Joe Johnson Would Be A Great Fit On The Boston Celtics

The Brooklyn Nets recently waived Joe Johnson after agreeing on a buyout, and the Boston Celtics should try really hard to sign the former All-Star.

ESPN’s Marc Stein reported that the Brooklyn Nets started buyout talks with seven-time All-Star Joe Johnson early on Thursday. By the late afternoon, the Nets ended up waiving Johnson.

Some of the teams that could try to sign Johnson are the Boston Celtics, the Houston Rockets, the Oklahoma City Thunder, the Atlanta Hawks, the Cleveland Cavaliers, the Miami Heat, and the Toronto Raptors, according to Stein. Johnson is averaging 11.8 points, 4.2 assists and 3.9 rebounds per game at age 34, and he is shooting 37.1 percent from downtown this year. Johnson will become a free agent once he clear waivers.

Even though Johnson is certainly not the same player as he was during his prime, he could still help out the Celtics right away with his shooting and scoring ability. The Celtics are in need of some good three-point shooting on the wing off the bench, especially if Jae Crowder is out of the game.

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Boston’s best three-point shooters are Kelly Olynyk (41.3 percent), Jonas Jerebko (39.1 percent) and Avery Bradley (37.3 percent). Johnson is shooting 37.1 percent from three on the season, which is actually better than Crowder’s three-point shooting percentage (36.0 percent). Johnson has also been playing pretty well as of late; over his last nine games he is averaging 13.2 points and 5.6 assists per game, and he is shooting 48.2 percent from the field and 44.1 percent from deep.

Johnson is now on the market and many teams like the ones Marc Stein reported could certainly use Johnson on their team. The three teams that would make the most sense would be the Cavaliers, the Thunder and the Celtics. Boston should try very hard to sign the former All-Star because his skill-set is something the Celtics could really use.

Johnson’s Outlook

One thing that is going in the Celtics’ favor so far is that Johnson is no longer a member of the Nets, which makes Brooklyn’s 2016 first round pick more valuable. Now, Johnson probably would not start for the Celtics, but he would probably play around 20 minutes a game.

He would add instant offense off the bench for Boston, and he has great size for a wing at 6-foot-7, so he has the ability to create his own shot. He is also a 80.1 percent career free throw shooter, which could certainly come in handy when the team needs to close out a game.

Johnson also has the ability to hit clutch shots down the stretch, which would add another scoring option along with Isaiah Thomas, Avery Bradley and Jae Crowder at the end of games.

Johnson has not had the best year this year in Brooklyn, but he was picking up some steam during the month of February. Boston and Atlanta can offer Johnson the most money because the other teams that are interested are tax-paying teams or they can only offer him minimum salary.

Overall

The Celtics are definitely going to try to convince Johnson to sign with the team, but it is not going to be easy. He would be a great fit in Boston, but he would also be a great fit on many of the other playoff teams that might be interested.

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Johnson is not an All-Star anymore, but he could still make a big impact on a playoff team like the Celtics.

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