Kings get James Johnson, who is he???
- Thread starter eliczone
- Start date
He might be a nice pick up as a back up SF but the problem is that we have his level of player on our team already. He is not a real SF because he cannot guard a lot of SFs out there. He is a classic tweener.
We are blowing cap space on NON-FACTORS! That is the HUGE issue here. We always seem to blow the little money that we have on average players just to make up numbers. That is a major issue. We went from having $6 million under the cap to now $3.2 million and we are have NOT improved. We would be better off if we just re-signed T-Will. This team has lost the plot. We are officially the laughing stock of the NBA, the new Clippers!
We are blowing cap space on NON-FACTORS! That is the HUGE issue here. We always seem to blow the little money that we have on average players just to make up numbers. That is a major issue. We went from having $6 million under the cap to now $3.2 million and we are have NOT improved. We would be better off if we just re-signed T-Will. This team has lost the plot. We are officially the laughing stock of the NBA, the new Clippers!
So while its not a blockbuster move, and I surely hope the team isnt done making moves, this move does improve the team and the SF position.
Things that are apparently frowned upon in Sacramento. Too bad we didn't get Jason Kapono instead, at least he can shoot (and do nothing else). Seriously guys. First you complain about us not making a move and then you complain because we did and in doing so helped to address some of our issues? My god.
Oh please! He has NO hope of guarding any half decent SF in the league. He showed such an improvement that he got shipped out and replaced by Landry Fields! There is no way in hell he can stay in front of Gay, Pierce, Granger, Ariza, Butler and I am not even getting to Melo or LeBron.
Toronto wanted to improve at SF because this guys is not the answer and all of a sudden he is one for us?! Seriously?! We would have been better off keeping Greene. At least the guy could guard SFs and PFs and even SGs.
We wanted a player that FITs and this guy just does not. He can't guard SFs on a consistent basis. He can can't shoot but he can block a shot or two. Garcia is also a very good shot blocker for his position but he is not the answer either. At least he is a better shooter.
Toronto wanted to improve at SF because this guys is not the answer and all of a sudden he is one for us?! Seriously?! We would have been better off keeping Greene. At least the guy could guard SFs and PFs and even SGs.
We wanted a player that FITs and this guy just does not. He can't guard SFs on a consistent basis. He can can't shoot but he can block a shot or two. Garcia is also a very good shot blocker for his position but he is not the answer either. At least he is a better shooter.
Why go bonkers when all this team needed was a role player to support our young stars in DMC, Reke, MT, and TRob.
Johnson got size and bulk help clog the lane. And at least we won't be fielding undersize 6'5" SF anymore against Lebron, Granger, Durant, et al.
Again, thumps for this trade. It's just a 2nd round pick that we traded. And we have also cash for this year's second round pick. So we basically have him for just $1M+.
Johnson got size and bulk help clog the lane. And at least we won't be fielding undersize 6'5" SF anymore against Lebron, Granger, Durant, et al.
Again, thumps for this trade. It's just a 2nd round pick that we traded. And we have also cash for this year's second round pick. So we basically have him for just $1M+.
Good SF pick-up.
Almost same height and weight with Lebron. 6' 7" without shoes (at least 6' 8" with shoes), 250 lbs., athletic, young, and most importantly for the Maloofs - CHEAP.
Career Block shots are not that bad too for a young 3-yr NBA player: 1 BLK PG on 19 minutes PG. He can help on defense.
Smart will enjoy this player. I am pretty sure he will play him at PF or C.
Almost same height and weight with Lebron. 6' 7" without shoes (at least 6' 8" with shoes), 250 lbs., athletic, young, and most importantly for the Maloofs - CHEAP.
Career Block shots are not that bad too for a young 3-yr NBA player: 1 BLK PG on 19 minutes PG. He can help on defense.
Smart will enjoy this player. I am pretty sure he will play him at PF or C.
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Err you might not have watched him but I certainly have and I am 100% confident that he will not be an impact player for us. He is an average player, a classic tweener without position in the NBA. If he was really that good, why is he getting replaced by Landry Fields and that is a serious question?!
I have seen enough of this kid to say that he is not an improvement on what we have and he is not able to defender any SF worth a pinch of salt.
I have seen enough of this kid to say that he is not an improvement on what we have and he is not able to defender any SF worth a pinch of salt.
