positions. Besides them, Tap is experimenting and mixing stuff up.

How exactly do you propose we find out what we have in Pech, Blatche and McGee without cutting back one of their minutes? I don't really understand it. Do you not see that Tap is at least making an effort to play the young guys? Just because McGee hasn't gotten much burn over the past week doesn't mean Tap isn't trying to develop our young talent.

Like I said, you can't just throw them all out there and expect them to perform properly. You need veterans there to lead them through it.

Again, expect McGee to get minutes, but the season is still early.


This is not what Tap has been doing at all (not with McGee, at least). Ever since EJ has gone, McGee hasn't notched a 20-minute game. He has been pulled from the starting lineup and seen his minutes regress on a game-by-game basis, to the point where even in blowout losses, he's getting no burn.

This is not part of Tap's master plan, nor is it something he's done with other players.

You bring up having to find out what other players have. What exactly are you talking about? What DON'T we know about Pecherov? He's a 7fter who hangs out on the perimeter, does a decent if not unimpressive job of rebounding, can't defend worth a lick, has poor shot selection and is one-dimensional.

How do I know this? He's been on the team for over a year, now. He's gotten playing time in which to evaluate him.

Crittenton plays point guard. Not very hard to find minutes for a young point guard....not on this roster.

McGuire has been getting big minutes because Stevenson has become garbage and is injured (and not playing).

It's not that difficult to find 10-15 minutes for McGee. How do you do it? You stop playing Antawn Jamison 40mpg when our team has won 7 games. Play him 30mpg. Boom, there's 10 minutes already for McGee. Cut back Blatche's minutes by 3. Bam, there 13. Cut back Songaila's by 5. And we're already up to 17.

You simply find a way to play your rookies and young players when you have 7 wins and it's almost the middle of the season. We've done a good job of this with everyone but McGee.
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Re: Free McGee! 

Post#14 » by Bickerstaff » Sat Jan 10, 2009 5:21 am

Tapscott clearly isn't afraid to play the young guys. So could it be possible that the organization thinks it would be detrimental for McGee to be handed playing time? I get the impression from comments a day or two ago that other players are doing more to earn their minutes than McGee. If that's true, do you still think he should be rewarded? Couldn't that hurt his development, maturity-wise, more than it would help his game? I don't have the answer to any of that, but I guess my point is that none of you do either.
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Re: Free McGee! 

Post#15 » by TheBigThree » Sat Jan 10, 2009 5:22 am

miller31time wrote:This is not what Tap has been doing at all (not with McGee, at least). Ever since EJ has gone, McGee hasn't notched a 20-minute game. He has been pulled from the starting lineup and seen his minutes regress on a game-by-game basis, to the point where even in blowout losses, he's getting no burn.

This is not part of Tap's master plan, nor is it something he's done with other players.

You bring up having to find out what other players have. What exactly are you talking about? What DON'T we know about Pecherov? He's a 7fter who hangs out on the perimeter, does a decent if not unimpressive job of rebounding, can't defend worth a lick, has poor shot selection and is one-dimensional.

Heh, we know just about as much about Pech as we do about McGee at this point. Pech hasn't exactly played many more games than McGee, and certainly hasn't seen the extended PT consistently that McGee received while EJ was here. I could say well, McGee is a project who can make amazing plays based on his outstanding athletic ability. Doesn't have any sort of post game, and on defense he relies on selling out for a block, often resulting in him being out of position. We know precisely what McGee offers our team this season.

To say we definitively know what we have in Pech, but not McGee (as far as this season goes) is very silly.

Crittenton plays point guard. Not very hard to find minutes for a young point guard....not on this roster.

McGuire has been getting big minutes because Stevenson has become garbage and is injured (and not playing).

I fail to see your point. I mentioned them because your initial post talked about getting the grooming in now, which is exactly what he's doing, sans McGee.

It's not that difficult to find 10-15 minutes for McGee. How do you do it? You stop playing Antawn Jamison 40mpg when our team has won 7 games. Play him 30mpg. Boom, there's 10 minutes already for McGee. Cut back Blatche's minutes by 3. Bam, there 13. Cut back Songaila's by 5. And we're already up to 17.

I agree with this 100%. 10-15 minutes is perfect. That also happens to be his average for the season. It's not like he's been gathering DNP's all year long. Without a doubt he should first off the bench, and I'd love to see Tap go big like he did early on and play McGee with Blatche and Songaila.

Judging by how Tap regulates playing time, he'll get more minutes soon enough. Whether we like it or not, Tap believes in going with a core of 8 guys for a week or two, and then switching it up. It seems like this week it's McGees turn to sit.
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Re: Free McGee! 

Post#16 » by miller31time » Sat Jan 10, 2009 5:44 am

TheBigThree wrote:Heh, we know just about as much about Pech as we do about McGee at this point. Pech hasn't exactly played many more games than McGee, and certainly hasn't seen the extended PT consistently that McGee received while EJ was here. I could say well, McGee is a project who can make amazing plays based on his outstanding athletic ability. Doesn't have any sort of post game, and on defense he relies on selling out for a block, often resulting in him being out of position. We know precisely what McGee offers our team this season.

