More JJ contract bashing!

[Wurider05]

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Because of a couple well-timed offseasons, Arn Tellem has turned Joe Johnson into one of the wealthiest players in NBA history. He has made superstar money with a $70M, five-year deal in 2004 and now a $120M deal over six seasons, despite being strictly a borderline All-Star player.

Johnson has a special skill as a playmaker with a strong jumper, but he isn't consistently good enough to be put on the same level as the true elite in that category.

One argument I always keep defaulting back to on Johnson is what would happen if we traded out Johnson on his Atlanta Hawks team with LeBron James? With LeBron having the opportunity to play with Al Horford and Josh Smith, there is little doubt that they would have at least reached the Finals out of the Eastern Conference.

Even with Johnson, the Hawks were still a mediocre lottery team until Horford arrived after the 06-07 season. If Atlanta was unable to retain Johnson this offseason, they would have taken a step backwards in 10-11, but Horford better be signed to an extension in the coming months as well, or they may take a frightening step backwards in the 2012 offseason.

Johnson just turned 29 and NBA shooting guards age as quickly as NFL running backs once they reach this age with very few exceptions.

If Johnson is someone like Kobe Bryant, the money into an advanced age would be justified, but he simply isn't one of those types of players.

He has a career PER of 16.3, though he has ascent upwards from 17.3 in 07-08 to 18.2 in 08-09 and 19.3 in 09-10. His career high PER came in 06-07 with a 19.5 when his TS% hit 55.8%.

With the exception of 04-05 until he landed on his face, Johnson's production in the playoffs has been dubious. Johnson had a 15.8 PER in the '08 Playoffs, 12.5 in the '09 Playoffs and 14.5 in the '10 Playoffs. Even though shooting numbers are tied to PER, his respective TS% of 54.0%, 47.9% and 45.3% in those postseasons is especially disconcerting. Teams uniformly play better defense in the playoffs, but that type of drop-off is very disconcerting for the argument that Johnson is a legitimate All-Star scorer.

He is a 'decent' scorer in isolation and 'pretty good' in the post and when spotting up, but his best offense comes off the pick-and-roll. In other words, Johnson needs some help to score at an All-Star level.

This leads into a rhetorical question of whether bad contracts are truly bad contracts if other teams are offering similar types of deals?

The Knicks, Heat, Bulls and Mavericks were amongst the teams interested in acquiring Johnson this offseason, but all of those teams were either hoping to add him as a sidekick to a LeBron, Dwyane Wade, Derrick Rose or Dirk Nowitzki and not as the primary scorer. He could arguably be worth that kind of money for a big market team with legitimate title aspirations who needs Johnson to spread the floor (37.3% from distance for career) and carry the offense on occasional nights when the superstar has a bad matchup or simply is ineffective.

If Johnson left Atlanta without anything in return, the franchise would risk reverting back to their 2005 version, but it was a risk at least exploring. It was unlikely that Johnson wouldn't have sought a sign-and-trade to secure the sixth season of a new contract and if they had taken a hard line in what they would accept in return, they could have secured a starter and another asset or two in return.

Johnson is immediately an overpaid player and as he ages, it should be one of those deals that is as bad as the final seasons of Stephon Marbury and Steve Francis.

The only potential upside for the Hawks is possibly flipping him to a desperate team with cap space/expiring contracts sometime in the next 12 months if things go wrong in 10-11.

Grade for Atlanta Hawks : D+

Johnson obviously gets an A on financial merits, but he will now play under the scrutiny of having one of the worst contracts in the NBA that he can't possibly live up to. The Hawks are stuck in 50-win limbo and would have to get extremely lucky via the draft, or creative with a Josh Smith trade in order to get meaningfully better.

A better title scenario would have occurred for Johnson in another town as the said sidekick. The only thing that makes dollar amounts of contracts irrelevant is playing in the Finals and that won't happen for Johnson with the Hawks.

Grade For Joe Johnson: B+

• Chris Reina is the executive editor of RealGM. Follow him on Twitter at @CR_Reina.

Read more: http://www.realgm.com/src_feature_pieces/937/20100705/grading_the_deal_johnson_signs_immediately_burdensome_contract/#ixzz0srJKpBbN

The truth continues to hurt!! We maybe the laughing stock of the league for sure now.

[GABALLA]

My link

The truth continues to hurt!! We maybe the laughing stock of the league for sure now.

Please Shut UP!!

[ggp]

Is there a similar write up on Amare. The Knicks are giving him $20M/year for five years. One thing is for sure, JJ's knees are a heck of lot healthier than Amare's.

Which one of those two would you prefer? We can trade for a Center, but we can't trade for a top notch SG. I'll take my chances on the healthier JJ.

[pimp]

not really bashing here but i found this article from the Philippines to be a little funny.