Raptors fans are overwhelmingly against this trade.
From what I've read from their fans, some are claiming he was the best player on the team for the first half of the season.
From what I saw (he was on my fantasy basketball team so I tuned into a lot of his games), he is a decent-to-good defender at the SF position, a bit of a SF/PF tweener, who is incredible at blocking. Not terrible at the 3pt line, and if he can improve his shooting from there, he would be very solid. Has some sneaky athleticism as well, but can be very inconsistent with his effort.
From what I've read from their fans, some are claiming he was the best player on the team for the first half of the season.
From what I saw (he was on my fantasy basketball team so I tuned into a lot of his games), he is a decent-to-good defender at the SF position, a bit of a SF/PF tweener, who is incredible at blocking. Not terrible at the 3pt line, and if he can improve his shooting from there, he would be very solid. Has some sneaky athleticism as well, but can be very inconsistent with his effort.
in theory yes. but it might cost us more. it cost us cap space and a sf slot. so unless we trade away our other crappy small forwards. we are not getting iggy/granger/gay that we dream of, or even twill since we spent the money on another sf. so this limits us taking on more salary for that "big" move petrie talked about or even signing twill since we just signed another sf.
So I was off on my facts. Let's look into our new SF.
He's a career 30% 3PT shooter. He shot 31% last season, but only attempted 60 all season. 60. We struggled with shooting last season from the SF spot, and we brought in a guy who played averaged under 1 3PT shot a game.
Just to compare that to say, Cisco, who shot 131 total 3PT attempts last season, James Johnson has attempted 140 his entire career. I guess we won't have to worry about him shooting the ball very often, at least.
He averaged 9 PPG last season, but needed to take 8 shots per game to do so. He did shoot 45% from FGs last season, but from anywhere that's not at the rim or close to it, he's only a 40% FG shooter. Over half of his points came from near or close to the rim, so I guess he'll fit right in with Evans there.
But yes, he did play some good defense, apparently. Unfortunately, according to some Raptors fans, he doesn't have good speed to keep up with fast SFs, and isn't strong enough to guard NBA PF's, so we have another tweener/I'm not sure what to do with him but we'll stick him at one position and see how he does.
Oh well....
He's a career 30% 3PT shooter. He shot 31% last season, but only attempted 60 all season. 60. We struggled with shooting last season from the SF spot, and we brought in a guy who played averaged under 1 3PT shot a game.
Just to compare that to say, Cisco, who shot 131 total 3PT attempts last season, James Johnson has attempted 140 his entire career. I guess we won't have to worry about him shooting the ball very often, at least.
He averaged 9 PPG last season, but needed to take 8 shots per game to do so. He did shoot 45% from FGs last season, but from anywhere that's not at the rim or close to it, he's only a 40% FG shooter. Over half of his points came from near or close to the rim, so I guess he'll fit right in with Evans there.
But yes, he did play some good defense, apparently. Unfortunately, according to some Raptors fans, he doesn't have good speed to keep up with fast SFs, and isn't strong enough to guard NBA PF's, so we have another tweener/I'm not sure what to do with him but we'll stick him at one position and see how he does.
Oh well....
As a SF, not a PF, I like this. This guy is a defensive minded SF who has the potential to be a pretty good consistent, defensive SF in this league. He won't eat up shots, is an upgrade defensively over any SF on our roster, given his stroke isn't bad he could probably bump up his 3pt% a little more and still has upside.
We needed a defender at the 3, and hopefully one who doesn't eat shots and is at least average on the glass. Ideally that player can also shoot, but imo we took a step in answering those issues. Not only is this guy a defender, but he should get better as a defender as well.
I'm actually feeling positive about this, as long as Smart doesn't play him as a PF.
Still need more moves though.
We needed a defender at the 3, and hopefully one who doesn't eat shots and is at least average on the glass. Ideally that player can also shoot, but imo we took a step in answering those issues. Not only is this guy a defender, but he should get better as a defender as well.
I'm actually feeling positive about this, as long as Smart doesn't play him as a PF.
Still need more moves though.
1. He's not a 3PT shooter.
2. With T-Rob and Cousins, our main need isn't worrying about rebounds.
3. After taking on $3, we have about another $3M and change left, so I can't imagine us making another move. If we do, I'll surely eat the crow for it, but I doubt we'll do anything more than add some cheap veteran at the PG spot.
