Wizards lose to Hawks: Final wrap, where Andray Blatche and JaVale McGee are developing projects
by Mike Prada on Mar 12, 2010 2:06 PM EST
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PrintJaVale McGee tends to be a really shy, innocent guy with the cameras on, which stands in stark contrast to his Twitter persona. He comes across like an innocent kid that is either a) used to people telling him what to do, and/or b) doesn't know any better. So it's not really surprising to hear him say some nonsensical thing like this:
"I feel like I'm still going to leave my feet sometimes because that's what has people scared to come to the hole half the time. So if I stop doing that then there'd be more scoring. I'd rather just be one foul and I leave my feet all the time and there's five misses than everybody score and just shoot it and not be afraid of me."
Obviously, that's not how defense works. Leaving your feet is bad because the mere length of your frame is what deters people, not your leaping ability (as Truth About It expertly shows). The fact that McGee thinks this is troubling, if only because it makes you wonder about his capacity to pick stuff up -- though it should be noted that Andray Blatche was touting McGee's hard work in the gym recently as a key to his improvement.
Meanwhile, two lockers down, Blatche was in a fairly defensive mood. He had a good game, but when asked about it, it said it didn't matter because the team lost. Blatche also had seven turnovers, which was a sign of a team-wide problem tonight that was big enough for Flip Saunders to zip into the press room quickly and give mostly curt answers about how his team was sloppy with the ball. One reporter in particular tried to prod some answers out of Blatche for his turnover problem, asking if there's anything he's doing in particular to try to work on it. Blatche kept repeating that he just needed more court time and experience dealing with being a featured guy, his voice sounding more annoyed than usual.
"I'm not used to getting double-teamed, Blatche said. "That's going to be an issue until...I gotta learn by playing, and it's going to get better. They double-teamed, they rotated, and I'm trying to make plays, and it's just new."
And this was after a game in which the two combined for 50 points and 19 rebounds while largely outplaying Atlanta's talented front line. It just goes to show you that these guys have so much natural ability that's only now being harnessed. They still struggle with such rudimentary concepts of basketball, and yet, they can still be this good without much development.
It's a pretty nice thing to think about even though the Wizards lost. Give these guys some better guards and some more attention, and things will be even better.
Four Factors (Bold=very good | Italics=very bad)
| Team | Pace | Off Eff | eFG% | FT/FG | OREB% | TOr |
| Atlanta | 92 | 114.1 | 57 | 31.6 | 32.4 | 15.2 |
| Washington |
107.6 | 50 | 27.8 | 50 | 22.8 |
Snap reaction: Wait a minute, the Wizards grabbed half of all available offensive rebound chances? Holy crap! And ... wow that's bad on the turnovers.
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About Javale
I think what he said was ok he just put it the wrong way. I agree with him jumping on D, just not on the majority of plays. I think what he meant to say was that he needs to jump every now and then to show the other team, “hey look, im long and i got hops, so your gonna have to put up your shot in some kinda crazy way” and after they get the picture, he can settle down and just keep his hands up. But if thats all he really does then nobody will be worried about how they drive. By him jumping every now and then it keeps the opposition with something to think about.
Yeah but nobody will forget how high he can jump.
All he has to do is be there, and he’s already a deterrent. That realization will come in time.
Its gotta be difficult for him, staying down on his feet. Imagine being that tall and being able to explode vertically like that. In your mind, you HAVE to believe that you can get to 90% of the shots put up anywhere near you. Especially as a young player it has to be really hard to fight that urge. And guys like dwight and amare leave their feet on defense a lot but they know how to time and judge their jumps and j-mac will too eventually.
McGee will learn.
I don’t think that you can gauge his capacity to learn basketball concepts by the fact that he has not yet learned this one at this stage of his development. Its a process. The only issue is that he is in a bit of a denial-stage holding pattern, where he is cutting back on a bad behavior/tendency at the behest of coach and others, yet doesn’t objectively see the true problem with his tendency. But to take that quote as the whole enchilada is to ignore the fact that he is staying down more now than he did before.
As for the potential of the Blatche/McGee tandem. One word. Wow.