To say we definitively know what we have in Pech, but not McGee (as far as this season goes) is very silly.


Silly? McGee has shown glimpses of being an All-Star-caliber center in this league. Unfortunately, he's also shown glimpses of being an end-of-the-bench player. This shows me that he needs playing time to develop the parts of his game that need work, and gain some sense of consistency. What glimpses have you seen from Pesh?....wait, better question....have you seen any? Because I've seen nearly every game Oleksiy Pecherov has played in and I have yet to see a player who could be a starter in this league. I have yet to see a player who could be a rotation player in this league. Playing time is not going to make him one. Off-season work is. There's a BIG difference between the respective situations of McGee and Pecherov and it is in no conceivable way "silly".

I fail to see your point. I mentioned them because your initial post talked about getting the grooming in now, which is exactly what he's doing, sans McGee.


Where did I disagree?

My quotes from this thread...

miller31time wrote:This is not what Tap has been doing at all (not with McGee, at least).


miller31time wrote:You simply find a way to play your rookies and young players when you have 7 wins and it's almost the middle of the season. We've done a good job of this with everyone but McGee.


The thread is titled "Free McGee!". Not "free all young players on Washington's roster".

I agree with this 100%. 10-15 minutes is perfect. That also happens to be his average for the season. It's not like he's been gathering DNP's all year long. Without a doubt he should first off the bench, and I'd love to see Tap go big like he did early on and play McGee with Blatche and Songaila.


I couldn't care less what his season averages are. They were garnered when EJ was coach (and I didn't really care for EJ so it obviously takes quite a bit to get me to compliment his rotation decisions). I care about his minutes per game under current head coach Edward Tapscott. And not looking at the numbers, I'd estimate that it's about 5 minutes per game. And that's including the first few games where Tap keep McGee starting since that's what EJ had in place.

Judging by how Tap regulates playing time, he'll get more minutes soon enough. Whether we like it or not, Tap believes in going with a core of 8 guys for a week or two, and then switching it up. It seems like this week it's McGees turn to sit.


I fail to see how we can do much more than speculate as to what Tapscott has in store for McGee. You would think he's going to give McGee more minutes later in the season, but at the same time, you would think he'd be giving McGee 1 minute or more currently. Sometimes, what you think just doesn't transpire on the hardwood.
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Re: Free McGee! 

Post#17 » by nate33 » Sat Jan 10, 2009 5:53 am

The only explanation I can think of is that this is part of Tapscott's 7-game-stretches plan. He wants to play the same 8+2 guys over 7 games, and then reevaluate. In theory, that's not that bad of a philosophy. I like tighter, 10-man rotations better than having to squeeze 12 players into the game. It just so happens that McGee hasn't been part of this 7-game stretch (or the last one, either).

It'll be interesting to see if McGee suddenly starts to get burn every night at some future date. I guess that would signify the start of a new 7-game stretch.
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Re: Free McGee! 

Post#18 » by MOrgil » Sat Jan 10, 2009 7:07 am

maybe we're shopping Darius and Etan, trying to trade them before the deadline?
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Re: Free McGee! 

Post#19 » by doclinkin » Sat Jan 10, 2009 8:10 am

MOrgil wrote:maybe we're shopping Darius and Etan, trying to trade them before the deadline?


I said in the Optimism thread: I think we're shopping _everybody_. All our longterm properties. Just keeping our ears open for deals.

We'll see JaVale alot late season when Gil returns to make sure the playoffs are nicely impossible n this weak East. Can't have the Big Three (or Four if Brendan's back) spoiling our chances of a top lotto pick, cheap allstar. So instead we'll play our allstar talent in spurts, or in odd combinations, while talking about developing the young players-- to blunt the possibility of win streaks except when we need to rack up quality wins against contending teams just to show we could still do it if we wanted to. Got to sell those season ticket plans for next year. But still like the option of a high lotto pick going into the offseason.
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Re: Free McGee! 

Post#20 » by WashWiz54 » Sat Jan 10, 2009 8:29 am

Alright here is my take on the whole McGee situation:

Plain and simple we know the kid is part of our future so his playing time has been cut. Sound ridiculous I know, but with further analysis it is actually quite smart. J-Critt, OPEC, D-Mac, Blatche, and Nick (to a lesser extent) all are or have had their future as a Wizard in question. Seeing if their in our future plans needs to be a priority.

The veterans are in a somewhat similar situation but their being showcased for trades. Right now we need to push the value of Mike, Etan, Darius, and any other veteran we want to deal before the deadline. This is priority number one because we only have about a month to get rid of them for some expirings.

Now unless these veterans play very well which some (Mike James) have, we'll have to throw in a sweetener. This is where seeing if a player is in our future or not comes in handy. If they are (like McGee) they won't be used as a sweetener, but if they prove not to be then they'll be on their way to a new franchise.

Following the All-Star break McGee and anyone else who has proven to be a key piece in the future will receive ample playing time. The "leftover" players who did not get traded or proved not to be in our future plans will be set to rot on the bench.

So while seeing a ton of McGee would be sweet, I understand why it isn't happening.

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