Forum Thread
Colangelo:
“James Johnson is a strong, athletic and versatile small forward that we have had our eye on dating back to the 2009 NBA Draft,” said Raptors President and General Manager Bryan Colangelo.
Hollinger:
+ Athletic player who can finish at rim and has scorer’s attack mentality.
+ Erratic performer who gets completely out of control driving to basket..
+ Inconsistent outside shooter and wildly foul-prone defender. Looked a bit heavy.
Johnson may be the most high-mistake perimeter player I’ve ever seen — he led all small forwards in both turnover ratio and fouls per minute. His whopping 17.7 turnover ratio was the worst of any perimeter player’s, except for Memphis’ Jamaal Tinsley’s. No other wing player climbed above 15.0.
On the foul side of the ledger, Johnson committed a foul every 6.0 minutes, a shockingly high rate for any position and an absoltely extraordinary one for a wing. The closest wing player to that number, Denver’s Joey Graham, was whistled once every 7.3 minutes.
Johnson did accumulated the highest rate of blocks among wings, and was able to create shots at a decent rate. His shooting percentages weren’t bad either. In other words, if he can just bring some semblance of control to his game, there’s enough ability there to be a rotation player. Nobody knows if that will happen, but glass-half-full types will note that rookies with high turnover rates tend to make stronger progress in Year 2 than their peers.