Once blatche starts to recognize where the double team is coming from and what areas of the court are unbalanced defensively as a result, and how to get the ball there either directly or indirectly (i.e. swing it around), he will be scary. He’s absolutely right by the way, he was double teamed for the first time in his career a couple weeks ago. Its a process, it will come with experience, and there’s no real way to speed it up. Same for McGee’s tendency to leave his feet.
by jones-y on Mar 12, 2010 2:29 PM EST reply actions 1 recs
yeah seeing those 2 progress is THE saving grace of this season
blatche is a naturally good passer – just needs to identify things and make decisions quicker. he is more than capable of this.
and mcgee – i think he has made progress, even on the defensive end. there’s a loooong way to go, but he’s right in the sense that fear of him blocking shots is definitely an advantage.
i don’t doubt he’ll get better as well. just this year, i’ve gone from being really worried about him ever figuring it out to thinking yeah, with a little work i’d be comfortable with him starting next year.
progress indeed.
"how ironic - you came here with a mouse in a bottle, now YOU are the mouse in the bottle" - B.M. Smith
by little stevie colter on Mar 12, 2010 2:39 PM EST up reply actions
Rec'd
Agree on the one word: Wow.
You nailed 2 important points, one of which is that Blatche WILL learn how to beat double teams and that’s nothing you can do without actually doing it. But his court vision is as good as most point guards and he will be a franchise player because of it. He is the kind of player you can run an offense through and he’ll make players better. I doubt most of us have realized just how high the ceiling is on Blatche.
Secondly, the improvement in McGee’s defensive positioning is very noticable. Long way to go, but it says alot that a guy can have that kind of an impact on the game before even knowing how to play.
Bottom line is when you have McGee and Blatche as cornerstones (and I haven’t ruled out Arenas as a 3rd cog either ), and you have plenty of cap room, your franchise is in good shape for the future.
by JonathanJoseph on Mar 12, 2010 2:47 PM EST up reply actions
As much as wiz fans malign Grunfeld,
kudos are in order for finding these two.
And for not trading Blatche last month. Although I imagine it went something like this:
Grunfeld: How about a trade?
Jordan: What. Me? trade with You? Lemme call you right back…
I prefer to malign Ernie for even thinking about trading Blatche
You know you'll get devoured by Cheaney, Wallace, and Juwan Howard.
Oh I know your preference lol. I'm just saying...
Its like how a bad shot becomes a good shot if it goes in… He didn’t make an almost catastrophic trade. So it was a good move…
Wes
We have one of the greatest centers to ever play the game around the organization yet, though I don’t know in what capacity anymore, and I’ve always been disappointed with the lack of development concerning most of our big men over the years. I also know that the game/rules have changed since he played, plus he was only 6’6" on a good day so approached the inside game from a different perspective. BUT this team, as long as I’ve followed it(1970+), has never had anyone who did the basics/small things better than Wes. When I watch JaVale the thought that goes through my head is “Wes, help this kid”, particularly on the defensive end….though, as I mentioned, I have no idea what his role with the team is anymore.
Just because a person can 'do' something, doesn't mean he can teach it.
I can play piano. You can pay me for piano lessons at your own peril…
As I said
the lack of development of our big men(obviously with Wes around since he never really left the organization) has always been a disappointment so people say he can’t teach…and that may be so, but JaVale is so raw and malleable right now that I find it hard to believe that after a conversation or two, with Wes, JaVale would walk away without learning anything.
the lack of development of our big men(obviously with Wes around since he never really left the organization) has always been a disappointment so people say he can’t teach
Hmmm. Not that I know, but it would seem that people could either say he can’t teach based on the results (his pupils don’t improve), or they could say he can’t teach based on his teaching skills, or lack thereof (by watching him actually try and teach)… How are you so certain its the first and not the second?
Wordplay
My point, which I thought was pretty clear(but apparently not), was that despite the team’s disappointing development of young big men JaVale could only benefit from talking to Wes…regardless if the lack of prior development was directly his fault or not. Does that mean he’s guaranteed to learn anything, of course not…but if there is a chance he can, why not take advantage of it?
How are you so certain its the first and not the second?
My original post never made a judgement either way, only that I was disappointed with most past results. I mentioned the perception that people have of Wes not being able to teach only after you said:
Just because a person can ‘do’ something, doesn’t mean he can teach it.
