Kings get James Johnson, who is he???

Glenn

Glenn

Hall of Famer
#121
#121
rainmaker said:
I think he's a better version of Donte, or rather, the Donte we all wanted. If Donte became a consistent defensive SF who could play 20-30mins a night, hit 3's at an least a decent rate and stayed out of the way of IT/Reke/Cuz on offense, he would have fit very well. Never happened. But that's my hope for JJ, he's already better than Donte, and has shown improvement unlike Donte, and at 24 should still improve some more.

Of course I'd rather we go Iggy or Prince. Part of this does scream, the Maloofs are cheap. But, with restraints on him Petrie has made some horrible decisions lately wthi Salmons, Chuck and Outlaw. Given his restraints, this is finally a move which potentially fills a couple needs and improves us. Much better than getting a gunner or a non defensive guy because you feel you have to do something and don't have the flexibility you'd like, as well as handicap us going forward, which is what happened with Salmons/Chuck/Outlaw.
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It's shocking that Petrie would get a guy for his defensive abilities. :) Reassuring also.
 
J

JMelho

Prospect
#122
#122
I've watched a lot of Raptors games. James Johnson is a pure hustle player who can rebound and block shots due to his height. He will knock down the occasional 3 and he won't hog the ball. He does have some moves to drive to the basket. Don't expect him to lock down Lebron or any star SFs though. I could see him starting at SF on this team just because he is a defensive presence, SF height and he won't take away from the touches that Evans and Cousins need. He won't spread the floor with his 3 though, unless he drastically improved his shot once again.
 
T

theclash4u5

Starter
#123
#123
This will be a good trade if we can convince Evans to play off the bench, because I could see us needing the extra size if we roll out a IT/MT backcourt. But with Evans playing SG, it just makes no sense at all.
 
R

rekehavoc73186

G-League
#124
#124
JMelho said:
I've watched a lot of Raptors games. James Johnson is a pure hustle player who can rebound and block shots due to his height. He will knock down the occasional 3 and he won't hog the ball. He does have some moves to drive to the basket. Don't expect him to lock down Lebron or any star SFs though. I could see him starting at SF on this team just because he is a defensive presence, SF height and he won't take away from the touches that Evans and Cousins need. He won't spread the floor with his 3 though, unless he drastically improved his shot once again.
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well no1 can lock down lebron or durant. As long as he defends other guys at his position and hopefully improves his 3pt shot then its a great pick up
 
MassachusettsKingsFan

MassachusettsKingsFan

All-Star
#125
#125
rainmaker said:
I think he's a better version of Donte, or rather, the Donte we all wanted. If Donte became a consistent defensive SF who could play 20-30mins a night, hit 3's at an least a decent rate and stayed out of the way of IT/Reke/Cuz on offense, he would have fit very well. Never happened. But that's my hope for JJ, he's already better than Donte, and has shown improvement unlike Donte, and at 24 should still improve some more.

Of course I'd rather we go Iggy or Prince. Part of this does scream, the Maloofs are cheap. But, with restraints on him Petrie has made some horrible decisions lately wthi Salmons, Chuck and Outlaw. Given his restraints, this is finally a move which potentially fills a couple needs and improves us. Much better than getting a gunner or a non defensive guy because you feel you have to do something and don't have the flexibility you'd like, as well as handicap us going forward, which is what happened with Salmons/Chuck/Outlaw.
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Agreed. There were a lot of people who compared this move to the Wright move and wondered why we didn't just go after Wright instead ... Well, it is kind of assuring the Petrie had the chance to trade for a shooter who Smart already knew very well, and instead went with the better defender / energy / taller / rebounder over the skilled shooter.
 
T

The_Jamal

Hall of Famer
#126
#126
rainmaker said:
I think he's a better version of Donte, or rather, the Donte we all wanted. If Donte became a consistent defensive SF who could play 20-30mins a night, hit 3's at an least a decent rate and stayed out of the way of IT/Reke/Cuz on offense, he would have fit very well. Never happened. But that's my hope for JJ, he's already better than Donte, and has shown improvement unlike Donte, and at 24 should still improve some more.

Of course I'd rather we go Iggy or Prince. Part of this does scream, the Maloofs are cheap. But, with restraints on him Petrie has made some horrible decisions lately wthi Salmons, Chuck and Outlaw. Given his restraints, this is finally a move which potentially fills a couple needs and improves us. Much better than getting a gunner or a non defensive guy because you feel you have to do something and don't have the flexibility you'd like, as well as handicap us going forward, which is what happened with Salmons/Chuck/Outlaw.
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I'm super glad we didn't get Prince. He was beyond awful last season and signed for another 3 years I believe. Plus, we would have likely had to trade something of value for him and given up way too much. Hell, JJ was better than him last season.

