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Traded: Javale McGee

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Shaq is bigger than 99.9% of the population and no one is picking a fight with him. Being big and having access to a microphone doesn’t give him a right to trash whomever he pleases.


That's why I dont understand his situation with Dwight Howard. You get mad because he called himself Superman,who is a fictious character and then trash him after he wins first title...Makes no sense at all...
 
Shaq is bigger than 99.9% of the population and no one is picking a fight with him. Being big and having access to a microphone doesn’t give him a right to trash whomever he pleases.

Shaq is a sucker
 
It's not about whether we helped the Lakers or got screwed in the deal. We gave up nothing. McKinnie is a small forward on a team that has Okoro, Windler, and Cedi. Also, Nance played some 3 at the end of last season and that turned out to be their strongest lineup. We had absolutely no use for McKinnie, especially after Okoro was the pick. Hell, McKinnie barely played last year when we didn't have Okoro OR Windler.

Bell was the third PF behind Love and Nance. He might have gotten five minutes a game, if that.

Drummond is the only center on the roster. Getting McGee for two guys who wouldn't have played unless there was a spate of injuries at one position is a no-brainer unless you want Dre playing 48 minutes a game or putting Love or Nance at the 5 for 16 minutes.

Now the roster is set unless they want to bring Delly back but if not they can go with Garland, Sexton, Porter, and Exum at the guard spots. As for McGee, it's nice to have a seven-footer because, yes, the Cavs were the worst team in 23 years at defending shots in the restricted zone last year. Heck, I would not be shocked if McGee ends up playing more minutes than Dre if Dre insists on running around on the perimeter and jacking up threes while committing a lot of turnovers and giving up easy buckets on missed steal attempts.
In addition, McGee is cheap and has playoff experience. A cheap ending contract for a guy that can give you rebounding and defense off the bench could also yield further assets. May just be another 2nd rounder and another cheap deal they could flip in the future as a salary dump, etc.

As for Bell, I think they prefer to give Wade time there. Use the younger guy you like in garbage time if he's not playing in Canton.
 
I'm OK with a backup center who started 130 of 143 games for the Lakers.

If we didn't make the trade McKinnie would not have played any PF with Love, Nance, Bell and Wade on the roster.
 
Yes...but should we not do a move that benefits us simply to screw over a team against whom we really aren't even competing? That's the kind of logic that may end up with Ainge having screwed over his own franchise just to spite Hayward.

I don't think we should do it for the purpose of helping another franchise...but I also don't think we should screw ourselves just to screw another team that it is on a completely different competitive timeline.
I didn't say this either...I was merely pointing out the reason the Lakers made the move the way they made it. We were merely facilitators who got a couple of picks and an asset for helping them. Seems like a trade that works for both sides to me.
 
I couldn't care less about the Lakers. We needed a legit backup center and we got one, plus a second round pick five years from now when the NBA landscape will no doubt be much different than it is now (will there even be two rounds in 2026?). What did we give up again?

He really doenst fit with our style of play. He might play some, but nothing about the big men on this roster say future except many Nance. We got him for a small asset at no cost getting rid of 2 players we didn't want and might be able to turn him into another asset at the trade deadline. Nothing more to see here than that. He is well liked by teammates so he wont be a negative to the development of our 5 young backcourt players.
 
He really doenst fit with our style of play. He might play some, but nothing about the big men on this roster say future except many Nance. We got him for a small asset at no cost getting rid of 2 players we didn't want and might be able to turn him into another asset at the trade deadline. Nothing more to see here than that. He is well liked by teammates so he wont be a negative to the development of our 5 young backcourt players.

What's our style of play exactly? That sounds confrontational but I'm actually very interested.
 
What's our style of play exactly? That sounds confrontational but I'm actually very interested.

We want to be an uptempo inside out team, McGee doesn't have the ability to switch on defense or kick out the pass very effectively. He is big, tall and highly athletic, that is his only skills...very low BBIQ.
 
He really doenst fit with our style of play. He might play some, but nothing about the big men on this roster say future except many Nance. We got him for a small asset at no cost getting rid of 2 players we didn't want and might be able to turn him into another asset at the trade deadline. Nothing more to see here than that. He is well liked by teammates so he wont be a negative to the development of our 5 young backcourt players.

It's true that of our 4 bigs only Nance has a shot at a future here. I would have preferred they had picked Okongwu, but they apparently have made improving the defense priority number one this year. Toward that end, and desperately needing a playable backup center they could have done worse than getting McGee for free.
 
An added bonus with JaVale is that he brings some comic relief:


No one loves picking on JaVale more than Shaq. I guess they two have some sort of beef.

JaVale used to be like a baby giraffe running around the court. To his credit, he’s matured and has better court awareness and control of his body.

Javale is a good dude, teammate, and player now.
He'll give you 20 solid minutes a game, is fun lob threat, and will protect the rim.

HIs problem clearly comes when the playoffs start and teams with shooting just space him out and he can't recover well to the 3 point line or get stuck as he doesn't super quick feet on the PnR coverage. During the regular season, Cavs fans will like him though
 
Javale is a good dude, teammate, and player now.
He'll give you 20 solid minutes a game, is fun lob threat, and will protect the rim.

HIs problem clearly comes when the playoffs start and teams with shooting just space him out and he can't recover well to the 3 point line or get stuck as he doesn't super quick feet on the PnR coverage. During the regular season, Cavs fans will like him though

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Anybody know why we traded for McGee, who will make $4.2 M this season, when Hassan Whiteside signed with the Kings a few days later for one year at $2.3 M? Both will be free agents next year.

Whiteside started all 67 games for Portland last year averaging 30 mpg, 15.5 pts, 13.5 rebs, and 2.9 blocked shots, which led the league. He also shot 62.1% from the field. He's a year younger than McGee who averaged 16.6 minutes, 6.6 pts, 3.9 rebs, and 1.4 blocked shots. If you project McGee to 30 minutes he's still behind Whiteside in all those categories.

I suppose the advantage of trading for McGee as opposed to signing the free agent Whiteside is by trading we got rid of the contracts of Bell and McKinnie, who we had no use for this year. It opened up a roster spot for Dotson.

But I was intrigued by the idea of adding the best shot blocker in the NBA for only $2.3 M, especially when he also scores and rebounds. It's crazy that he's getting $2.3 M while Drummond, who had similar numbers last year, is getting $28 M. In fact, Drummond had a lower shooting percentage, way fewer blocked shots, and more than double the turnovers as Whiteside.
 

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