Miami Heat: James Johnson starting to pay dividends

After an inauspicious start to the season, James Johnson has started to repay the faith shown in him by the Miami Heat this past summer.

No one ever expected James Johnson to be the type of player that would take the Miami Heat to the promised land. However, after investing $60 million for Johnson’s services this past summer, the return on investment through the early stages of this season was underwhelming to say the least.

Although he started just five games last season in his debut year in South Beach, it was Johnson’s consistent level of improvement, and overall consistency, that led him to posting career highs across the board. However, whether it was being chopped and changed in his role as a starter, or the pressures of living up to a huge contract after years of floating around the league, Johnson’s early season returns simply weren’t up to scratch.

While he is not a noted scorer, this is an area in which Johnson improved notably last season, with just 21 of his 76 games featuring Johnson scoring in single figures. So impressive was Johnson’s progression that this occurred on just one occasion over his final 18 games of the year. Fast forward to this season, and Johnson had already achieved this on 30 occasions through his first 58 games.

At the beginning February, following a stretch of subpar performances, Heat head coach Erik Spoelstra leapt to the defense of the 30-year-old product of Wake Forest:

"“Everybody will notice if he scores points. It’s not about that. It’s about leadership, his captaincy, No. 1. No. 2, then those defensive inspiring plays. He was guarding one through four, one through five when he was on Drummond and Griffin virtually all the minutes he was out there. Doing it without fouling, playing all the pick-and-rolls, it’s inspiring for our guys. They really follow his lead when he does that. And then obviously on the other end, he just brings great versatility. It’s tough to scout for a player like that.“He doesn’t have to overthink it. We’re not going to reinvent a bunch of things for him. We know and he knows what his strengths are and how he helps us offensively. He just has to be more consistent and detailed with it. Detail is a big thing.”"

https://twitter.com/MiamiHEAT/status/976096020269383680

So whether it’s the knowledge of the postseason approaching, or the absence of key rotation pieces in Hassan Whiteside and Dwyane Wade, Johnson has simply taken his game to a new level over the past few weeks.

Over his last seven games, Johnson has averaged 16.4 points, 6.4 rebounds, 5.0 assists and 1.1 steals in 28.5 minutes per game. Most impressive has been Johnson’s efficiency from the field, hitting at a 63.8 percent clip overall, including 44.4 percent from 3-point range.

The pinnacle of this recent stretch, and his season, was Johnson’s effort in the Heat’s 149-141 double overtime win overtime against the Denver Nuggets. Playing 46 minutes, Johnson posted a career-high 31 points, 11 rebounds and six assists, which featured a phenomenal 13-of-17 shooting from the field.

Furthermore, the following tweet illustrates the significance of Johnson’s performance:

Following the game, coach Spoelstra couldn’t hide his delight in Johnson’s heroics:

"“Well what can you say, our captain was so inspiring tonight….he was guarding both their bigs [Nikola Jokic and Paul Millsap] and then he just erupted at the end – the 3’s, the drive, the dunk….JJ was able to create opportunity seemingly out of nothing when we got stuck.”"

https://twitter.com/MiamiHEAT/status/977368417626763266

With just nine games remaining, and the Heat currently in seventh place in the Eastern Conference standings, the timing of Johnson finding his feet could not have arrived at a better time.

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Having seemingly found a niche for himself as the starting 4 man, the Heat should now enter the postseason in the knowledge that the versatile Johnson has found possibly the best form of his career during this recent stretch.