Center emerges as necessary force in paint
PORTLAND, Ore. — The sight of Portland’s Jusuf Nurkic lumbering up the court on a fractured right leg during Saturday’s first-round Game 3 made Warriors center JaVale McGee uneasy. “I cringed a little bit,” McGee said. It was a reminder of the leg injuries that once threatened to end his NBA career. Last summer, after playing only 62 games in three seasons, McGee committed himself to a healthier lifestyle. Today, he has become a force in Golden State’s championship push.
In the Warriors’ series sweep of the Trail Blazers, with Portland’s frontcourt thinned by injuries, McGee went from solid role player to low-post bully. A big man long known for his bloopers delivered a personal highlight reel of alley-oop dunks and rundown blocks. In 49
first-round minutes, McGee scored 39 points on 18-for-23 shooting and blocked nine shots. Golden State outscored the Blazers by nearly a point per minute with him on the court.
“To his credit, he’s an athletic big man who can finish around the basket,” Portland head coach Terry Stotts said. “I think he complements the other players on the roster really well, because you have to account for him around the basket.”
In recent months, as McGee emerged as an instant-energy reserve, many wondered why the Warriors weren’t playing him more. On a roster filled with shooters, McGee’s ability to run the floor and catch lobs is an asset. When on the floor at the same time, McGee, Klay Thompson, Stephen Curry, Kevin Durant and Draymond Green have outscored the opposition by 96 points this season.
McGee, who won Golden State’s final roster spot in the preseason, finished the regular season with the NBA’s No. 1 per-minute plus-minus. Still, the Warriors’ coaching staff realized that McGee was most effective in short bursts. A speedy 7-footer, McGee is at his best racing downcourt in transition. Give him more playing time and you risk tiring him. That’s why McGee averaged only 12.3 minutes per game in the first round.
“He expends a lot of energy with how hard he plays,” Warriors acting head coach Mike Brown said. “We feel he’s a five- to six-minute-type guy. Then you sit him down.”
McGee just appreciates knowing that he will play each game. In fall 2013, a year after signing a four-year, $44 million deal with Denver, he began to experience pain in his left leg. With doctors unable to provide a diagnosis, McGee wore a knee pad and tried different shoes. Nothing worked. It wasn’t until February 2014 that McGee underwent surgery for a stress fracture in his tibia.
The Nuggets traded him a year later to Philadelphia, which waived McGee after six appearances. The soreness in his left leg persisted. Last season, out of shape and low on confidence, McGee was buried on Dallas’ depth chart. As he watched from the bench, McGee considered quitting basketball altogether.
“I used to question it every day,” McGee said. “Like, thinking, ‘This is my last run. I ain’t ever going to play basketball again.’ But I just kept with it. I don’t know nothing else.”
To limit the stress on his legs, McGee started a vegan diet, worked out daily on his own and lost 15 pounds. In September, after receiving no guaranteed-contract offers in free agency, he joined the Warriors as a nonguaranteed training-camp invitee. With Golden State, he found teammates who appreciated his affable, quirky approach.
More than a favored lob threat, McGee is the Warriors’ go-to prankster. In November, after a road rout of the Pacers, he commandeered the team plane’s intercom system and, feigning a female flight attendant’s voice, instructed teammates on how to exit the aircraft in case of an emergency. Three months later, to get back at Green for constantly posting pictures of napping players to social media, McGee gave blankets to the entire team that featured an enormous picture of Green’s sleeping face.
“This is definitely a better fit for him, with this team and his personality,” said Zaza Pachulia, who played with McGee on the Mavericks last season. “This team is just perfect for him. It’s great to see him so happy.”
Seven months after his NBA future was in doubt, McGee is poised to get another big contract this summer.
Golden State, which has nine other pending free agents, might not have enough money left after re-signing Curry and Durant to bring back McGee, but he isn’t concerned. During his five-team, nine-season career, he has learned to stop fretting about what comes next.
“It’s the NBA, so anything can happen,” McGee said. “Really: anything. It’s crazy.”