JaVale McGee has had an incredible run for the Golden State Warriors during their 12-0 playoff run to the 2017 NBA Finals. The former Washington Wizards and Denver Nuggets big man joined the Warriors this year after a season with the Dallas Mavericks and has proven his effectiveness.
McGee has an offensive rating in the playoffs of 125.4, a net rating of 26.3, and an effective field goal percentage of 74. He’s balling, and has been unsolveable for some playoff opponents, including the Portland Trail Blazers.
But McGee was anonymously criticized this week for not being “smart enough” to be in the NBA Finals, a comment that seems a little out of the ordinary to a lot of us.
McGee responded to that assertion on Wednesday, saying he basically didn’t give it any weight.
Via Twitter:
JaVale McGee on Cavs' comment that he wasn't "smart enough" to stay on floor during Finals: "How could an anonymous person piss me off?"
— Ben Golliver (@BenGolliver) May 31, 2017
Good for McGee. His reemergence has been one of the great storylines of not only the playoffs, but of the 2016-17 season. People sort of forget that McGee was a wild but interesting player during his young career in Washington, and as a young big man had started to shape his game by the 2010-11 season with Washington.
He hit a plateau in Denver and crashed and burned after time in Philadelphia. Getting a solid shot as a real contributor for the Warriors has been neat to see.