Either way, I'm more excited about the type of move this is rather than getting JJ himself. These are the kind of moves that the good teams do every year to the bad teams. For the last 6 years, we've been the team watching these type of deals go by or letting other teams do it to us. It's nice to know we're starting to look for positive trades for our team for once
 
Kingster

Kingster

Hall of Famer
#127
#127
Glenn said:
We don't know if we are treading water but that would be the most discouraging out put. If he is a starter, we came out ahead. As he is a defensive, somewhat good shot blocking, big SF, I suspect we came out ahead and he is a good fit. That's what we wanted unless people have forgotten what type of SF fits best with this team. We won't know for sure about the wisdom of this trade until the season starts. I'm a little puzzled unless Petrie saw something very good and given the reaction of the fans of the team he came from, maybe there IS something.

Of course this is one of the trades Petrie was talking about. He never promised a big trade and with the age of the huge majority of the team, maybe a big trade is premature. We don't know what we have. Well, I don't know what we have as a team. There are a lot of question marks with IT, Jimmer, Tyreke, Hassan, Honeycutt, and TRob. The rest I think we know what we have. I place IT in that group as the league will adjust to him and he may not be so super next year.

I suspect a final trade for a PG. No matter who you think can play PG on this team, one injury and we are in trouble.
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You bring up fit, and this trade does make you wonder about other dominos falling. If Johnson is a farily middle of the road shooter, then who exactly would he fit with on this team? Thornton? IT? Thompson? Maybe Robinson? Cousins? Jimmer? Those guys can shoot outside. But it's hard for me to see him compatible with Tyreke and T-Will on the offensive end. Petrie continues to add guys that at the very least raise questions about their on-the-court compatibility. If he typically made moves that accounted for how a guy would fit with the team, you could probably make some inferences on what's going to happen with other players down the line. But Petrie can add pieces with no accounting for compatibility so it's impossible right now to figure out where he wants to really go with this team.
 
T

The_Jamal

Hall of Famer
#128
#128
MassachusettsKingsFan said:
Agreed. There were a lot of people who compared this move to the Wright move and wondered why we didn't just go after Wright instead ... Well, it is kind of assuring the Petrie had the chance to trade for a shooter who Smart already knew very well, and instead went with the better defender / energy / taller / rebounder over the skilled shooter.
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While I still prefer JJ to Wright, we still might have asked about him. I doubt the Warriors would essentially hand over free talent to someone in the division though, even if it is someone like Wright
 
Mass

Mass

Starter
#129
#129
steelevt said:
so are you saying can be close to .500 after replacing donte and twill with johnson? that's mighty high hopes considering we won 24 and 25 games the years before last, and that with 22 wins last year we were .333. also just about everyone in the pacific got better. lakers got nash, clippers resigned billups and got jamal crawford, the suns who we thought were on their way down and rebuilding, sped it up with dragic, beasley, scola and were going to get eric gordon before the hornets matched.
the warriors who are always at the bottom with us now look pretty good on paper. bogut/lee/barnes/thompson/curry. if they stay healthy, we just might be at the bottom of the pacific again. im having high hopes of 30 wins this season if everything works out. 35 is my goal if we dont make any other moves
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No, I'm not saying that adding JJ will make us a .500 team. I said that IF Cousins, Thomas, Thornton and Evans improve like they should, IF they build a better chemistry, we could be a 38-40 win team. We are also adding T-Rob. Well, I should add another "if". IF Smart stops using stupid lineups, well, maybe we can improve a lot.

I know maybe I'm being overoptimistic here, but I'm a Kings fan, and summer hope is all I got left...
 
hrdboild

hrdboild

Moloch in whom I dream Angels!
Staff member
#131
#131
The_Jamal said:
What kind of team do you expect to field if we're paying every starter 10-12 mil? It's not realistic for ANYBODY much less the Sacramento Kings.

We aren't trying to become relevant this season. We are still struggling with the steps BEFORE we actually start becoming relevant. And part of that process is finding productive players (T-will, JJ) to replace the blackholes on our team (Outlaw, Salmons, Greene, Garcia). We've spent the last 6 years trying to become a positive franchise again and picking up a productive role player like Johnson for nothing is absolutely a positive move in the right direction as a franchise. He might only be here for 1 season, but I sure as hell would rather watch him at SF than live through another year of Salmons/Garcia/Outlaw/Tyreke at the position.
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I didn't say every starter on your team should be a star -- but we don't have even one starter making $10-12 million per year. Not one. Can't we revisit that discussion when it actually applies to our situation? I agree with the bold part though. We aren't trying to become relevant this season. Nor did we try the season before that, or the season before that. It's getting old. At one point you could convince yourself that salary cap flexibility was an issue but we're well past that now. Two of those black holes you mention (four really, since you left out Jimmer and Hayes) were brought in last season. So not only are we not trying to be relevant apparently, but we're moving in the opposite direction. Petrie needed a sledgehammer and a blowtorch to fix the roster mess he created last year and so far he's attacked the problem with a screw driver and a pair of tweezers.
 
