Conventional wisdom carries a lot of baggage. It becomes conventional because, over time, it is proven accurate often enough that people just start generally accepting it as truth. The baggage comes in, though, with the lack of scrutiny that wisdom is then subjected to.
Case in point: James Johnson should not be a suitable starter for the Toronto Raptors because he can’t hit three-point shots (Sunday’s corner bomb notwithstanding, Johnson has been awful from three this year, connecting on just 19.4% of his tries). With DeMar DeRozan a veritable nonentity behind the arc and Kyle Lowry struggling from three this season (33.2%, down from 38% a season ago), the thinking was that the useable floorspace would simply be too clogged if Johnson was slotted into Toronto’s starting unit. I wrote so myself only a few weeks ago.
That’s the conventional wisdom, anyway.
What Johnson has proven in his two games back since his hamstring injury (and in several games earlier in the season) is that the bag of tricks that he brings to the table, even if it doesn’t include an effective three-point shot, is plenty full enough to make it work with Toronto’s first unit. He’s more than his crappy three-point percentage to this team.
One has to remember that three-point shooting is not the only thing that the Toronto starting five lacks. When you have DeRozan, Lowry and Jonas Valanciunas on the floor together, you are also stocked with guys that love to go one-on-one with opponents, which means a lot of standing around and waiting for the ball. You also have precious little ball movement, with guys typically only looking to pass to once they’ve been bottled up (DeRozan and Lowry both make nice, effective passes, but they do not excel in keeping the ball moving).
And let’s not even start on the perimeter defence.
Johnson, however, changes the look on the floor by addressing several of these issues. He is one of the most willing cutters off of the ball that this team has, and he has good hands and can catch the ball on the move and make a play with it. He has always been a more than willing passer, but he’s added a level of judiciousness with the ball and a much tighter handle to operate with. Both of those skills instantly create a lot more movement when he’s on the floor, and his footwork makes him both effective at knifing his way to the basket and also serving him well on post-up opportunities. He makes quick reads with and without the ball and he has the requisite skills to make those reads useful, which helps make the first five more effective.
However, all of those effective traits are secondary to his ability and willingness to play defence on the perimeter. He helped hold Kawhi Leonard to 5-17 shooting on Sunday and only 11 points. He also played tremendous defence at the power forward spot on Friday against Blake Griffin and the Clippers. The Raptors have been a fairly effective offensive team this year, even if they do go through some ugly droughts in-game, but they need all the help they can get defensively. While Johnson may not be up to Dwane Casey’s standard when it comes to executing all of the team’s defensive schemes, right now he just needs perimeter players that can stay in front of their man and body them up. On this iteration of the Raptors Johnson is far and away the best option in that category, and if they want to do anything in the postseason they are going to have to accept that they need what he brings on the defensive end more than they need what Terrence Ross (or Greivis Vasquez) bring on the offensive end from behind the arc.
Now, this is a very easy perspective to take after two games, both wins, even if Johnson had a massive hand in making both of those wins possible. By playing heavy minutes at power forward on Friday and starting the game unexpectedly on Sunday, both the Clippers and the Spurs were probably caught a little off guard and off the script from their scouting reports. Johnson is not about to become a nightly 20 ppg scorer, nor is he likely keep shooting 87.5% like he has since he came back. However, it has become clear that Ross’s ability to space the floor does not do enough to mask the utter lack of supplementary skills he has to offer, just like it is clear that Greivis Vasquez is too slow-footed to continue guarding starting one’s and two’s. This isn’t a case of Johnson being the perfect starter for the Raptors for now and forever, but given what Dwane Casey has to work with he certainly appears to be the most capable fifth starter that he has at his disposal.
I’ll be the first to admit that I was cool on the prospect of the Raptors bringing Johnson back last summer. His flameout with the team was fairly complete when he was traded away back in 2012 — he had made it pretty clear he saw himself as a scorer first, defender second — and while he had played well in spurts with the Memphis Grizzlies last season it didn’t amount to a ‘must have’ when free agency rolled around.
It’s clear now, though, that Johnson has dedicated himself to becoming the player that both Jay Triano and Dwane Casey had hoped he’d evolve into during his first stint with the club. He uses his array of skills to make the team look good first, rather than himself, and he’s significantly reduced gambling (on both ends) that made him equal parts thrilling and enervating to watch back when. It became clear even during something as superficial as his reactions from the bench when he was hardly playing and his refusal to complain about it in the media. Maturity has many forms and Johnson has demonstrated it at just about every opportunity since re-signing with the organization.
Now we just have to wait and see what happens with the adrenal elixir of coming back from injury and getting inserted into the starting lineup wears off. When teams have had a chance to scout this lineup and figure out how to punish it for its lack of floor-spacing.
Because, sadly, if teams start forcing the Raptors to beat them with long range shooting, then suddenly that conventional wisdom starts poking its head back in the door. Johnson may be more than his crappy three-point percentage, but now he and the team have to make sure they are maximizing all his tools, every single game, so as to not get trapped by their limitation beyond the arc.
