Foul Factory- Amir Johnson

[Multipaul]

I feel embarrassed for the both of us. Man that was bad.

I had flashbacks of Jamario Moon....dammm....

To be honest, I have liked Amir's game since he was on the Pistons. I just don't know how a coach can teach a guy not to make so many stupid fouls. Admittedly, Bargs was getting whistled like crazy his 2nd year, and he's cleaned it up now. I remember in 2nd or 3rd playoff game against Miami, Bargs came on, got 2 fouls on Howard in like 17 seconds, and got yanked back to the bench for Rancho Nesterovic.

[Buddahfan]

His defense on Josh Smith was fantastic. He played a very efficient game other than the fouls. You can't look at one or two bad timed fouls and discount his other contributions. Or we could talk about how Bargnani had a 1:4 assist to turnover ratio, had a pathetic 3 rebounds and let Horford eat him alive down low. He did hit some timely shots though, so I guess that's all we need to mention.

+1

The Raptors media, Smith in particular, doesn't like Johnson period.

I have my theories on why this is so but let me just say I think that they don't relate to him and who he is as a person. They have continually bashed him since they fist saw all his tatoos and heard him speak in Urban slang.

As far as starting goes. He has made some decent progress in his 22 as I recall starts. No one is perfect but he is averaging close to 28 mpg as a starter despite playing 9 of those 22 starts with a bad back.

Truth be told, now there would be a novel idea we could nitpick any player play during a game if we didn't like him. No I don't nitpick Bargnani's play like people do with Johnson.

Anyway what all the Johnson haters and fans for that matter say is irrelevant to the number of minutes he gets during a game.

Live with it

[Multipaul]

+1

The Raptors media, Smith in particular, doesn't like Johnson period.

I have my theories on why this is so but let me just say I think that they don't relate to him and who he is as a person. They have continually bashed him since they fist saw all his tatoos and heard him speak in Urban slang.

Yes, there is a direct link between # of tattoos and # of fouls committed in a game...maybe he is trying to get a foul for every tattoo he has. I have heard plenty of interviews with Amir, he speaks intelligently and rarely uses slang.

[Introcollapse]

I have heard plenty of interviews with Amir, he speaks intelligently and rarely uses slang.

Agreed. UNLESS you play him on Xbox Live. Then he's a serious potty mouth.

[Buddahfan]

Yes, there is a direct link between # of tattoos and # of fouls committed in a game...maybe he is trying to get a foul for every tattoo he has. I have heard plenty of interviews with Amir, he speaks intelligently and rarely uses slang.

I saw one interview where Doug Smith asked him a question and Amir answered it. Smith said I didn't understand what you said so Amir said "Sorry I was speaking in Urban Slang"

He also speaks a lot in Urban Slang on Twitter, though I have followed in in months. Seriously.

[Buddahfan]

He has actually improved as a starter in his foul rate since he 2008-09 when he started 24 games for the Pistons

Category-------------08-09------10-11
------------------------------------------
Games Started---------24--------23
MPG---------------------20--------28
FPG----------------------3.8-------4.0

Personally I think that he is the type of player that will always use his fouls.

However if he keeps starting I can see him eventually getting his MPG up to 33 - 35 with probably about the same number of fouls per game of about 4.0

[Buddahfan]

This is filed in the "for what it is worth" category

Here are some foul related season to date numbers for Johnson

Games Started --------------------24
MPG as a Starter-------------------28
Fouls Per 36 Min as a Starter-----5.0

The Raptors have played 40 games.

I doubt it will happen but for the sake of discussion lets say that Johnson starts in all the remaining 42 games. Davis is breathing fire down his neck and could move into the starting role by the all-star game.

Anyway lets just assume Johnson keeps starting.
Also lets assume that Johnson's minutes per game as a starter stay at 28
Finally lets assume that Johnson's foul rate as a starter stays at 5.0 per 36 minutes

At the end of the season he will have started 66 games and averaged 28 mpg and 5.0 fouls per 36 minutes in those 66 starts.

That has been done only three times previously in the history in the NBA

Three players have done it once each

Shawn Kemp
Daryl Dawkins
Steve Johnson

Kemp was the only player to do the above and average over 30 mpg. In 1999-00 he started 82 games averaged 30.4 mpg and 5.4 fouls per 36 minutes

[Multipaul]

I saw one interview where Doug Smith asked him a question and Amir answered it. Smith said I didn't understand what you said so Amir said "Sorry I was speaking in Urban Slang"

He also speaks a lot in Urban Slang on Twitter, though I have followed in in months. Seriously.

To Doug Smith the word "cool" is urban slang. Doug Smith was around when real Raptors roamed the earth.

[Buddahfan]

It is always game to game but Johnson is averaging over 28 mpg as a starter with maybe a third of them being played with an injured back.

He is tied with Jose for the team leader in double doubles at seven.

Amir haters will always bash him, that is just the way it is.

I will trust Triano's judgement on the use of Johnson

[Buddahfan]

I post on the internet with three names

1. Buddahfan
2. Nesivos
3. JohnGalt with various suffixes depending on what JohnGalt names are available on a given website when I sign up.

Once in a rare while I use my real first name on news websites but never on this forum.

That is it.