Is the Javale Show Winding Down?

Javale McGee has leapt out of his basketball grave and is now on the receiving end of a lob from the Basketball God of Redemption. He has found a way to make a difference on the floor that most off-the-bench centers dream of. The real test of his resurgence is now at his feet.

Portland’s ability to protect the rim was completely eradicated when up and coming star Jusuf Nurkic was sidelined with a knee injury. In that series Javale’s play not only changed games off the bench, but it allowed him to take some of those games under his condor wing and fly them all the way to Utah for the second round. It was electric.

Prior to the series Rudy Gobert, a 2nd Team All-NBA Center, found himself hobbled by yet another series changing and highly unfortunate knee injury. The Jazz, being as deep and well coached as they are, were able to ride the back of "Iso" Joe Johnson and find themselves booking a date the Warriors after sinking the rickety Clippers . It was clear out of the gate that Rudy was not right, and once again McGee got what he wanted when he wanted.

McGee has benefited from teams lacking either any rim protection, or at the most, a less than healthy version of it. He is so long, so athletic, and so well supported that it makes it difficult for the opposition to contain him if they are protecting the rim at an average or less than average level. Unfortunately things may have started to change as the Playoffs trudge onward. Two games into the Western Conference Finals and the San Antonio Spurs have already found a way to make sure that the Warriors coaching staff delves out his minutes more judiciously, and less confidently. Why?

For all of McGee’s strength’s there are plenty of weakness that have latched onto his game like a parasite. On the defense end he often finds himself pulled out from under the rim, blown by, and forced to recover on a faster wing or forward. When McGee is burned he has tendency to turn into Pablo Sandoval at the plate and swing at everything. He either strikes out or hits his man and draws a foul. (Just to stick with the Panda analogy for a moment, when he does connect with the ball, it’s pretty much a homerun, or at least a double.) Under the basket he can be excellent when pulling down or fighting for a board, but the no reward for the risk factor of McGee returns frequently when he gets backed under the hoop. When this happens the "Sandoval Syndrome" returns, and the chance for the opposition to receive an And-1 increases exponentially. The more frequently McGee allows these flaws to be exploited, the more the coaching staff will be increasingly reluctant to grant him the minutes we were accustomed to seeing the previous two rounds. The Spurs, though not overly successful thus far, have already made this apparent.

San Antonio’s main bigs may be an old bag of sand (Pau Gasol), and a non-existent rim protector (Lamarcus Aldridge), but on the offensive end their very presence has begun to bring down McGee’s minutes. Both of those players are more than capable of posting up McGee, and at the very least can draw a foul when on McGee to get to the line. If the Spurs force a switch where McGee ends up on a guard away from the basket, he is going to be cooked, and will most likely start swinging his arms like a man falling off a cliff. The result of such a sequence, more often than not, will be a foul derived from the opposition’s ability to shamelessly exploit McGee’s limitations. No one does this better than Pop.

This is not to say that the Warriors coaching Staff won’t find a niche for him in this series. It just may be a little presumptive to expect that Javale has become much more than a high-flying-dunker and a "Pablo Sandoval-esque" shot blocker. His flaws likely won’t be detrimental to the Warriors success against this weakened Spurs squad, but they could set off alarm bells going forward.

It would greatly benefit the Warriors and McGee if he could strike some sort of balance between discipline and all the crazy that make Javale’s minutes such a Shaq infuriating spectacle. Accomplishing that could prove to be crucial for him and the team, because there is a team out East, like it or not, that can attack him all the way to the back of the deep reserves.

Don’t even get me started on Zaza. That is another article for another day.