I think everyone expected McGee to be a solid signing for Phoenix who could provide much-needed rebounding and rim running. But when you really dive into his production this season...it's honestly crazy.
McGee is averaging 10.8/7.6 and 0.8 blocks on a career-high 68% TS, but primarily as Ayton's backup. His Per 36 numbers are:
24.4 points (career high)
17.1 rebounds (career high)
10.4 2Ps (career high)
3.3 FTs (2nd best of career)
Advanced numbers love his production as well. His BPM of 2.0 is a career-high. His EPM ranks...6th in the entire NBA, wedged between LeBron and Durant!
The Suns also boast a defensive rating of just 97 with McGee on the court, which is absurd.
Where does he rank among the league's backup bigs?
>S/o @JaValeMcGee for being a man of his word. Merry Christmas fam
The message:
>Fuck you
>Man of my word! All Love young fella!
Context:
Three weeks ago JTA called his poster on McGee his best dunk:
>Congrats young fella ill sign it for you!
>Ima bring it Xmas day.
Suns' depth at center is crazy for a team that didn't have any good big men before Ayton was drafted in 2018.
Anthony Slater posted a video of JTA answering the press:
> JTA called that dunk on JaVale McGee the best in-game dunk of his career. Answer includes an Andris Biedrins shoutout.
Streamable mirror here of that video
Then, JaVale McGee quote tweeted that video from Anthony Slater with this:
> Congrats young fella ill sign it for you!
>JaVale McGee on playing for Monty Williams: "The way Monty talks to me and instills confidence in me, I can't say nothing bad about Monty. I gotta run through a wall for him. You see, every time I go out there. I don't care what minutes he gives me ... I just try to go balls to the wall."
Also: The only Sun who played more than 10 minutes who didn't score 10+ points was Elfrid Payton (who did not score at all in 16 minutes).
He’s played solid to great for the Suns consistently all year. Occasionally he’ll do something insane….but not nearly as often as you’d think.
Javale is playing 15 minutes a game and averaging 10.5 points and 7.4 rebounds this season. His fg% and ft% are decent at .658 and .697 respectively.
He was rostered in 33% last week but has jumped to 45% of leagues currently, maybe because of the nba.com article or yahoo recommending him as a pickup.
For 9cat, is he a streamer or a solid hold for the almost double double per game?
“Going to Golden State was life-changing for me. Seeing the way a real organization works...they were definitely a players team. 1-15 everybody was locked in.” — @JaValeMcGee https://twitter.com/clubshayshay/status/1438912130594459650?s=21 .@JaValeMcGee on what he expects from Klay Thompson in his return:
“I expect the old Klay. I can maybe see him slacking on defense in the first month because in the offseason you don’t get those reps. But offensively, he didn’t hurt his arm, so that boy is going to shoot.” https://twitter.com/clubshayshay/status/1438624711328469035?s=21
The play:
Payton comes upcourt for a screen. His defender leaves him to double Curry, who passes to the elbow, who lobs the ball up for Payton to dunk.
Because apparently we can play a 6'3" guard at center on offense.
And it works.
From shaqtin a fool legend to olympian legend. Javale McGee is a center for team USA and Phoenix Suns. Javale McGee is a a basketball player. Basketball is a sport where you make baskets.
I just finished watching the NBC documentary "For Ball and Country" about the US Men's Olympic Basketball team and it got me thinking. JaVale has obviously taken a lot of grief during his basketball career for not always making the smartest plays, especially as a young player. It's pretty impressive that he's now a 3X NBA Champion and Olympic Gold medalist.
The list of active NBA players with at least 2 Championships is actually surprisingly short:
4 Titles: (1 player) Lebron James
3 Titles: (8 players) Stephen Curry, Danny Green, Draymond Green, Udonis Haslem, Andre Iguodala, Patrick McCaw, JaVale McGee, Klay Thompson
2 Titles: (7 players) Chris Boucher, Quinn Cook, Kevin Durant, Damian Jones, Kawhi Leonard, Kevon Looney, Rajon Rondo
I think that's everyone. Let me know if I missed anyone. Only 56 days until the season begins!
Edit #1: Make that 6 players with 2 titles. I didn't know about Chris Boucher with 2 (GSW / TOR).
Edit #2: Changed format to help w/ mobile + old Reddit.
Edit #3: Can't believe I forgot my boy Kevon Looney as #7 w/ 2 Titles!
Note: I plan to capture and record the top individual figures from each game from the previous day. Plus/minus is not a perfect statistic by any means, and it is often used as an index of individual performance like counting stats. That's NOT what I intend to do here. I think single game +/- figures can reflect interesting things that are not immediately obvious about games from the headlines. Which players made a two-way impact? Which players are part of particularly useful rotations? When did teams win games? Some games are won in the 2nd quarter, for example, when players like Ty Jerome provide a stopgap to keep a Thunder team competitive with the Lakers when nobody else is making baskets.
- Jordan Clarkson (+29 in 31 minutes)
- Denis Schroeder (+26 in 30 minutes)
- Andre Drummond (+20 in 18 minutes).
- Ty Jerome (+18 in 21 minutes)
- Javale McGee (+13 in 17 minutes)
https://www.basketball-reference.com/players/m/mcgeeja01.html
JaVale has been a fantastic pick up for the Suns this season, although unable to really play high minutes for conditioning/asthma reasons his per 36 numbers have been absurd.
24 points 16 rebounds and 2 blocks on over 65% from the field.
https://twitter.com/Underdog__NBA/status/1476690774549008388
Unlucky