2. With T-Rob and Cousins, our main need isn't worrying about rebounds.
3. After taking on $3, we have about another $3M and change left, so I can't imagine us making another move. If we do, I'll surely eat the crow for it, but I doubt we'll do anything more than add some cheap veteran at the PG spot.
i mentioned dreaming of those players since it wasnt realistic. but when i hear of big moves, i consider big names or a name kings fans dont have to youtube. this is more of a meh move. its not great but i guess its better than nothing type move. but hey its a good thing we have all these rebounders since no one can shoot the 3
Like I said, I'll see what happens if we make another trade to make sense of this, but for what he brings to this team and the money we just took on, we're pretty much done for the offseason. We still don't have a shooter on the floor if he ends up starting, but I'm guessing Salmons is going back to the starting lineup with this move and T-Will being gone.
James Johnson is an interesting player. He's in the classic SF/PF tweener mold although he's got some skills -- namely ballhandling and passing ability -- that fit a little better at SF than most combo forwards. The blocks and steals look good on the statsheet but I wouldn't call him a standout defender. He's limited as a perimeter defender because he's not particularly quick on his feet. He's got length and leaping ability to compensate but the drawback is that he's a bit of a foul machine. (PS -- Did you know that in 4 of the last 5 seasons the league leader in fouls committed was a Sacramento King? That's not a good trend.) Of course he'll still be one of the better defenders on this team from day 1, so it's all relative.
On offense he can post-up or take his man off the dribble though he's more crafty than quick with the ball. I'm concerned though that he's not a prolific shooter (averages 0.3 made three pointers per game for his career) nor does he draw fouls so his scoring efficiency is always going to be on the low end. As lateral moves go, we could do a lot worse (cough, Salmons) but it's hard for me to see this as anything more than treading water. He's cheap because this is the last year of his rookie deal and Toronto didn't have minutes for him anymore. He'll be due for a hefty raise if he exceeds expectations or maybe a mid-range deal if he doesn't. I agree with Carolija on this one. Between Chuck Hayes, Jason Thompson, and now James Johnson we're slowly eating away all of our salary cap flexibility on career role-players. These are good pieces to have on your bench if you're already a playoff team but they'll end up playing a lot of minutes for us and there will certainly be some highlights (huge dunk) but some lowlights as well (huge poster). Such is life for a Sacramento Kings fan.
I'm sorry you drank the Maloof kool-aid on this issue, but that's not even slightly true. If we in fact cannot afford contract extensions for Cousins and Evans it won't be because of the salary cap it'll be because we have a roster overloaded with junk and owners who can't afford to keep a league-average payroll for multiple years in succession.
On offense he can post-up or take his man off the dribble though he's more crafty than quick with the ball. I'm concerned though that he's not a prolific shooter (averages 0.3 made three pointers per game for his career) nor does he draw fouls so his scoring efficiency is always going to be on the low end. As lateral moves go, we could do a lot worse (cough, Salmons) but it's hard for me to see this as anything more than treading water. He's cheap because this is the last year of his rookie deal and Toronto didn't have minutes for him anymore. He'll be due for a hefty raise if he exceeds expectations or maybe a mid-range deal if he doesn't. I agree with Carolija on this one. Between Chuck Hayes, Jason Thompson, and now James Johnson we're slowly eating away all of our salary cap flexibility on career role-players. These are good pieces to have on your bench if you're already a playoff team but they'll end up playing a lot of minutes for us and there will certainly be some highlights (huge dunk) but some lowlights as well (huge poster). Such is life for a Sacramento Kings fan.
I'm sorry you drank the Maloof kool-aid on this issue, but that's not even slightly true. If we in fact cannot afford contract extensions for Cousins and Evans it won't be because of the salary cap it'll be because we have a roster overloaded with junk and owners who can't afford to keep a league-average payroll for multiple years in succession.
Former fan-favorites come here and underachieve. I wonder what that says about our franchise (Oh, that it is absolutely terrible. But we already knew that much).
In contrast, Thornton and T-Will were also viewed as the high-potential fan favorites by their former fanbases, and they actually did quite well here. Hopefully JJ will fit in with their group when it is all said and done.
In contrast, Thornton and T-Will were also viewed as the high-potential fan favorites by their former fanbases, and they actually did quite well here. Hopefully JJ will fit in with their group when it is all said and done.