There Are No Excuses for JaVale McGee’s Volatility
As the Kings work to make their leap from good to great, the argument to be patient has some merit in a variety of ways as players adjust to tying loose ends together on both ends of the floor.
Throughout the 24 games so far this season, fans have seen the likes of Kevin Huerter working harder to do the little things, Keon Ellis clawing his way into the rotation, and Keegan Murray rediscovering the full extent of his outside shot as he scored 47 points on Saturday night with a franchise record 12 of 15 made three’s. It always seemed like a matter of time for them and others.
One guy, however, who is not as deserving of such a leash and who has worn the patience surrounding him incredibly thin is JaVale McGee.
McGee has solely held onto the backup (true) center job with Alex Len out with a high ankle sprain for the past five weeks or so. Outside of going with Trey Lyles at the small 5, the veteran 7-footer is the only reinforcement behind Domantas Sabonis with vertical size.
And throughout this month-plus, McGee has tossed some alley-oop’s and energetic defensive plays in a blender with a flurry of boneheaded habits to produce a smoothie of inconsistency and unreliability.
Although he’s a great lob target with immense verticality and a large catch radius for Malik Monk and others to look for, turnovers, needless fouls, goaltending violations, and poor pace of play have all marred JaVale McGee’s season thus far with the Kings.
Among all players who have appeared in at least 6 games, McGee leads the team in turnovers per 100 possessions. Moreover, among all NBA players that have appeared in at least 20 games, he has the sixth most turnovers per 100 possessions just behind five high-usage guys in Cade Cunningham, Darius Garland, Joel Embiid, Trae Young, and Luka Doncic.
McGee’s most frequent way of turning it over is his propensity for moving screens. Of all the guys in the league with at least 6 games played, he is first in non-charge offensive fouls per 100 possessions at just under 2. This trend also contributes to his generally high rates of personal fouls, which has McGee just behind Chris Duarte for fouls per 100 possessions for Kings players with at least 20 appearances.
Though he has proven to be a rim protector throughout his long career, he’s also proven that he’s still the king of goaltending. McGee is currently tied for eighth in the league with 4 such violations. Unsurprisingly, since the 2017-18 season, the big man has committed 100 goaltending violations, the most of any player, with the second most in that span being a comparatively low 64 committed by Clint Capela.
He’s also yet to prove he can play at the pace Mike Brown wants his team to run with possession to possession. Sometimes he’s just fine, but as is his overall problem, his inconsistency can lead to poor hustle. Granted this isn’t as big of an issue as some laid out above, but it’s something coach Brown has noted from the beginning of training camp (see here and here).
Sacramento is 24 games into this season and it’s unacceptable that McGee, who’s in his sixteenth season, is still playing catch up. The proclivity for silly mistakes is antithetical to the benefits of his veteran presence and the three championships to his name. Bringing someone in with that level of experience should not mean that he needs extra time to fine tune the little things. If anything, he should be playing a part in setting a standard, not being arguably the biggest hindrance to that standard.
The Kings abandoned a training camp competition for the final center spot on the roster in order to secure McGee’s services. Maybe a competition wouldn’t have mattered; after all, it’d be hard to argue that Nerlens Noel, Neemias Queta, or Skal Labissiere could earn a roster spot over McGee.
Nevertheless, McGee’s play is such that the accountability derived through healthy competition would probably be helping. Without it, all the Kings can do is continue to go small at the backup 5 in the second half and/or await the return of Len.
That’s because McGee’s simply continuing to do what he has done his whole career: he’s still saturated with volatility. For every energy play he helps produce, he seems to generate one or two head-scratching moments. He’ll throw down a lob or swat down an opponent’s shot, but just as one is ready to applaud the vet, he does something to evoke frustration. His inconsistency is his most consistent trait.
This is why, after the waiving of Filip Petrusev, it was posited on our podcast that the Kings may look at another 5 to try and keep McGee in check to some degree, to light a brighter competitive flame—though, again, a vet shouldn’t need that.
The open roster spot in question was filled last week with the signing of Juan Toscano-Anderson, the long, rangy wing that helped the Warriors win the championship a few years back with Mike Brown as their lead assistant.
Positionally, Toscano-Anderson won’t challenge McGee for his specific role, but he does bring a similar element.
This signing of JTA feels somewhat similar to the PJ Dozier signings last season. At that time, the Kings were in far greater need of a backup center, but Dozier’s signing showed that coach Brown won’t wait around for one to materialize (though, one did in Alex Len with 8 games left in the regular season).
Paired with Brown’s opinion of traditional shot blockers (i.e. he doesn’t buy into the idea that there’s a need for blocks), the Dozier signing indicated that if the Kings could get some length to help contain the dribble, the need for size—for a true center—would not be as great.
It’s hard not to see something similar in the Toscano-Anderson signing. If he earns opportunities, he can certainly supply defensive length to help minimize a need for interior size, which allows the Kings to play smaller. Sacramento has Lyles to be a small backup 5, and with Sasha Vezenkov’s presence, there’s no shortage of backup 4’s, meaning Lyles’ versatility can be fully tapped into.
It’s almost a way of showing McGee that it’s not just Len that can earn more minutes than you, it’s anyone.
That could benefit McGee. The competition and depth have increased just a little, but it could be enough to bring forth a better variation of McGee, and Len’s return would only amplify that.
However, as noted, there isn’t a ton of hope McGee can change. He seems to be a great teammate and does provide some valuable things, but he’s an old dog handcuffed to a deep track record of the frequent mistakes he’s once again demonstrated he’s prone to making.
For someone with his wealth of experience, there are just no excuses for JaVale McGee.
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