You're not critiquing well. He realized several years back the league was changing and has been quoted here since signing with Lakers that he took 30 lbs or so off to get faster and update his game. So he already is not the "same player he has been his whole career"
Kyle Lowry comes to mind. Steve Nash comes to mind. It isn't impossible to change teams and suddenly become valuable. Sometimes its the system, sometimes its the playing time you never got, sometimes its luck and sometimes its the trust that you get. It is not easy to identify ONE factor. Its many things coming together. And I think McGee is benefiting from the new NBA. In the past he didn't have the strength to bang downlow. Now he doesn't have to. All of a sudden his length and speed is more important and the bruising players are gone. He has also maturd as a human being and player. He still has less impact than his stats might suggest but he is having a great year for his standards, no question.
he looks like a different player to me. it took him a long time to learn to play within himself, and he generally does that now. early in his career, he tried to play more like embiid on offense and chased blocks to the detriment of team defense. i don't see much of those things anymore. had he had similar focus earlier in his career, think the book on him would be very different.
Technically not all his fault. He's got to step in to stop the penetration when the guards get broken down and Serge was able to just feast off of that all night whether it was the 5-6 foot shot or dunk.
Actually what he's doing now isn't dissimilar from what he was doing the last few years in Golden State. Per 36 in GS: 20.8 points, 11 rebounds, 1.3 assists, 1.1 steals, 3.3 blocks Per 36 so far this year: 19.8 points, 10.3 rebounds, 1.8 assists, 1.2 steals, 4.7 blocks The difference really is only that everyone assumed he couldn't play big minutes. Obviously he's shown he can play a larger role. He's going to get paid next summer.
Great block on a two handed dunk by Plumlee (?) last night... His chippies weren't going down last night. Had a couple of great feeds by Ball off dribble penetration. Mis-communicated with teammates on a pair of defensive lapses for easy scores. Was his normal active self...
bad news for the team that doesn't hold his bird rights and goes into the crapper when he's off the floor.
All this time he was shaqtin' the fool, he was really foolin' the shaq. This is the player who with the purple and gold and Lebron may just fool his way into the all star game. Loving the paint monster that he brings to our team and those little hook shots.
Hopefully he wins that MIP award. Such an underrated player because of his previous (albeit well deserved) Shaqtin' a fool reputation
