McGee on the US National team?

by ToughHibachi on Jul 21, 2010 7:41 PM EDT

Do you all think JaVale McGee has a legitimate shot at making the team?

Dwight is not there, Bosh is not there, Boozer is not there, Amar'e is not there, Robin Lopez is injured, David Lee is now injured. I believe the only centers participating in the training camp right now are Tyson Chandler, Brook Lopez, and EpicVale. 15 players make the roster, 12 travel to Turkey. The team will no doubt be very guard heavy, but with all the injuries and no shows, McGee has a chance.

If he makes it, it will help him tremendously. He will learn from some of the more experienced guys and hopefully learn a thing or two from Chandler and Lopez. Obviously McGee will be way out of his league right now, playing with Rondo, Rose, Durant, Odom, Billups, and the other two centers, but practice is practice, and it would help his confidence too. Not to mention there are also quite a few rookies from last season participating, Steph Curry, Tyreke Evans, etc.

They showed the first practice last night on NBA TV. I'm not sure when else they practice, but it was pretty cool to watch. I'm hoping they will continue to televise the rest of the practices. First exhibition game is August 15th vs. France at MSG.

This represents the view of the user who wrote the FanPost, and not the entire Bullets Forever community. We're a place of many opinions, not just one.

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Making the roster is for the World Championships in Turkey

not for the Olympics, but it would go a long way. Maybe by 2012, he is an all star with International experience…..

by ToughHibachi on Jul 21, 2010 7:43 PM EDT reply actions

There is supposed to be a scrimmage on Saturday

in Vegas, but I don’t know if it will be televised. I agree that just practicing with the team should benefit JaVale. If he does make the team, which I think is still doubtful barring further injury, would help him even more. By the way, I say it is still doubtful because they haven’t really relied on typical Centers in international play. Instead they have relied more on NBA 4s to play Center because of the nature of international play. My guess is that they take only Chandler and Lopez.

by CJ Hempfield on Jul 21, 2010 8:55 PM EDT reply actions

Javale's probably a better shooter than Chandler or Robyn Lopez

It’s not much, but it could help. Still, I think it’s more likely they just take Brook Lopez and a power forward to be his backup.

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by pantslessyoda1 on Jul 21, 2010 11:51 PM EDT up reply actions

Hehe

They could play Javale’s jumper off a Rondo screen, lol

We're from the city with the highest murder rate in the country. Why WOULDN'T they call us the Bullets?

by Bullet Nation in Exile on Jul 24, 2010 10:12 AM EDT up reply actions

I say he'll make it....

and the coaches will figure out a way to make the most out of his skills.

by Izman on Jul 21, 2010 9:24 PM EDT reply actions

McGee will

improve tremendously if he plays for the US national team. It would be an amazing learning experience for him.

by NY1 on Jul 21, 2010 9:57 PM EDT reply actions

I forgot Kevin Love is with the team too

I’d say McGee has about a 1 in 3 chance of making the team for the Worlds.

by ToughHibachi on Jul 21, 2010 10:14 PM EDT reply actions

I'm curious to know

why everyone thinks that playing on the Worlds team would be so much more of a learning experience for him than all of the NBA minutes he’s played.

by MR on Jul 21, 2010 10:25 PM EDT reply actions

playing with some of the best players and some of the top coaching in the world can only help.

by DaGribb on Jul 22, 2010 9:36 AM EDT up reply actions

I guess...

but it’s not exactly the dream team there this year.

by MR on Jul 22, 2010 1:11 PM EDT up reply actions

How can this not be a learning experience?

You get to travel, eat, practice, lift, train, and play with some of the best young NBA players in the world. Eat-breath-sleep basketball for weeks with some of the best and most dedicated players and coaches.

You’re not hanging out with goofy Nick Young or Gilbert Arenas. There’s basically zero chance of regressing in attitude, focus, and skills on a team like this. Hard to pick up bad habits from great players, coaches, and staff and easy to dump existing bad habits in a setting like this.

