So is McGee - after 5 years in the league. The difference is Leonard has a chance to get better. You constantly bash Leaonard for his poor instincts on defense. McGee's are worse. He tries to block EVERYTHING and constantly leaves his man wide open under the basket. Gives up WAY too many easy baskets and offensive rebounds. Forget the individual stats and look at his advanced team stats on 82games.com. There's a reason he rides the pine behind Kosta Koufos. The guy kills his team when he's on the court. In terms of team defense, we'd be better resigning Hickson. Seriously, that's how bad McGee is. BNM
This might be overanalyzing, but I'd be curious to see how many of those rookie centers played only one season of basketball after reaching a height about 6'5"
More individual stats... Did you go to 82games.com and look at his on court/off court stats? His team is -6.1 per 48 minutes when he's on the court. Koufos is +6.9. That's a difference of 13 points per 48 between Koufos and McGee, and it's why Koufos starts and McGee gets 18 mpg. So, what's more important, gaudy individual stats or winning? If it's the former, we might as well keep Hickson. We won't suck any less on defense and he'll be a lot cheaper. BNM
MM - we all know and agree that filling our center position with someone better should be our most high priority this offseason. Although McGee would make us slightly better than we are today....its not enough. He isn't going to help us get to the next level. I hope Olshey resists the notion of just making change for change sake. We need to get the right player in that 5 spot.
At least McGee has upside, which is more that some of the options. I guess I would rather have a guy who plays great 80% and is a bone head 20%, than a guy who can't play at a high level at all. He's also from my alma mater (Nevada)--although that hasn't boded well in the past.
I'd take McGee! He maybe dumb; but when you already have two good leaders in Aldridge and Lillard; he would fit in nicely. What we need is a player that intimidates the guards from trying to score in the paint. Aldridge is a great one on one defender; while he is poor at help defense. McGee is a poor man in man defender but a great help defender. I think they would work great together. The added plus would be Lillard able to lob for dunks on three options. Batum, Aldridge and McGee all are great finishers off the lob. It would be such a headache for teams to defend that option while Lillard is so good at shooting from the perimeter. He is the best option because Denver is over luxury tax penalty. I bet they would take freeland, a second rounder and cap space for him.
After this deal; then Portland can retain maynor and sign a mle player. Leonard would be the first big off the bench and he would be able to play both positions. Use the first rounder to grab a pf/c combo and we are done!
It doesn't have to be McGee, if you can't get him then I would take any of the other 2 Centers on DEN's roster.
This is exactly it. Throw out his numbers and just do the eye test. He has an Outlaw BBIQ and is a horrid one on one defender. Wizard fans and Denver fans made/make fun of his defense all the time because outside of blocking shots he has no D. Blocking shots does not make you a good defensive player just like stealing the ball doesn't make you a good defender. Sent from my SPH-L710 using Tapatalk 2
Does McGee move the needle? If so, go for it. If not, maybe find someone cheaper and find a player at another position who does. -my guess at Olshey's thinking.
In all seriousness, I'm not sure McGee has bad instincts, or even low basketball IQ. I think it is more trying to do too much. Or maybe ADHD? He has skills. I watch a few of his games each year and he rolls when he is supposed to roll, he rotates on both ends well. What he also does though is take the ball from end line to end line instead of giving it up to a guard. Or try a dream shake when he has poor offensive footwork. Maybe simply immature like Leonard is supposedly?
Whether it's instinct, or a learned behavior, he puts way too much priority on getting as many blocks as possible and that causes him to be out of position and give up way to many easy baskets and offensive rebounds. Chris Andersen was the same way. I believe had incentive clauses written into his contract based on how many blocks he got, if he led the league in blocked shots, etc. The result was him chasing guards and small forwards around the key and leaving his man wide open under the basket. If McGee is still immature after five years in the league, why do you want him? Do you think he's suddenly going to grow up and become coachable? If Leonard is "supposedly" immature, at least he seems like a hard worker who is willing to listen to his coaches. George Karl basically gave up on McGee and went with Koufos, and Denver is a better team for it. And it's not like Koufos is a defensive stopper. He just plays within himself, knows his limits and knows where he needs to be on defense. He boxes out and rebounds well. He doesn't have the gaudy individual stats McGee has, but he's so much better fundamentally, and Denver plays better when he's on the floor. I'm hopeful Leonard can become a similar player defensively and I think he'll be better offensively. Koufos is a good example of what happens when a young player is willing to listen to his coaches and improve his weaknesses. He's nowhere near the athlete McGee or Leonard are, but he's a rock solid starting center (PER = 17.3) on a team that's won 55 games and counting. And, he's younger than McGee, too. Too bad he's not available, but he's the reason McGee is. BNM
Javale McGee is one of the reasons I'm not too high on Leonard. They're similar when it comes to not knowing what to do. I made that comparison after the first summer league game. McGee at least gets rebounds and blks, though. He even had a way better rookie year than Meyers. Meyers Leonard is just soft.