NBA Rumors : Joe Jackson Badly Wants by Atlanta Hawks

NBA 2010 Rumors Updates. It seems that Atlanta Hawks badly wants Joe Jackson to stay. We are aware of Atlanta Hawks performance in the last season of NBA so this maybe the reason why they want Joe Jackson badly.

Atlanta Hawks didn’t hesitate and they proved that they are willing to go for broke just to keep Joe Johnson in a Atlanta Hawks. Hawks and Jackson agreed $119 million with maximum six year contract.

According to John Hollinger , Atlanta Hawks maybe right on taking Joe Jackson so badly but also maybe made a mistake for being so aggressive over Jackson.

http://www.tekkenphilippines.com/nba-rumors-joe-jackson-badly-wants-by-atlanta-hawks.html/1207/

[KB21]

Is there a similar write up on Amare. The Knicks are giving him $20M/year for five years. One thing is for sure, JJ's knees are a heck of lot healthier than Amare's.

Which one of those two would you prefer? We can trade for a Center, but we can't trade for a top notch SG. I'll take my chances on the healthier JJ.

Exactly!

Look, I think the Joe Johnson contract is a bad one, but this is a function of the league as a whole. Had Joe Johnson signed for the same yearly amount but with a year less for the Knicks or the Bulls, then his contract would be getting lauded by the so called experts on the major publications. Think about this for a minute. This is a league where Darko Milicic can average 7 points and 4 rebounds per game yet gets a $20 million contract. Drew Gooden is on his 9th team in 9 years, and he's getting $32 million. Rudy Gay has had only one season where he has produced more wins than Marvin Williams yet still has a lower WS/48 than Marvin, and he gets $80 million.

The entire salary structure in this league is screwed up.

Notice the talking heads talking about how great a deal the Amare Stoudemire deal is. Everyone wants to project Joe Johnson's decline on his 6 years, but no one has mentioned anything about the wear and tear in Amare's knees and that he's at an even bigger risk of decline because of his injury history. At least Joe has never had a serious injury.

The only players who are worth the contraccts they have gotten or will get this offseason are LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, and Dirk Nowitzki. Chris Bosh isn't even worth the max because while he is a very nice player, he still isn't at that elite level. There are only a handful of truly elite players in this league, yet the money is being passed out like elite players grow on trees.

[buckeye242424]

not really bashing here but i found this article from the Philippines to be a little funny.

NBA Rumors : Joe Jackson Badly Wants by Atlanta Hawks

NBA 2010 Rumors Updates. It seems that Atlanta Hawks badly wants Joe Jackson to stay. We are aware of Atlanta Hawks performance in the last season of NBA so this maybe the reason why they want Joe Jackson badly.

Atlanta Hawks didn’t hesitate and they proved that they are willing to go for broke just to keep Joe Johnson in a Atlanta Hawks. Hawks and Jackson agreed $119 million with maximum six year contract.

According to John Hollinger , Atlanta Hawks maybe right on taking Joe Jackson so badly but also maybe made a mistake for being so aggressive over Jackson.

http://www.tekkenphilippines.com/nba-rumors-joe-jackson-badly-wants-by-atlanta-hawks.html/1207/

Hahaha...Joe Jackson! Geez, media will print anything... even in the Philippines

[RedDawg#8]

The argument about Joe's game decling as he gets older baffles me. The difference between Joe and most STAR wing players is that drawing contact is not a major facet in his game. He is not as physical as a DWade which is why even though Wade is younger, his body is much more worn down at this point than Joe's. Joe is a shooter mostly, and even when he does drive his 240 lb frame is big enough to take most hits and land on his feet. Most SG's that break down are the slashers who drive and get knocked down constantly.

Even though his contract is bad, it isnt because of the wear and tear argument. Joe's game will probably stay the same the rest of his career. Athleticism fades, but Jumpshots improve with age.

[Diesel]

My link

The truth continues to hurt!! We maybe the laughing stock of the league for sure now.

First off, it's not the truth, it's somebodies opinion. Second off, Find me any guy who has played in the last 4 allstar games... then let's compare salaries. Third, most of the media hate the Hawks and had we not signed Johnson, they would have still said something about us being too cheap... and a cheap franchise this .... can't keep free agents... etc. Our owners can't please the media, so f000 the media. I hope to hear Gearon say that when he's holding the NBA championship on the stage... f--- the media.

[NineOhTheRino]

First off, it's not the truth, it's somebodies opinion. Second off, Find me any guy who has played in the last 4 allstar games... then let's compare salaries. Third, most of the media hate the Hawks and had we not signed Johnson, they would have still said something about us being too cheap... and a cheap franchise this .... can't keep free agents... etc. Our owners can't please the media, so f000 the media. I hope to hear Gearon say that when he's holding the NBA championship on the stage... f--- the media.

Was JJ overpaid: Yes

Too many Years: Yes

Does the JJ signing get this team over the hump: No

Would I have done the same: No

Am I Happy to have JJ back: Yes