Iguodala: McGee 'so much better' than some who got big deals
Not that the Golden State Warriors needed any more help, but they believe they got a steal when they plucked center JaVale McGee off the scrap heap and signed him for the veteran's minimum.
McGee was once a buzzed-about prospect; a bounding athlete with a ridiculous wingspan and the potential to be an elite dive man/rim protector.
Even as he morphed from prospect to project amid concerns about his attitude and effort, he flashed that tantalizing potential at many points throughout his checkered career - posting PERs above 17 in each of his first five seasons, averaged more than three blocks per 36 minutes five times, dunking two basketballs at once - and was rewarded with a four-year, $44-million contract from the Denver Nuggets in 2012.
Now 28, he'll make under $1 million for the Warriors this season, despite a massive national-television windfall that saw NBA salaries rocket to unprecedented levels. At least one of his teammates believes he's closer to being that $11-million-a-year player than a league-minimum guy.
"Talk to some different people, GMs, front-office people," Warriors forward Andre Iguodala, who played with McGee in Denver, told reporters Sunday. "He's so much better than a lot of these guys who got paid this past year. Like, so much better."
One of the biggest knocks on McGee has been his at-times spotty basketball IQ, a sort of aloof spaciness on the court that's made him a Shaqtin' mainstay over the years. When he messes up, he often messes up in spectacularly obvious fashion. People have taken a peculiar joy in pointing out those highly visible flops, whether he's been horribly botching an attempted in-game free-throw-line dunk or sprinting back on defense while his team still has the ball, or fashioning himself a bizarre 'do that looks like a permanent hairnet. But McGee doesn't see any of that as a reflection of his true self.
"He has this funny line. 'You can be smart and act dumb but you can't be dumb and act smart,'" Iguodala said.
"I like that one a lot, actually."