The Implications and Significance of George Karl's Cheating of JaVale McGee - The "System" is a Failure

You might think that Quest for the Ring (QFTR) has better things to do than write yet another Report (the third this season) centering on the JaVale McGee is cheated out of playing time situation. Well, not only are you right, but that's an understatement, because in a perfect world, we would have several dozen basketball things that we would have time to do that many would consider to be more important than the cheating of McGee.

But some of the implications of the McGee situation are different and more serious compared with what you might think they are. And this isn't even close to being a perfect world. And resources are very limited. So all things considered, covering the McGee situation in complete detail is not really an unwise expenditure of time. 

Even if we scaled back coverage of the McGee thing to spend more time on what might be considered to be the "better things", we would still accomplish only a very small percentage, some would argue a trivial percentage, of the better things that we would ideally like to get done if the world were perfect.

So as one of my best friends in high school used to say whenever I made a point about how time resources for getting things done are too limited, "everything is relative". He used to say that all the time. What my friend meant in this context is that you do whatever you think is best to do and be happy that you at least were able to get those limited things done with the very limited resources. In other words, if you do what you can do, you are relatively better off than if you throw up your hands and do nothing at all as a silly protest against not having enough time to accomplish even a quarter of all that you would really want to get done.

So we choose here and now to spend even more of our limited and valuable resources on the McGee cheating because for one thing, the cheating of JaVale McGee out of playing time is the kind of large scale, rank, and crude coaching error that proves beyond any shadow of a doubt that George Karl is incompetent even though he is worshipped by many fans, broadcasters, and others. Let me repeat that: George Karl is incompetent when all things are considered, even though he is worshipped by many as someone who can do no wrong or at least as someone who would never make a big mistake.

True, QFTR has gone out of its' way to be fair to Karl. QFTR has reported that Karl is an above average regular season Coach. QFTR has reported that Karl's basketball strategies and tactics often work very well for beating medium and poor teams in the regular season.

But those strategies and tactics fail in the playoffs and they fail in many regular season games against top teams. For anyone who thinks that winning is important, that trying to be the best is important, that striving for perfection is important, George Karl is, in the final, overall view, an incompetent basketball coach. He has always been incompetent, although perhaps a little less so in some years than in others.

Those broadcasters who worship Karl when they broadcast Nuggets games (forcing me to mute them and watch the game in silence, laugh out loud) are incompetent. The corporate writers who worship Karl and imply, or sometimes openly state for that matter, that Karl can do no wrong, are incompetent. NBA fans and observers who worship Karl and / or who think that most or all NBA coaches are competent in basic things (including playing times) are incompetent. All of those people are incompetent dumb asses at least as far as their views of pro basketball coaches are concerned.

More broadly, the McGee situation shows that basic coaching incompetence is a possibility even in 2012 in the NBA, America's supposedly most professional and highest League. You might not think this was possible but it turns out that it is. Incompetent coaches are not automatically discovered and fired. If you think that all NBA coaches mostly know what they are doing, I have a toll bridge to sell to you in Mongolia. There are undoubtedly some Coaches in the NBA Developmental League, some coaches in Leagues you never heard of, and some College coaches who are much better coaches than George Karl.

Even more broadly still, the McGee cheating (and the other NBA player cheatings that remain buried in secrecy because virtually no NBA corporate writer and even most NBA Internet writers simply don't cover playing time cheatings and errors) shows that even when pay is sky high and even when business profits are very high, individual workers can be cheated out of what they are supposed to get in an American business. (Basketball is among other things a business, remember.) After all, if JaVale McGee can be cheated out of between 1/3 and 1/2 of the playing time he is supposed to get even though he is making 10 million dollars this year and even though he has a forty million dollar contract overall, than obviously Joe Shmoe down the street in any American town or city can be cheated out of a job, out of income, or out of a career for that matter. In other words, in America, very competent people can be cheated out of jobs, incomes and careers by incompetent bosses and / or by owners whose priorities are not optimal or completely moral. This defect in the American system was always there, but it recently became more pronounced and obvious than usual due to the economics recession or depression or whatever you choose to call it.

And you thought that this Report was just going to be about basketball, laugh out loud. Well, although as already mentioned time resources are very limited, and since we spend most of the time available on basketball, we do bring in society as a whole from time to time.

