The only way his contract is not guaranteed for the rest of the year is if he shows up smoking a crackpipe.
Nasty. <iframe width="560" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/dW5fmquB0qM" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
Lets not get crazy now, but he is certainly better than a few guys on the Rockets roster. Too bad that they didn't see that. He would have fit the system too. He is regressing to the mean and his numbers are going back to those consistent with his career up to this point, but no reason to have Brewer and Covington on the team over this guy. Hopefully Covington makes me eat those words one day.
His numbers aren't huge, but his ability to fill every single box on the stat sheet on a regular basis is impressive. Super well-rounded.
Johnson would've been a great addition to our roster. A great jack-of-all-trades type whose best qualities (D and athleticism) are things we're currently lacking. That said, I think a 2/3 DTA guy would help the most, and Johnson is a 3/4. With the way he's playing, he'd certainly be worthy of taking Casspi's minutes.
You're right. It just looked extremely bad at first when he was playing over his head coupled with the fact that he was right under our noses and could have been had for nothing. Now it just looks regular bad if that makes since, considering he would actually be able to probably earn a rotation spot off the bench backing up the 3 and the 4. He would bring something different into the game that none of the other players on the roster really posess. We decided to keep washed up Ronnie Brewer and this Covington guy instead though. Covington better turn out to be a knockdown 3 point shooter because it seems to me like James Johnson is superior to him in just about every other area.
Marc gasol is back to full training with the grizzles which could reduce his minutes somewhat, but from what I see he is basically impacting Memphis more than prince
I wouldn't be surprised if Memphis takes overtake us for the 5-7th spot in the playoffs, there's still plenty of season left, and they got Courtney Lee and now a healthy Marc Gasol. Lookout, the Grizzlies out Moreye'd Daryl Morey.
At our current pace of winning 63% of our games, we would go 27-17 and finish 51-31. Seeing as how we are 2-0 against them already, they would need to finish with a better record than us to overtake us. For the griz to finish 52-30, they would need to finish the season 34-11. Do you really think Lee + Gasol's return + James Johnson will transform a 47% winning percentage to 76% the rest of the way? Unlikely.
James Johnson turns 27 on Feb. 20th. I thought he was younger than that for some reason. This is his 5th year in the NBA. I guess taking that into consideration I can see why he was probably overlooked to some degree. It isn't like he hasn't had any really good games in previous seasons, but obviously there is something amiss here if a guy this talented is already on his 4th team in 5 seasons. Fools gold? Or maybe he finally found the right fit, kind of like the way Rudy Gay has taken off in Sacramento to an ever greater extent.
The difference about Gay is that this is the first time a team has been able to afford him AND relegate him to the 3rd option on offense (lowest FGA since his rookie year!). We always knew he could shoot and play solid defense, the problem was when he was asked to do too much. Classic case of a player's role being defined by his contract. When it comes to James Johnson, the dude looks like he has legitimately worked on his game to improve his 3P%, FT% while maintaining his defensive tenacity. I'm afraid, at 27, he is very close to his ceiling but should get a nice payday this summer. I'll be watching closely how he matches up with Durant on Tuesday. If he keeps this up, I'm thinking 3yrs $9mill with a team option for the last year?
Yeah, Johnson seems to have the type of size and athleticism that will bother a guy like Durant. His game reminds me of Andrei Kirilenko in his prime. A wing defender and shot blocker who can defend multiple positions.
We'll have to see if his expiring nets us anything next month before concluding it was a mistake, but I feel your pain there.
