James Johnson: The Toronto Raptors’ Mixed Blessing

The NBA season is a long tenuous grind.

In a span of six months, teams go through streaks, players go through slumps, while coaches juggle with their rotation.

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The Toronto Raptors’ season, thus far, has embodied the chaotic characteristics of life in the association. A month ago, the Dinos’ all-encompassing forward, James Johnson, was inexplicably buried deep on Toronto’s bench by coach Dwane Casey after a blowout loss against the then-streaking Atlanta Hawks.

Casey, in many ways, is your prototypical NBA coach; he’s allergic to change and addicted to continuity. For that reason, the attachment he has towards some of his ineffective schemes can frustrate many fans.

However, as the Raptors stumbled through the month of January, Casey has impertinently tinkered with his lineups. Most notably, he took the immensely talented, yet often feeble, swingman, Terrence Ross, out of the starting lineup and replaced him with the precarious Greivis Vasquez.

Meanwhile, after playing, perhaps, the best game of any Raptor during their aforementioned blowout loss to the Hawks, Johnson would fall completely out of Coach Casey’s regular rotation. In fact, over the next six games, not only did Johnson play less than 10 minutes in each of the team’s respective outings, he would also receive two DNP-CDs (Did Not Play – Coach’s Decision).

Subsequently, Johnson would miss the ensuring four contests due to a mysterious hamstring injury suffered during warmups.

When Johnson returned back onto the court last Friday night, however, his contagious energy and enthusiasm would instantaneously lift the Raptors to a much needed victory over the Los Angeles Clippers.

During the game, Johnson’s versatility and athleticism was on full display; sliding his feet and locking down Jamal Crawford, taking it to the hoop with conviction and finishing through contact, bullying smaller defenders on the low block, flying around on the defensive end — it was the pinnacle of the James Johnson experience.

He would follow his 16-point, five-rebound, three-assist, and two-steal performance — not to mention on perfect 7-of-7 shooting — against the Clippers with a season-high 20-points in a win against the defending champions, the San Antonio Spurs, during his inaugural debut as the starting small forward of the Raps.

Johnson’s inherent explosiveness, knack for timely cutting, post play, and ball-in-hand playmaking is truly a rare package of skills for a man 6-foot-8 (in shoes) and 250 pounds.

His impact and presence is felt almost immediately every time he steps foot onto the court; good, bad, or otherwise. As such, his style of polarizing play is eerily reminiscent to Memphis Grizzlies’ guard, Tony Allen — affectionately dubbed as “Trick or Treat Tony” by Boston fans during his days of wearing the Celtic green.

More specifically, both Johnson and Allen can infuriate their coaches with their erratic play. In particular, in an era that stresses speed and spacing, the twosome provides plenty of speed but little-to-no spacing.

Explicitly, Johnson is a 26.1 percent career 3-point shooter and has only converted on seven of his 32 tries from beyond the arc this season — good for 21.9 percent.

Additionally, as big and skilled as Johnson is, he has the propensity to can get caught up in the moment and drive into a sea of defenders without a contingency plan. As a result, his turnover rate of 14.9 percent outweighs his assist percentage of 12.0 percent, per Basketball-Reference.

He’ll also occasionally float up a peculiar pull-up long two, or if he’s feeling really good, a trey after several rhythm dribbles, ignoring the fact that he’s a 33.3 percent eFG% (effective field goal percentage) shooter on pull-up situations, per NBA.com.

With that being said, Johnson is your classic, “no, no, no… YES!” guy, in that, on the aggregate, his positive impact negates his mystifying negatives. Just when you think Johnson is driving straight into a heavily congested lane, he somehow finds a way to contort his gargantuan body and complete a double-pump left-handed layup.

Moreover, aside from his moments of euphoria, Johnson has, in most part, been quite judicious with his shot selection.

Chiefly, opposing teams often openly beg Johnson to settle for the jumper from 16 feet and out; but he has turned down such propositions, more often than not, to attack the rack this season.

In fact, more than 50.8 percent of his shot attempts have been from in close (three feet and in), an area of the floor in which Johnson converts on a jaw-dropping 80.3 percent rate, per Basketball-Reference.

In addition, the Raptors’ attack improves by 5.1 points per 100 possessions, and likewise, their defense by 2.3 points per 100 possessions, when Johnson is in the game, according to 82games.com.

And since his return from injury, despite facing three legitimate title contenders, the Raptors have had a net rating of +7.2, good for sixth in the association during the span, and an improved 58.3 assist percentage as a team — a significant uptick when compared to their anemic season average of 54.8 percent.

Since entering the league in 2009, Johnson has been in and out of rotations, endured multiple stints in the D-League, and was more known for his martial arts background and break dancing prowess than his play on the court.

This season, though, as the Raptors suffer through a serious case of midseason withdrawals, and their team MVP, Kyle Lowry, battles the January blues, James Johnson has seemingly risen from the ashes and provided the perfect antidote to all of Toronto’s problems.

Next: 5 Likely First Time NBA All-Stars Next Season

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