NOT ALL NBA OWNERS CARE VERY MUCH ABOUT WINNING NBA CHAMPIONSHIPS

At least most and probably all NBA owners technically care more about how much money they are making than about whether the players, coaches and managers they are paying are really the right ones who might possibly win the NBA Championship. There isn't anything grossly wrong with that because in American society, if you lose money consistently, you are forced out of business (and you are poorer).

The relevant question is: "Does the NBA owner simultaneously effectively work to make money AND to win a NBA Championship or does he mostly focus on just the money?" The problem is that some NBA owners care MUCH more concerned about how much money they are making than about whether the managers and coaches (and players) they are paying are really the right ones who might possibly win the Championship.

Nuggets owner Stanley Kroenke is one such owner. Clearly, he cares much more about exactly how much money he is making than about whether his managers, coaches and players are really the best ones he could get for winning a NBA Championship. If the managers, coaches and players are the right ones for making the most money, than Kroenke will be happy, even if they are not really the right ones for winning a Championship.

By the way, I am aware that the son of Stanley Kroenke, Josh Kroenke is legally / technically now the owner of the Nuggets because Stanley Kroenke had to give that title up because of the NBA League rule that a very rich person can not simultaneously own a NFL franchise and a NBA franchise. But realistically, Stanley Kroenke remains the real owner of the Nuggets more so than his son. At the very least, the two of them are co-owning the Nuggets these days.

The cheating of JaVale McGee proves that gross incompetence is a reality in the NBA in general and for the Nuggets in particular. But now looking at this from just a Denver Nuggets perspective, the cheating of JaVale McGee is at least as damaging as was the cheating of J.R. Smith....

THE JAVALE MCGEE CHEATING IS ON A BIGGER SCALE THAN OTHER GEORGE KARL CHEATINGS OF RECENT YEARS

Since Quest for the Ring (QFTR) started just about six years ago in January 2007 we have covered at least six George Karl cheatings of players out of playing time. By the way, when we say cheating, we mean something substantial, at least 20% or one fifth; we are not splitting hairs and talking about minor discrepancies here. And anything less than 10% is technically just educated speculation because you can not exactly and perfectly calculate correct playing times.

Quite honestly we have no idea exactly or even approximately how many players Karl cheated out of playing time in his years of coaching prior to 2006-2007.  On Internet forums back in 2006 and 2007, we did see accusations about Karl cheating players in years prior to 2006-2007, up to and including the point of forcing them to quit and move on to other teams, but we have not yet investigated those older incidents to check out those claims.

Of the six total cheatings that QFTR has confirmed starting from 2006-2007, only three of them have been covered extensively at QFTR because only those same three cheatings caused major damage to the Nuggets' ability to win playoff series and to the Nuggets' ability to win regular season games against the top teams:

--J.R. Smith - Cheated out of playing time in the five years between 2006-07 and 2010-11 except arguably 2008-09

--Renaldo Balkman - Cheated out of playing time between 2008-09 and 2009-11; in 2011 he was traded to the Knicks and was cheated out of some more playing time by D'Antoni that year; so he was technically cheated by two different coaches in the same year. 

Players being cheated by two different coaches in different years (or even in the same year when they are traded) is probably something that happens more commonly than you might think.

--JaVale McGee - Cheated out of playing time 2012-?

J.R. Smith quit the Nuggets as a result of lack of playing time following the 2010-11 season. He is currently on track to play about 2,500 minutes this year for the New York Knicks, which is 1/3 more minutes than he averaged for George Karl and the Nuggets. Smith was cheated out of roughly 700 minutes per year, on the average.

Renaldo Balkman is currently not playing in the NBA even though he is at prime playing age. There is a possibility that there is something that I don't know about Balkman which is partly behind his not being in the League at the moment. But obviously, the less playing time you get, the closer you are to not getting a contract to play in the NBA at all. And regardless of anything we don't know about, it is fair to say this: Karl may have done more than cheat Balkman out of playing time; he may have helped to cheat him out of a NBA career. For the record and before we leave the subject of Balkman, Mike D'Antoni, former Knicks Coach and current Lakers Coach, also cheated Balkman out of playing time, the only known case where a coach other than George Karl cheated a player who George Karl also cheated.

Quite honestly and judging from history, JaVale McGee is going to continue to be cheated out of playing time until and unless he quits the Nuggets or until George Karl retires, whichever comes first. 

