NBA: 5 BIG3 players who deserve a roster spot next season

1. Joe Johnson

Joe Johnson has spent this summer building up a hype train he thinks will be enough to help get him back on an NBA roster. Across five BIG3 games, the former seven-time NBA All-Star has averaged a league-leading 21.8 points to along with 9.0 rebounds and 4.2 assists per game.

One would think at 38 years of age, his decreasing physical limitations would hamper what Johnson could do on the basketball court. The beauty of his game is that god-given abilities have never been his source of strength.

Nicknamed iso-Joe, he’s shifty and methodical with every move in his bag, allowing for easy access to his spots with a jumper still plenty wet.

https://twitter.com/thebig3/status/1150448960491757568

It wasn’t that long ago when we last saw Johnson play at a high level in meaningful minutes. During the 2017 playoffs, he was a key member in the Utah Jazz‘s run to the conference-semis, averaging 12.9 points and 3.9 rebounds in less than 30 minutes a game.

On a team with a first-time All-Star in Gordon Hayward, it was Johnson who was tasked with closing out several back-and-forth battles.

With a reputation built on such late-game moments, he delivered more often than not, including a memorable playoff-opening buzzer-beater against the LA Clippers.

Scoring is the name of the game, and whatever Johnson lacks in overwhelming physicality he more than makes up for in IQ.

No team will ask him to carry too large a burden, but an influx of buckets sprinkled throughout a game is something the score-first guard has proven to be more than capable of even in the latter stages of his career.