Cavs: JaVale McGee has often provided key bench boost

JaVale McGee has often given the Cleveland Cavaliers productive minutes.

Coming into the season, I was a fan of the Cleveland Cavaliers‘ trade acquisition of JaVale McGee by way of the Los Angeles Lakers.

Of course, the 2026 second-round pick was an added bonus to that deal, but McGee, who picked up his $4.2 million player option before the season, has made really nice contributions.

McGee, who was a part of three of the past four NBA champions in the Golden State Warriors twice, and last season, the Lakers, has seemingly been so bought-in as a leadership presence, too, which has I’m sure been big.

Anyway, I’m been more than pleased with McGee, who started off the year initially well, but has really kept it going, also, and I applaud him for that.

McGee has typically provided the Cavs a bench boost, which has been key.

Thus far with Cleveland, McGee has exceeded expectations, objectively. He’s been a nice roller/lob threat and rim protector in recent seasons with Golden State and L.A., and had 6.6 points, 5.7 rebounds and 1.4 blocks in 16.6 minutes per outing with the Lakers last season.

Albeit McGee being this involved with the Cavs has been a bit of a suprise, I’d say. Granted, the Cavs injuries have played into that, and Kevin Love (right calf strain) is still set to be out for a few weeks yet. Darius Garland (right shoulder sprain) has also been sidelined this week for Cleveland, and Collin Sexton (left ankle sprain) has missed the Cavs’ past two games.

Moreover, the Cavs haven’t had Dylan Windler (left hand fracture) since the first game versus the Charlotte Hornets, and Kevin Porter Jr. (personal) and Matthew Dellavedova (concussion) haven’t appeared yet in-game. Fittingly, the Cavs reportedly will apply for a hardship exception.

Nonetheless, McGee’s often provided a bench boost, anyhow, and that’s been significant in a number of games.

Through ten outings, the veteran reserve 5 has had 8.8 points and 6.4 rebounds in 17.0 minutes per game. He’s done a nice job as a roller, and has given Cleveland’s perimeter players/drivers a lob threat and occasional post-up player with some viability for hooks when he’s been able to get low seals.

Now at times, McGee’s offense has been a bit of an adventure, and though he’s hit 44.4 percent of his three-point attempts, those looks from him are not something you really want seeing regularly. To be fair, it’s been 0.9 attempts per outing, anyway.

But McGee again has often provided the Cavs bench a boost in his minutes as an interior player, and as a rolling scorer, he’s placed in the 90th percentile, per Synergy Sports.

That’s aided the likes of Garland, Sexton, Cedi Osman and Damyean Dotson, and his timing/finishing in those instances has led to quality offense, and should keep being the case.

In the non-scoring sense, McGee has been a quality on and off-ball screening presence as well, and although there’s been some turnovers/questionable decisions at times, he’s made some quality passes back out after offensive rebounds and/or some passers to cutters. Him having an offensive rebounding rate of 12.6 percent has been notable, too, for what it’s worth.

And on the defensive end, even at a soon-to-be 33, McGee has helped Cleveland often throughout near the rim, which has made an impact for the team defense, which is currently first in the NBA in defensive rating; yes, that’s held by the Cavaliers, folks.

He’s had plenty of fouls, as evidenced by McGee averaging 5.9 fouls per-36 minutes, which is well, a lot, albeit his block rate of 4.6 percent still has shown he’s blocked his share of shots.

And he’s gotten his hands on his share of balls, as evidenced by McGee averaging 1.9 deflections per contest, per NBA.com’s player hustle data.

Overall, it’s again been really good to see McGee still so engaged and bought-in with the Cleveland Cavaliers, and he’s seemingly made a difference as a leader, which especially with how the Cavs have had injuries pile up, is huge.

To this point, JaVale has often provided quite a boost off the bench for Cleveland spelling Andre Drummond (there have been some occasional lineups with the two, too, though), and I could see him stick through the trade deadline. And if the Cavs can sign him via pretty reasonable/team-friendly deal next offseason, I could foresee him being back.

Props to McGee for exceeding expectations so far for the Cavs; he has continually given them energy, and still looks spry, even at nearly 33 and in his 13th season.