And if you don't know, George Karl is not ever going to be fired by the owner of the Nuggets, because if that was going to happen it would have happened already due to poor performance in the playoffs year after year after year. But the owner really does not care about poor performance in the playoffs as long as the Nuggets at least make the playoffs and as long as during the regular season the dumb Nuggets fans think that the Nuggets might possibly win a playoff series or two so that they keep buying game tickets and Nuggets merchandise and as long as those dumb fans keep tuning into Kroenke's sports network.

If the Nuggets fail to make the playoffs this year (in 2013) then the best you can hope for as a Nuggets fan is that the owner of the Nuggets pressures Karl to retire a few years earlier than he would have retired. And it's unlikely that even that would happen. Instead, even if the Nuggets fail to make the playoffs, Karl will most likely be back again as Nuggets Coach in 2013-2014.

NOT ALL CHEATINGS ARE CREATED EQUAL

The cheating of J.R. Smith was a "bigger deal" than was the cheating of Renaldo Balkman. And now the cheating of JaVale McGee is a bigger deal than was the cheating of J.R. Smith. This is because whether you look at Real Player Ratings or just look at the overall situation and the key facts within it, McGee has an even higher ultimate potential for winning games against good teams than does J.R. Smith, who in turn has a higher ultimate potential than Renaldo Balkman.

In terms of consequences, when we say "bigger deal," we mean that the number of losses caused by wrong playing times and by wrong starting lineups will be greater due to McGee being cheated than they were due to Smith being cheated (and the consequences were greater when Smith was cheated than they were when Balkman was cheated).  

Another aspect of "bigger deal" is that McGee is literally and by far the highest paid Nugget right now and yet he does not start and he is on track to play only about 1,500 minutes this year, or only about 19 minutes a game, about 1 1/2 quarters of a basketball game of actual "work" for a player who is making 10 million dollars this year. (That's nice work if you can get it, laugh out loud.) When Smith was being cheated he was being paid less than half that. And when Balkman was being cheated he was being paid less than half what Smith was.

THE WRONG LINEUP AND THE WRONG PLAYING TIMES IN ACTION: NUGGETS ARE RUN OUT OF THE STAPLES CENTER

So when the Nuggets were blown out by the Lakers in Los Angeles on November 30 (2012) that was no fluke or accident. There was no need for the game to be a complete blowout. But the Nuggets did not start or play the best power forward / center combination that they had available, which is JaVale McGee at Center and Kenneth Faried at power forward. Instead, Kosta Koufas started at Center and Faried started at power forward. Whereupon the Lakers rolled over Koufas and Faried as if they were not there on their way to an easy win over the Nuggets.

ONLY SMART FANS REALLY UNDERSTAND THAT PLAYING TIMES MATTER

Face it, there are a lot of dumb basketball fans. Unfortunately, most of the dumb ones are not smart enough to understand that playing times are very, very important and when mistakes are made, losses will happen that would not have happened otherwise. The big corporate media like ESPN knows that a lot of their readers are dumb asses, so you will rarely if ever see any of their writers and broadcasters write or talk about playing times not being correct on a team or in a game. If you just judged from ESPN and other big corporate media, you would think that coaches always pretty much automatically have the playing time for players close to perfect. Only the smartest NBA watchers understand that errors are made from time to time. Some of the errors are honest mistakes while some of them are due to sheer incompetence of those making them.

But having said that, only a small minority of coaches (and it might be a very small minority; we don't know exactly how many to be honest) make major, gross errors in playing times, with George Karl being the basket case (excuse the unintended pun, laugh out loud.)

If you before you ever read this were aware that JaVale McGee is not getting all of the playing time he should get, give yourself an award or at least a pat on the back for being one of the smartest NBA fans / observers.

STEVE KERR SLANDERS JAVALE MCGEE

During the Nuggets' loss at Golden State on November 29, Steve Kerr was the "Color Guy" who was broadcasting the game on the TNT TV network (and Marv Albert was the "Play by Play Guy"). During the first half, Kerr slandered JaVale McGee, which reminded me that what I really should do is mute the sound when watching a regular season game because quite honestly I don't get much of anything from the broadcasters other than annoyance when they say something really dumb. And I make fun of the broadcasters when they say something stupid which, although it is a good way to relax, is not at all productive.

