Los Angeles Lakers: Grading the “Suicide Squad” deals that followed LeBron James
JaVale McGee
JaVale McGee comes along with LeBron James, Michael Beasley, and Rajon Rondo as the only players on this team to ever win an NBA Finals. McGee has been the most recent one to do it, so in a surprising late-career twist, he will be adding some quality veteran playoff experience to a roster that is lacking it.
JaVale is a pretty one-dimensional player in a league that keeps adding players who have multiple dimensions to their game. He’s a true center, and it’ll be interesting to see how often he plays with murmurs of a knockoff small-ball “Death Lineup” being discussed within the organization.
McGee only played 9.5 minutes per game for the Warriors last season, but that seems likely to increase with the Lakers. The Warriors have the luxury of Draymond Green, who can play the 5 very well for them to allow Klay Thompson, Steph Curry, and Kevin Durant to all be on the court at the same time. The Lakers don’t have that type of luxury as they just don’t have that level of talent. McGee will definitely get some real minutes and will most likely start at the center position.
McGee serves best as a great lob option on the offensive end while being a rim-protector on the defensive end. He shot 74.8 percent from 0-3 feet from the basket last season and averaged 3.3 blocks per game per 36 minutes. The Lakers will need that type of production from him in increased minutes this season.
Analytics doesn’t bode well for the Lakers moving forward with McGee instead of Brook Lopez this season. McGee’s Real Plus-Minus was -0.31 last season, while Lopez’s was 0.29. Lopez added 3.94 wins while McGee only added 1.15.
Hopefully, those numbers increase with the more substantial role, but those RPM numbers definitely show the Lakers have decreased value in the center position going into the 2018-19 season.