The Miami Heat have agreed to a one-year, $4-million deal with James Johnson, Marc Stein of ESPN is reporting.
Johnson has spent the last two seasons – and one prior to that – with the Toronto Raptors, proving a lightning rod for commenters thanks to his polarizing play.
With great floor vision and the tools to defend across multiple positions, Johnson ingratiated himself to fans in 2014-15 by being a bit of an advanced-stats stud. He was an elite finisher and a willing distributor that year, and as the Raptors’ primary option against larger combo-forwards, he helped lift the defense in certain matchups. As a result, the Raptors were 4.6 points per-100 possessions better with him on the court. But he found himself on the bench for all but 12 minutes of the team’s playoff series against the Washington Wizards, leading to hand-wringing since he was brought in to help stop players like Paul Pierce, who was hurting the Raptors in the series.
Expectations were more muted for Johnson in 2015-16 thanks to the arrival of DeMarre Carroll, and he bulked up to better prepare himself for more time at the four. That didn’t really work out, as Johnson struggled to maintain a role thanks to ineffective play and foot and heel issues. While he started capably in the place of Carroll initially, Norman Powell eventually usurped him in the rotation, and Johnson was barely a rumor in the postseason. His usage all season frustrated some – including Johnson, who felt #UnderUtilized – but the numbers backed up Dwane Casey’s choices: Johnson’s metrics, basic and advanced, were down nearly across the board, and the Raptors were 5.5 PPC worse with him on the court.
Still, Johnson had value. Despite an image as a bit of a mercurial player and the slight misstep of tweeting his displeasure (something he owned up to really well), Johnson was an important presence around the team. Entrusted with helping mold the team’s younger players, it was usually Johnson staying into the latest portions of practice to work out with Norman Powell, Delon Wright, Bruno Caboclo, and Lucas Nogueira. Johnson was also a regular presence supporting the D-League detachment in Mississauga, essentially functioning as a sort of player-slash-development coach.
His legacy with the team is complicated given this mixed bag. When used in a smaller role, his play screamed for a bigger one. When entrusted with more responsibility, his play wasn’t quite as up to the task. All the while, it was difficult to separate Johnson’s own play from his awkward fit as a non-shooter on a roster that desperately needed shooting from his positions. And, of course, he wasn’t always deployed optimally, sometimes sitting against the exact player type he was theoretically on the roster to help with, negating his biggest value, or asked to spot up instead of working as a secondary ball-handler in second units. Johnson is the definition of imperfect, but there was always a sense he could perhaps do a little more, he just wasn’t able to.
It seemed likely that Johnson would leave this offseason given the limited role he played and his likely market elsewhere. The Raptors owned the 29-year-old’s Early Bird Rights, which means they could have exceeded the salary cap to pay him up to an estimated $6.47 million if they were willing to give him a two-year deal, or $3 million on a one-year deal. Instead, the Raptors will now lose his rights and his $3.25-million cap hold will come off the books.
The Raptors cap sheet now looks like this as a result:
For the Raptors’ purposes, nothing has changed here. We were already assuming that the team would renounce Johnson’s rights when and if they needed cap space, and even with the removal of his hold, the Raptors remain above the cap. (This is strictly a book-keeping matter to keep flexibility open, as we discussed yesterday.)
With only two roster spots open, the Raptors clearly felt they’ll have a better option than Johnson at this price for next season (or he simply didn’t want to return). Some had started to warm to the idea of him returning given what the market’s been like for forwards, and he was perhaps the Raptors’ best chance to use rights to plug a hole, go over the cap, and create a potential trade asset for use during the season. Those are not great reasons, alone, to sign a player – if Toronto thinks there’s a better four or combo-forward out there who they can afford, or they’re comfortable rolling back Jason Thompson or Luis Scola in a pinch, that’s justifiable. It’s just one less option.
In three seasons over five years with Toronto, Johnson appeared in 214 games, averaging 7.6 points, 3.7 rebounds, 1.7 assists, one block, 0.8 steals, 21.6 comments, and 0.2 forum riots in 21.3 minutes. His tenure was a mixed bag, but one Raptors fans will probably look back on with mostly fond memories (or no memory at all).
If nothing else, we’ll always have our shared disbelief at Johnson sitting on the bench against Washington. And Rest in Peace to Dan Reynolds’ James Johnson Watch, a weekly treat over at Raptors HQ.