The Kerr slander of McGee was most likely unintentional, but it was a slander. But it was not legally a slander because legal slander has to be intentional.

McGee bit on a move by the Warriors player he was guarding (I don't remember which one it was) and he jumped up for a possible block instead of remaining stationary for a possible charge taking (or instead of remaining down on the floor in ordinary defensive mode). He was called for a foul (and let's concede that it was a foul even though technically I am not completely convinced that it was a foul).

So when he saw this, Steve Kerr made the incorrect and ultimately slanderous claim that the reason why McGee is not starting for the Nuggets and the reason why McGee does not get the playing time that "a lot of Nuggets fans think he should get" is because McGee is not really fully qualified to start and for a lot of playing time because he commits too many dumb fouls. In other words, Kerr took the opportunity of McGee's little mistake to come out with his incorrect theory about the not starting and about the low playing time.

Keep in mind, broadcasters are for all practical purposes not allowed to criticize coaches in general and they are not allowed to blame playing time mistakes on coaches (who are the ones responsible).

FOUR REASONS WHY STEVE KERR WAS WRONG AND WHY MAYBE YOU SHOULD PUT YOUR SOUND ON MUTE WHEN YOU WATCH A NBA GAME ON TELEVISION

Let's look at four reasons why what Kerr said is wrong and a slander.

First, the particular foul in question was not really a "dumb foul". It is a fact of life and an every game type of thing that defenders get called for fouls when they bite on an offensive players' move and they "awkwardly" jump up to contest a shot that was never actually going to be a shot. It happens all the time because defenders are not mind readers who always know exactly what the offensive player is about to do. There are NBA players (for example, Steve Nash) who are well known as ones who can fool defenders and get them to commit fouls by making it seem like they are going up for a jump shot when they really are not.

Secondly, looking at the actual facts, although McGee is in the upper range for fouling rate, he is within the ordinary range for NBA centers and power forwards. McGee is definitely not some kind of klutz who commits way too many fouls. To put it simply, McGee does NOT foul too much, and that is all that needs to be said on that point.

Thirdly, and even more importantly, records show that a big majority of young centers and power forwards (and a lot of players at other positions for that matter) have substantially higher fouling rates in their first few years than they do later on in their careers (assuming their careers are not ruined by being cheated out of playing time). Although perhaps "on the high side", overall the McGee fouling rate is completely ordinary and expected.

Consider Metta World Peace (who used to be Ron Artest until he changed his name, and yes, the man is considered to be a lunatic by many, laugh out loud). World Peace, though, is well known to be one of the best defenders of the NBA and who now plays for the Los Angeles Lakers. Let's compare his fouling rate for his first few years versus that of JaVale McGee:

METTA WORLD PEACE FOULS PER 36 MINUTES

-First five years of NBA career

1999-2000 2.6

2000-2001 3.9

2001-2002 4.8

2002-2003 3.8

2003-2004 2.6

2004-2005 3.3

JAVALE MCGEE FOULS PER 36 MINUTES

-First four years of NBA career

2008-2009 4.9

2009-2010 4.5

2010-2011 3.8

2011-2012 3.9

In the first four years, Metta World Peace (formerly Ron Artest) averaged 3.78 fouls per 36 minutes. In the first four years, JaVale McGee averaged 4.28 fouls per 36 minutes. So the difference in fouling rates during the first four years is just half a foul per 36 minutes between McGee and the player who is well known to be one of the best defenders in the NBA. Although clearly McGee fouls a lot, and although his problem is a little bigger than the one World Peace faced at the four year point, it is not true to say that McGee is way over the top as far as fouling is concerned and it is not true that McGee will not be able to deal with the problem.

These days, the fouling rate of World Peace (formerly Ron Artest) is much less than 3.78 per 36 minutes. After bottoming out at 2.3 in 2008-09 and in 2009-10, the World Peace fouling rate drifted back up again and was 2.7 in 2010-11 and it was 2.9 in 2011-12. The main point is, the World Peace fouling rate was much lower in later years than it was in the first four years.

That only makes sense; the fouling rate for players who can be great defenders such as World Peace will decline as they hone their skills at defending without fouling, and as they learn over many years about exactly what NBA referees will tolerate and what they won't tolerate.