T

The_Jamal

Hall of Famer
#132
#132
hrdboild said:
I didn't say every starter on your team should be a star -- but we don't have even one starter making $10-12 million per year. Not one. Can't we revisit that discussion when it actually applies to our situation? I agree with the bold part though. We aren't trying to become relevant this season. Nor did we try the season before that, or the season before that. It's getting old. At one point you could convince yourself that salary cap flexibility was an issue but we're well past that now. Two of those black holes you mention (four really, since you left out Jimmer and Hayes) were brought in last season. So not only are we not trying to be relevant apparently, but we're moving in the opposite direction. Petrie needed a sledgehammer and a blowtorch to fix the roster mess he created last year and so far he's attacked the problem with a screw driver and a pair of tweezers.
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I totally disagree. JT, Trob, and JJ is a highly successful offseason with this terrible FA class. There is no one worth shelling out that $10 million dollar contract for. Assuming we re-up Twill as well, we've added 4 very big,physical,athletic, good defending role players to the roster. Add in the natural progressions of Reke, Cousins, Thornton, and IT and all of a sudden we're looking at huge change in team personal from last season.

IT
Reke || Thornton
T-will || JJ
Trob || JT
Cousins

Is it perfect? Absolutely not! But it's finally a step in the right direction and very capable of being a playoff roster in the next few years. To me, we could right all the wrongs we did last summer simply with resigning T-will. That's not a simple thing to do in one year
 
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Bricklayer

Bricklayer

Don't Make Me Use The Bat
#141
#141
Chicken Chaser said:
wait i thought we only spent 2.8 mil out of our 6? There's still money left for T-Will right?!
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Now we added Brooks too.

Still I would not say its over for TWill yet. We are shy up front, and the Brooks pickup is a clear sign we have given up on Jimmer. There could be a mvoe made to shed Jimmer's contract, or to make a trade of Thornton for frontcourt help or somesuch which could opent eh door fro TWill to come back behind Reke. Or not. Just hard to imagine Terrence getting a big $$ offer after his troubles, so it is going to likely be accessible financially for us.
 
Tetsujin

Tetsujin

The Game Thread Dude
#144
#144
Bricklayer said:
Now we added Brooks too.

Still I would not say its over for TWill yet. We are shy up front, and the Brooks pickup is a clear sign we have given up on Jimmer. There could be a mvoe made to shed Jimmer's contract, or to make a trade of Thornton for frontcourt help or somesuch which could opent eh door fro TWill to come back behind Reke. Or not. Just hard to imagine Terrence getting a big $$ offer after his troubles, so it is going to likely be accessible financially for us.
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Not sure if T-Will is eligible for the veteran minimum yet but if he is, I can see us dropping that on him for a year.
 
Hallama

Hallama

Starter
#145
#145
steelevt said:
spent it on aaron brooks
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I think there are a few more ways to fill out a roster under the new CBA even when you reach the cap. Some sort of mini-MLE type of contract, and the Kings just did drop Whiteside so they may still end up signing TWill. Any why not? You can never have too many SFs on a roster...
 
Glenn

Glenn

Hall of Famer
#146
#146
Kingster said:
You bring up fit, and this trade does make you wonder about other dominos falling. If Johnson is a farily middle of the road shooter, then who exactly would he fit with on this team? Thornton? IT? Thompson? Maybe Robinson? Cousins? Jimmer? Those guys can shoot outside. But it's hard for me to see him compatible with Tyreke and T-Will on the offensive end. Petrie continues to add guys that at the very least raise questions about their on-the-court compatibility. If he typically made moves that accounted for how a guy would fit with the team, you could probably make some inferences on what's going to happen with other players down the line. But Petrie can add pieces with no accounting for compatibility so it's impossible right now to figure out where he wants to really go with this team.
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He plays defense. We need defense.
 
IfAt1st

IfAt1st

Starter
#147
#147
Tetsujin said:
Not sure if T-Will is eligible for the veteran minimum yet but if he is, I can see us dropping that on him for a year.
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Napier just said on his show that "If Hassan Whiteside was out in left field, TWill is out in way, WAY left field.

sense of entitlement ... not a good teammate, bad attitude....he's like an Italian sports car - looks good, but he's in the shop a lot."

He seems to think T-Will is not in the Kings plans whatsoever.
 
Bricklayer

Bricklayer

Don't Make Me Use The Bat
#148
#148
IfAt1st said:
Napier just said on his show that "If Hassan Whiteside was out in left field, TWill is out in way, WAY left field.

sense of entitlement ... not a good teammate, bad attitude....he's like an Italian sports car - looks good, but he's in the shop a lot."

He seems to think T-Will is not in the Kings plans whatsoever.
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He should have Cousins on the show to chat wiht him about their differing viewpoints on what kind of teammate TWill is. Cousins actually BEING one of the teammates mind you.
 
rainmaker

rainmaker

Hall of Famer
#150
#150
I have to wonder if something happened behind the scenes with TWill which none of us know about. He was all the sudden dropped from the rotation towards the end of the year, when MT ws out and we could have used him even more, and gave Outlaw big minutes instead. There's a history with him, and even though I liked and many others liked what they saw from him, his mysterious dropping out of the rotation and then us apparently not being interested in him even though he'd fit very well with us as a backup guard, I do wonder if something happened.
 
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