Getty JaVale McGee of the Los Angeles Lakers, who was a victim to a robbery this weekend, reacts to his foul during a loss to the Portland Trail Blazers.
Coming off a renaissance year for the Los Angeles Lakers and with an expected increased workload in the absence of DeMarcus Cousins, it seems likely that JaVale McGee wanted to take a few days to relax before the long and grueling NBA season starts up. Unfortunately, McGee’s Labor Day weekend didn’t seem to go as planned.
Lakers’ JaVale McGee Victim of Robbery, Warriors Title Ring Stolen
At least $200K in cash and jewelry stolen from JaVale’s LA home, including one of his Warriors title rings, per @TMZ_Sports
TMZ reported that Lakers big man JaVale McGee was the victim of a robbery over the Labor Day weekend and that the intruders made off with over $200,000 in cash and jewelry along with one of his two Warriors Championship rings.
TMZ also reports that the thieves stole two separate safes from McGee’s house and that despite the surveillance system he has in place, no arrests have been made at the time of this writing. Along with the cash, jewelry, and championship ring, McGee also lost the champagne goggles he wore during one of the Warriors’ championship celebrations.
More details will be added as information is released.
JaVale McGee Lakers Season Preview
As mentioned above, McGee had an excellent year for the Lakers – at least before he was forced to deal with some health issues. Assuming McGee’s health holds up, he should be expected to play a major role for the Lakers in 2019-2020. With Anthony Davis now in town, the Lakers would prefer to not use him at center in order to help keep him fresh for the playoffs. McGee should find himself in the starting lineup and seeing a heavy dose of minutes on a nightly basis as he and Dwight Howard look to hold down the center position for the lion’s share of minutes during the season.
Davis’ ability to roll over for help and protect the rim should help with McGee’s defensive play tremendously as he is no longer the sole rim protector on the court. While his block numbers may dip slightly due to sharing the court with Davis, the defensive pairing should be among the most fearsome in the league. The Lakers do have Dwight Howard to help give McGee rest while taking on the challenge of facing some of the league’s bruisers down low like Embiid and Jokic – which should help to ensure they can better put McGee in areas where his skill set shines.
Offensively, McGee still gives the Lakers an athletic lob threat and should pair nicely with Davis in that regard. With two springy bigs in place alongside a generational playmaker in LeBron James, it wouldn’t be out of the realm of possibility to see McGee actually improve on last year – especially when it comes to his efficiency finishing near the rim. He showed last year to be extremely valuable to the Lakers and should prove to be one of the team’s more important pieces come next year.
If McGee can stay healthy and produce at his pre-pneumonia levels from last season, the Lakers will almost certainly have one of the stronger starting frontcourts in the league and look to have a major size advantage over most of the small-ball lineups that populate the league.