The fouling rate going down in future years is going to happen for virtually all players who foul a lot in early years. JaVale McGee is no exception His fouling rate (assuming his career is not completely ruined by George Karl) is going to go down in future years.

However, if George Karl deprives McGee of playing time, then McGee will have less opportunity to hone the skill of defending well without fouling, meaning that, ironically, the McGee fouling rate will be higher in the coming years than it would be if he were not cheated by Karl. And somebody like McGee has to start, because it is much better that he learn how to defend while keeping the fouling rate down versus the best scoring centers and power forwards instead of versus the also ran (or in other words the reserve) centers and power forwards. You can't be the best unless you challenge and deal with the best opponents.

What will happen if George Karl persists in cheating JaVale McGee out of playing time? (And there is a very high probability that he will continue to cheat him not only this season but also in future seasons.) Well, the McGee fouling rate will still come down, but it will come down more slowly and it will most likely not go as low as it would go to if McGee were not cheated. So if McGee is cheated year after year, his fouling rate will very gradually drop from 4.28 down to roughly 3.0 per 36 minutes. If he were not cheated, the rate would drop more quickly, and it would probably eventually get down to roughly 2.5 or even lower.

WHATEVER HAPPENED TO COACHING INDIVIDUAL PLAYERS?

I also strongly contend that this cheating of JaVale McGee (and the cheating of J.R. Smith and Renaldo Balkman in recent years) shows you that George Karl is too incompetent or at least too lazy to coach individual players. What a really good coach would do would be to help JaVale McGee become a great NBA defender without the ball and chain of a too high fouling rate. And although they might not be as crude and brazen as Karl is about it, what a more incompetent or a more lazy coach will tend to do is just what Karl is doing: try to ignore the problem by and while reducing the playing time of the player who needs to get better at something.

But obviously, you can't get better at something unless you keep trying to get better. The World Peace playing times were in the low 2000's in his first four years (roughly 2,200 minutes per year). Rock bottom minimum, JaVale McGee should be playing for 2,200 minutes this year (and more realistically, he should be getting at least 2,500 minutes this year). But right now as we speak, McGee is on track to get only 1,500 minutes this year, meaning that he will be cheated out of between 750 and 1,000 minutes.

By the way, that range of minutes seems to be standard operating procedure for Karl. When Karl decides that a player needs to be cheated out of playing time, we are often talking about 750 to 1,000 minutes of playing time per year.  

THE CORRECT WAY TO DEAL WITH KEY PLAYERS WHO SOMETIMES FOUL TOO MUCH

Continuing on with the fourth reason why what Steve Kerr said about JaVale McGee is wrong and a slander.....

Fourthly, even if a player does foul too much, if that player nevertheless has a very high Real Player Rating, he should still get a lot of playing time. If and when he does foul out of certain games, then you can simply sub in that player who you would be starting and who would be getting too many minutes if the better but high fouling rate player was being cheated from the get go. So if you simply wait for actual foul outs in actual games, the better but high fouling rate player is cheated far less.

But technically, foul-prone starting players seldom actually foul out of games, because coaches start restricting their minutes as the game goes along if their number of fouls is on track to reach six before the game is over. So then that important starting player who got into "foul trouble" as they say can, despite that problem, play late in the fourth quarter when the game is on the line. And the player will actually foul out if and only if he gets called for a sixth foul late in the fourth quarter.

Specifically for the Nuggets, the correct strategy is to start McGee and then in the small number of games he fouls too much in the first half you can then go hog wild with playing time for Kenneth Faried or Kosta Koufas in those particular games, especially in the third quarter. It makes no sense to refuse to start your best center / power forward due to a high fouling rate simply because you are worried about too many fouls when you can deal with the problem game by game as just discussed. Not starting your best center / power forward due to a high fouling rate is too strong a response to the problem and is essentially shooting yourself in the foot.

To bring this Report to a suitable close and as a reminder, fouling rate is definitely NOT the main or even a big reason why JaVale McGee is not starting and why he is being cheated out of playing time. George Karl may be incompetent but he is not THAT incompetent. The real "reasons" why McGee is being cheated are relatively briefly discussed here and here. Those same reasons are more heavily discussed in Reports in prior years regarding the cheating of Renaldo Balkman and even more heavily covered in Reports covering the cheating of J.R. Smith.