Ok, so we’ve scanned JaVale McGee’s barcode tat and concluded that on offense, when he tries to do things himself, he fares poorly. But when he plays with teammates, he excels. I’m slightly simplifying … yet combining both stats and my personal observations from watching him all year and coming to a more than reasonable conclusion.

Now, let’s scan again to see what we come up with for McGee from a defensive perspective.

It’s no secret that JaVale needs to gain strength. Some of that will come if he puts in the work. Some of that will come naturally as he fills into his long frame. He also needs to learn more discipline in realizing that he can play better defense AND still be an intimidating shot blocker while not being so ready to leave his feet.

This site was able to chronicle from up close two specific instances, in two separate home games against the Atlanta Hawks, where McGee unnecessarily left his feet after an Al Horford pump fake only to find himself in a precarious position …  in the air and committing a foul. Those pictures are at the bottom of this post … and they certainly don’t represent the only two instances where McGee bit on a fake.

Llet’s turn to Synergy Sports Technology to highlight some of his defensive statistics.

According to Synergy, McGee had 289 defensive plays that ended in a field-goal attempt, turnover, or free-throw attempt for the man he guarded. Of those 289 plays, 109 (37.7%) were post-up chances. Being a big man, McGee is obviously going to find himself defending post-ups a lot. But teams also went at him, hard … especially at the beginning of games, which is part of the reason why he was taken out of the starting lineup after March 24th (after starting 19 of the previous 20 games) and sent to the bench for the last 12 games of the year.

On those 109 post-ups, he allowed his man to score 54.1% of the time at a clip of 1.09 points-per-possession (PPP). His man got to the free-throw line 18.3% of the time.

Those numbers aren’t glowing at all.

In all 289 defensive plays, McGee allowed his man to score 42.2% of the time at a clip of 0.85 PPP, and committed a shooting foul 10.4% of the time.

Those numbers are much better.

Clearly, McGee is very bad at defending the post. But again, he’s only 22 and stands to gain a lot of weight. He’s will also get better when he learns the art of post defense leverage.

To dive further, let’s break down exactly who was abusing Mr. McGee on these post-ups.

  1. Roy Hibbert – 14 plays
  2. Al Horford - 7
  3. Al Jefferson – 7
  4. Andrew Bogut – 6
  5. Brook Lopez – 6
  6. Dwight Howard – 5
  7. Luis Scola – 5
  8. Tyrus Thomas – 4

Those with 3 plays each: Jermaine O’Neal, Kyrylo Fesenko, LaMarcus Aldridge, Marc Gasol, Nene, Pau Gasol, Shaquille O’Neal

Those with 2 plays each: Chris Bosh, Jordan Hill, Kevin Garnett, Rasheed Wallace, Robin Lopez, Samuel Dalembert, Theo Ratliff, Zydrunas Illgauskas

Those with 1 play each: Carlos Boozer, Darnell Jackson, David Lee, DeSagana Diop, Emeka Okafor, Glen Davis, Hamed Haddadi, Joakim Noah, Juwan Howard, Kendrick Perkins, Kenny Thomas, Kwame Brown, Malik Allen, Mehmet Okur, Paul Millsap, Primo Brezec, Spencer Hawes, Taj Gibson

Roy Hibbert really had Epic Vale’s number. Four times came during the Wizards-Pacers November 6, 2009 match-up. Hibbert went made two hook shots, earned a trip to the line, and turned the ball over once.

The remaining 10 times came on April 14th, the last game of the season, which wasn’t a good game for McGee. Hibbert went 5-9 against him and drew a foul once.

In total, Roy went 7-11 on FGs, earned two trips to the line and turned the ball over just once.

Top 8 Run-Down:

Horford: 2-5 FGs, 1 foul draw, 1 turnover
Jefferson: 5-5 FGs, 1 foul draw, 1 turnover
Bogut: 3-5 FGs, 1 foul draw
Lopez: 2-4 FGs, 2 foul draws
Howard: 2-2 FGs (1 And1), 1 foul draw, 2 turnovers
Scola: 2-4 FGs, 1 turnover
Thomas: 0-3 FGs, 1 turnover

Obviously Al Jefferson owned McGee and Tyrus Thomas isn’t great in the post. Of the players who had three attempts against McGee, Marc Gasol went 3-3 win an And1, his brother Pau went 2-3 from the field, as did Jermaine O’Neal and Fesenko. Shaq had a make and drew two fouls. Nene had a miss and drew two fouls. Aldridge missed twice and was fouled by McGee once.

Again, as the case with McGee’s offense, we have specific stats that his potential improvement, or decline, can be measured against. The Wizards still want him to run the floor. They still want him to use the length and athleticism that he loves so much. But he must improve his half-court post defense and gain strength to defend the post or he’ll find that opponents are seeing a target on the back of his neck instead of a barcode.

Do we do such posts to pick on JaVale? Is it “hating”?

Nah. It’s done because McGee has potential. Wizards fans want him to realize this and be successful.

April 10, 2010 {game link}

March 11, 2010 {game link}

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