Los Angeles Lakers: The understated importance of JaVale McGee

The Los Angeles Lakers do not have a great outlook at center with JaVale McGee being the likely starter. However, McGee has a very understated importance to this team.

After signing LeBron James to a four-year, $154 million deal, the Los Angeles Lakers signed various veterans to one-year deals. This allowed the Lakers to fill out a roster that was thin as well as remains flexible for the upcoming offseason.

Those veterans are Rajon Rondo, Lance Stephenson, Michael Beasley, JaVale McGee and a re-signed Kentavious Caldwell-Pope. Rondo, Stephenson and Beasley will likely be in the second unit while Caldwell-Pope battles Josh Hart for the starting shooting guard role and McGee likely will start at center.

Although McGee will most likely start, it is still unsure how many minutes the Lakers will ask of the veteran. The team is alarmingly thin at center with just McGee and Ivica Zubac serving as the pure centers.

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Rookie Mortiz Wagner could help out; he has the size but fits the mold of a stretch four. However, the Lakers are very deep at forward, so center may be the only position that Wagner can see time at.

There is also the possibility of LeBron James playing some center, especially late in close games as Kyle Kuzma comes to the court to give the Lakers their “death lineup”.

It is unlikely that McGee is going to have a huge role production-wise outside of grabbing the occasional rebound when he is on the court. Last season, in 9.5 minutes played per game, McGee averaged 4.8 points and 2.6 rebounds.

Granted, he may have a bit of a longer leash on the Los Angeles Lakers as the team needs the size but he is not going to be one of the premier players on the team.

However, the Lakers did not bring McGee in to be that premier center. McGee has a very specific purpose to this LeBron James-led Los Angeles Lakers team that seems to be understated.

It might be trivial, it might be a bit corny but it is a legitimate thing that McGee brings to the table; he played with the Golden State Warriors for two seasons. He knows that locker room inside and out. He knows where they are weak and how they can be beaten.

In today’s day in age, there is not much McGee can share in terms of on-court tendencies that the Lakers don’t already have via film. However, bringing McGee to LA is forcing the Warriors to at least change something. To bring something new to the table to the Lakers that McGee cannot expose.

McGee likely won’t be around on the Lakers after this season and if he is it is going to be in a much-reduced role. However, he is going to still play a role on those teams as his brain is going to be picked by LeBron James this season to help set a foundation to eventually overthrow Golden State as the new top-dog in the league.

Everything the Lakers have done has had a very specific purpose. Stephenson is going to cause havoc and get under Draymond Green’s skin; Rondo is going to be a mentor to Lonzo Ball; Beasley is going to allow Wagner and LeBron to see time at center: McGee is going to give the team familiarity with the Warriors.

Will that lead to the Los Angeles Lakers getting the best of the Golden State Warriors in year one of LeBron? Not necessarily. Does it give them a much better chance? Absolutely.