Even though the season is all but over for the Los Angeles Lakers, JaVale McGee has been putting up some big numbers for them.
While the Los Angeles Lakers have been knocked out of the playoff hunt already, that hasn’t stopped some players from playing quite hard. One of those players is JaVale McGee.
To start the season, McGee looked like a home run signing for the Lakers. While many of their offseason moves have been criticized of late, McGee has played well for the team this season. Overall this season, McGee has averaged 11.5 points, 7.1 rebounds, and 2.0 blocks per game.
Early on this season, the Lakers played very well defensively. While the injury to Lonzo Ball certainly hurt them in that area, McGee missing time with pneumonia certainly didn’t help either, as he wasn’t quite the same when he returned.
Even though the Lakers haven’t played great of late, McGee is playing really well, especially on the defensive end. After a win against the Sacramento Kings, Luke Walton spoke about McGee’s impact on the team. Here’s what he had to say via Harrison Faigen of SilverScreenAndRoll.com.
"“When we were having success defensively earlier in the season, our centers were a big part of that,” Walton said. “JaVale was kind of in and out of the rotation when he came back from that illness, but I thought he showed what he’s capable of as far as being that anchor defensively for the last two games.“I think he had five blocks (on Sunday), but he changed probably at least five, six, seven more shots where people came into the lane that he has to get credit for when we get stops because of it.”"
In his last two games, McGee has totaled 11 blocks, as he had six against the Brooklyn Nets and another five against the Kings. While the Lakers split those games, McGee certainly helped them a lot on the defensive end of the court.
While the block numbers in the last two games are really impressive, McGee also totaled 33 points and 20 rebounds against the Nets. He then followed it up with 17 points and 14 rebounds against the Kings. These are some incredible numbers from McGee of late, and he certainly isn’t coasting to the end of the season.
McGee is an unrestricted free agent at the end of the season, and he is certainly using the rest of the season to prove himself. In an expanded role with the Lakers this season, McGee has certainly proven that he is a good NBA player. If he continues to perform like he is of late, he will be an interesting name to monitor in free agency.