The Toronto Raptors will be without James Johnson on Wednesday due to a sore left Achilles, the team announced. That means Bruno Caboclo and Delon Wright, both up from the D-League, will be active, so root for a blowout in either direction.
Johnson’s role has been a matter of great debate once again this season, with the forward believing himself to be under-utilized and most of the fan base agreeing. Head coach Dwane Casey, however, seems to disagree, preferring to deploy Johnson as a match-up specialist and a “break glass in case of emergency” starter.
He’s averaging 12.7 minutes in 14 appearances but the average is hardly a good indicator of his usage. Instead, it’s instructive to look at his game logs: He’s played 3, 8, 2, 0, 0, 0, 26, 29, 30, 0, 12, 9, 15, 15, 7, 5, 5, and 12 minutes. He’s averaged 10.5 points, 6.1 rebounds, 2.6 assists, 1.4 steals, and 1.2 blocks per-36 minutes, providing solid if occasionally spacey defense and aggressive secondary ball-handling, helping push the transition game. The Raptors are 12.8 points per-100 possessions better with him on the floor, and lineups with him and Patrick Patterson together, allowing Casey to invert the offense, have been particularly successful.
Johnson’s absence doesn’t change much in terms of today’s game preview. He’ll join Jonas Valanciunas and Tiago Splitter on the injured list for the game, which tips off at 8 p.m. on TSN. It means one fewer option to match funky with the Hawks, one less option to throw at Paul Millsap, and one less option as a super-small center in a positionless lineup, something that sacrifices size but may be workable against the poor rebounding, five-out Hawks attack.
This puts additional pressure on the struggling Terrence Ross to perform and may mean another opportunity for Norman Powell, should Casey opt not to task his starting wings with too heavy a workload up a position on the first night of a back-to-back.
