JaVale McGee is a 3-time NBA Champion and will hope his veteran leadership rubs off on the Dallas Mavericks this season. McGee signed with the Mavs to reunite with former Lakers assistant coach Jason Kidd and former teammate Jared Dudley (assistant coach on the Mavs).
The 2019-20 Lakers went all the way to the NBA Championship, coalescing around LeBron James and Anthony Davis and finding amazing chemistry from day 1. McGee was the starting center of that Lakers squad, rotating the position with Dwight Howard. However, he would get benched in the playoffs due to smaller lineups that were used against the Lakers.
McGee recounted his time with the Lakers with Shannon Sharpe, urging people to remember his contributions to the Lakers that season and how he had a career-best season with the role he had.
“People forget we were #1 in the west and I was the starting center the whole year”
– Javale McGee on enjoying playing with LeBron pic.twitter.com/hYYGWM3xM2
— ²³ (@SpeakContext) August 10, 2022
“I enjoyed playing with LeBron on the first year on the Lakers because I was the starting center, I had my career-high 30-20 game and I had a career-high in points that year. I enjoyed succeeding.”
“I was starting center the whole year. When the playoffs comes, it’s situational. You never know what the matchups are and they can change anytime.”
The Dallas Mavericks will be starting McGee this season, and he will hope to find magic with Luka Doncic feeding him alley-oops. McGee’s defensive ability gives the Mavs a genuine rim protector, something they could have used in their run to the Western Conference Finals last season. McGee is expected to start over Mavericks’ other new acquisition, Christian Wood.
If JaVale can connect with Kidd and the Mavs coaching to play his role to perfection, Dallas stands a strong chance to repeat what they achieved last season. They lost Jalen Brunson this offseason but will hope their moves to add centers like Wood and McGee will make them stronger.
