Dunk master takes serious step forward
The Chronicle is reviewing the season of each Warriors player after the team’s championship run.
When JaVale McGee joined the Warriors in September as a nonguaranteed trainingcamp invitee, his NBA career was on life support. A slowhealing leg injury had limited him to 62 games over his previous three seasons. Four years removed from signing a four-year, $44 million deal with the Nuggets, McGee was known more for his blooperreel flubs than for his athleticism.
Because he had toiled mostly for losing teams, many perceived his lighthearted disposition as a negative. His series of absentminded follies only supported the notion that he was a knucklehead. It became easy to dismiss McGee as another example of unrealized potential.
But when the departures of Andrew Bogut, Festus Ezeli and Marreese Speights left the Warriors with few other prototypical interior defenders, Golden State took a chance on the man who once had thrived in Denver for George Karl’s pace-and-space system. It wasn’t long before McGee carved out minutes as a change-of-speed option off the bench.
On a team stocked with elite shooters and passers, McGee’s knack for catching lobs added another dimension to the league’s most prolific offense. Opponents were so concerned about Stephen Curry, Kevin Durant and Klay Thompson that they often left McGee a direct route to the rim. He took more than 300 shots for the first time since the 2012-13 season, and his 65.2 percent shooting from the field was a career high.
Per 36 minutes, McGee averaged 23 points, 11.9 rebounds and 3.3 blocks. His most dominant performance came in Game 2 of the first-round playoff series against Portland, when he was 7-for-7 from the field and became the first player in postseason history to have at least 15 points and four blocks in less than 15 minutes. Offseason outlook: Of the Warriors’ 10 free agents, McGee is one of the biggest wild cards. He has said that he wants to return to Golden State, but he’ll almost certainly get more lucrative offers from other teams.
McGee is such an intriguing physical presence that several clubs are bound to offer him a big contract in hopes that he’ll thrive in an expanded role. It is a tricky proposition, of course. How much of McGee’s success was simply because of the Warriors’ system?
Though it appreciated McGee’s contributions this past season, Golden State is unlikely to match a sizable offer to re-sign him. It probably will go into the luxury tax to bring back Curry, Durant, Andre Iguodala and Shaun Livingston.