I Hate JaVale McGee

But for the record, yes, I do feel better. I hope you’re right. But if he is learning anything at all, he sure isn’t showing any signs of it.

I’m flattered, really.

I just want some sign that he’s learning. Small corrective steps. He doesn’t have to hold Dwight Howard scoreless for a game. He just needs to cover his man once in a while. Box out once in a while. Actually be in the correct spot once in a while. Not jump at every single pump fake. Go one game without throwing up a shot so ill-conceived that all fans can do is shake their heads and say, “what was he thinking?!”

Of course young players need time to develop. And yes, center is the slowest position to develop, I give you that. But you never saw Dwight Howard play this completely clueless on defense. He may have given up a lot of points when he was a rookie, but he at least showed good fundamentals. He gave fans reasons to expect much greater things. Ditto for Duncan, Shaq, Perkins, Nene, hell, even Erik Dampier never looked this bad on defense. That’s saying a lot.

Do you actually watch the games, or are you so obsessed with his bad qualities that you don’t recognize his good. He shot 50% from the field and grabbed 12 boards!

Actually, I do watch the games. Most of my observations from my post above came from the game you are talking about. And I don’t get excited about box score stats when the team is hemorrhaging points every time he takes the floor because of his really dumb mistakes. For everything JaVale did good last night, I saw at least 2 things that he did that was just totally stupid and hurt the team. Missed assignments on defense accounted for most of those stupid things, which don’t show up in the box score. If they did, JaVale would be leading the league in them. I’m convinced of it.

He’s a 2nd year player, he might as well be a rookie with how much PT he got last year.

I’m convinced now that Tapscott was justified in not playing McGee more last season. I mean, if you don’t even know where you are supposed to stand on the court, or where your man is on defense, then why do you deserve playing time in a game? Those are things that need to be learned in practice. Actually, most players learn those things their freshman year in high school, but I suppose McGee has some sort of mental disability to account for. Maybe he’ll learn to find his man by his 5th year in the league, if he’s lucky.

Frankly, I’m disgusted by your comments. I COMPLETELY disagree.

Sorry I offended you. I am going a little over the top, but it’s how I feel right now. I could be wrong. But I just think this is going nowhere. You get a sense when you watch a young talent that winds up being really good one day. I just don’t get that sense in Lemonhead. My guy instinct is telling me this project is a waste of time. Fortunately for you, I don’t make the decisions.

Like I said above, this is possible. But my gut says this is a waste of time.

Just as a side note – this seems to be EG’s MO – physically talented guys that need to learn how to play the game. See also: Young, Nick and Thornton, Al.

I actually think that both of those players are good contributors on both sides of the floor. They are both pretty good man on man defenders, and they are both pretty good at scoring. Their problems are that they need to round out their games on both sides of the floor. They need to learn to fight through screens better and anticipate their defender’s moves better on defense. On offense, they need to learn to pass the ball more and move better without the ball. But they give you something to be hopeful for on both ends.

McGee give me something to be hopeful for – on offense. But I’ve lost all hope of him being an overall positive contributor on defense. Hence my rant.

He must have done a lot of good things while I was turning my head in disgust and cursing. Seriously, though, I did see some good signs on offense. I think he has the potential to be a pretty good offensive player, if he can just cut down on his terrible shot selection. Defense, though? Meh. I still see a pogo stick out there. That is, when he was actually close enough to his man to contest the shot. That did result in a couple of blocks, but that had everything to do with his mad hops and hardly anything to do with good decision making on defense. It’s his decision making that I don’t see improving, and that really bothers me.