No it’s not exactly the Dream Team here, but the setting sure as heck is light years better than the Washington Wizards of the past 2 years.

by formula0 on Jul 23, 2010 11:16 AM EDT up reply actions

because he hasn't experienced winning before

since he’s been in the league, his team has won less than 50 games. i don’t think they’ve even had a winning streak of more than 3 or 4 games.

this could (maybe, possibly) be a significant moment for his defensive development for the simple reason that a commitment to defense comes easier when you’ve seen your team actually win by shutting other teams down. in a losing culture, at a certain point bad defense isn’t even always about a lack of effort – its about a lack of trust. at that point your nba minutes become a learning experience where you learn bad habits to make up for other bad habits…and so on. but if you know/demand that your teamates will have your back and vice versa, and that the system will actually WORK, then a defensive attitude can become contagious. lets hope he catches the bug and brings it back to dc with him.

by dcball on Jul 22, 2010 7:00 PM EDT up reply actions 1 recs

i will be dumbfounded

if he makes the team. team usa shouldn’t be for projects.

by DarrellWalkerFan on Jul 21, 2010 10:33 PM EDT reply actions

Interesting comment by John Schumann from today

After Durant, I think the star of the 10 minutes was McGee. The last-minute addition to the roster was active. He had a block, a couple of interior shot-contests and a few strong rebounds, two of them offensive and one of those a huge put-back dunk off a Durant miss. McGee did go 0-for-2 from the line though.

Source: NBA’s Hangtime Blog

by CJ Hempfield on Jul 22, 2010 10:04 PM EDT up reply actions

mcgee has shown repeatedly

that he can shine in garbage time pickup games, but he hasn’t shown that he can be in the right spots or defensive rebound when playing team basketball. if he ends up making the team my hunch is he’ll be a source of frustration for the coaching staff more than anything else.

by DarrellWalkerFan on Jul 23, 2010 1:19 PM EDT up reply actions

Quite possibly

Selfishly that could help us in that it would be the rough equivalent of sending him to summer school. :) Maybe a couple of months of another coaching staff drilling this into his head should only help. (Wishful thinking on my part)

by CJ Hempfield on Jul 23, 2010 3:39 PM EDT reply actions

point taken

and i like that people in the basketball world outside the wiz see so much promise in him. i do hope he becomes a star for the wizards.

however, we’re supposed to be sending our best, our dream team of sorts, to the world championships. the idea that javale mcgee, right now, is one of our best is laughable to me.

by DarrellWalkerFan on Jul 23, 2010 4:04 PM EDT up reply actions

I suggest

you call Dwight Howard and let him know then. I doubt JaVale makes the squad, but he could do fairly well in an up tempo style of international play where most teams can’t compete with size, and you can take the ball off the rim. No matter what, it’s a good thing that he’s invited to the camp. If he makes it, then he can benefit from the experience. If he doesn’t, then his supposed ego gets taken down a peg and motivation ensues.

by Jim America on Jul 23, 2010 4:17 PM EDT up reply actions

maybe it's this line of thinking

if we get beat with mcgee out there, we can blame it on youth and inexperience – whereas if we get beat with say, brendan haywood out there filling in, then we just look bad.

by DarrellWalkerFan on Jul 23, 2010 4:30 PM EDT up reply actions

It's also this line of thinking

If the last go-around is any indication, they will look for these players to commit through the next Olympics.

by Jim America on Jul 23, 2010 5:19 PM EDT up reply actions

Take the kid with neverending length and hops like a kangaroo

who has only been playing center for a bare handful of years and train him to take the ball off the rim in the cheesy Euro way. Brewhahahaha.

Not sure that’s going to work out so well for us, though….

by yop32 on Jul 23, 2010 6:37 PM EDT up reply actions

Just found out JaVale was cut from the National team

Not sure why they would choose Brook Lopez over JaVale especially when he is recovering from mono. Makes no sense! I’m guessing it’s because Lopez has a bigger name than JaVale at this point, but was clearly outplayed the entire time in camp.

On another note…how does Steph Curry get chosen over Tyreke Evans?? Better shooter i guess? To me, Tyreke is a much more dominant player than Steph.

by TheRealBigMike on Jul 28, 2010 3:10 PM EDT reply actions