So how do you know he can’t? I wasn’t there which is why I didn’t pass judgement either way on whether it was the student(s) or the teacher at fault(or both). You are the one who stated he can’t teach and then classified it into two groups, you should be answering your own question.
To reiterate:
I think Wes is a potential resource that could benefit JaVale(and maybe they have been talking, as I said I don’t know Wes’ status) in certain areas. Does it guarantee success? Of course not and if it accomplishes nothing then the status quo continues. In my opinion though, to not try would be a small failure.
I have no problem with you disagreeing with me and I don’t mind debating facts, opinions, etc….I’m just not interested in continuing this line of wordplay.
I don't recall saying he couldn't teach.
You are the one who stated he can’t teach
I did? I thought I said ‘not that I know’?
and then classified it into two groups
I did?
you should be answering your own question.
Okay. Whatever. Sorry for trying to hold a conversation, won’t happen again…
No back to our regularly scheduled program. To paraphrase, you are the one who, somehow, related the development of the wiz big men to the presence of Wes as a member of the organization. Your implication being that Wes should act as a teacher. You made that connection, not me.
All I did was engage in dialogue about it. Something along the lines of ‘not that I would know, but maybe he can’t teach.’ If that rubs you the wrong way, then the problem is with you, my friend.
Next, you are the one who made the connection between lack of development of bigs, and people getting the impression he can’t teach. Not me. I simply replied to say that the progress of the pupil is not the only criteria by which teachers can be evaluated.
Sorry to confuse you with reason. I’ll try to sound stupid next time so you can win.
Apparently
insults are the refuge of reason/intelligence. Good to know for us stupid people who can’t reason.
If you can’t look at what you’ve written and understand the implications of it in the discussion at hand then your definition of reason is different from mine and there is no point to continuing this.
Carry on with the insults.
Actually...
Our Bigs haven’t had the lack of development that most think. It’s just that it takes longer for Bigs to develop. Haywood didn’t break out until his late 20’s and Blatche is breaking out at 24. Rarely do bigs contribute significantly before 25 years old.
by JonathanJoseph on Mar 12, 2010 3:40 PM EST up reply actions
The following people disagree with you
Rarely do bigs contribute significantly before 25 years old.
Al Horford
Kendrick Perkins
Joakim Noah
Kevin Garnett
Anderson Varejao
Dirk
Kenyon Martin
Andris Biedrins
Yao
Chris Kaman
Andrew Bynum
Pau Gasol
Lamar Odom
Marc Gasol
Zach Randolph
Jermaine O’Neal
Andrew Bogut, to a certain extent (he was good before, now he’s great)
Kevin Love
Al Jefferson
Brook Lopez
Emeka Okafor
David Lee
Dwight Howard
Elton Brand
Amare Stoudemire
Robin Lopez
Tim Duncan
Chris Bosh
Carlos Boozer
That’s way too many exceptions to speak of it as a bona fide trend. The truth is sometimes they need more time and sometimes they don’t. Just like any other position.
You know you'll get devoured by Cheaney, Wallace, and Juwan Howard.
Bright Side
On the bright side — McGee put up 20 & 9 with 8 dunks while demonstrating clearly that he still doesn’t know how to play. If he figures it out, he’ll be a monster. On the “not so bright side,” his defense is atrocious. And it’s not just biting on pump fakes. It’s losing his man while standing under the basket. It’s standing flat-footed with his arms up while the opposition executes a screen/roll right in front of him. It’s getting outrun to the defensive end of the floor by opposing bigs. It’s getting pushed around and overpowered in the paint routinely. But his physical ability is awesome.
by TheSecretWeapon on Mar 12, 2010 4:08 PM EST reply actions
That's why I believe McGee has a lot of trade value right now...
…he looks awesome, which implies a really high ceiling, but at the same time when you watch his game for a while you gotta wonder whether he’s ever going to get it. I mean, his mother played ball for years; he’s been coached for years, and he still shows the same bad basketball habits. If you find a team another really enamored with him such that they ignore his flaws, maybe you listen to a trade offer.
you gotta wonder whether he’s ever going to get it
You know I keep hearing that sentiment over and over. Are people really that impatient? How many total minutes has Javale McGee played in his NBA career to date? Really.
They don’t teach you how to play in the nba when you’re in college. Or high school. Or at your mommy’s wnba practice.
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