The curious case of James Johnson

[SamMitchells]

Can anyone explain it from a pure basketball standpoint?
What is the logic behind not playing him when he is the best defender on the team by far, and works best in Casey's garbage system.

Provide stats / clips if possible , thanks

[Nilanka]

Check the Hoops Hype Canada tweets.

[Axel]

Can anyone explain it from a pure basketball standpoint?

No, I don't think anyone can.

While JJ can't stretch the floor on offence, the other things he does well warranted minutes. Bad coaching is only explanation.

[S.R.]

Apparently it's the need for scramble unit mobility that keeps JV off the floor and the need for offensive spacing that keeps JJ off the floor. KL/DD/Ross/PP/Amir (or GV/LW at guard) gives them the mobility and spacing they like.

Good thing that nice spacing produced horrible FG%'s and low AST #'s. And the mobile defense produced a bottom 1/3 DRTG.

But hey, if it ain't broke don't fix it.

A quick Google pulled this up, but I know I've seen a few more comments through the season:
Johnson has become something of a cause célèbre with the Raptors these days; fans see a powerful forward who doesn’t play an awful lot and wonder why. Coaches see someone with significant flaws in his game — over-helping on defence, freelancing and creating spacing issues on offence — and want to pick their spots to use him.
“Not trying to be stubborn, say ‘Hey, we’re not going to play James Johnson,’” said Casey. “No. This is strategic decision, we understand what we’re doing, it’s nothing against James, it’s nothing against anybody else that’s in that situation.”
http://www.thestar.com/sports/raptor...r-raptors.html

[S.R.]

Check the Hoops Hype Canada tweets.

Hahahaha - can I like this 6 more times? Raptors source says this comment is fantastic.

[Nilanka]

No, I don't think anyone can.

While JJ can't stretch the floor on offence, the other things he does well warranted minutes. Bad coaching is only explanation.

Especially since nobody on this roster, save for Patterson, is capable of stretching the floor. I wouldn't trust any of Ross, Lowry, Lou or Vasquez with an open look from deep.

[Letter N]

Especially since nobody on this roster, save for Patterson, is capable of stretching the floor. I wouldn't trust any of Ross, Lowry, Lou or Vasquez with an open look from deep.

And how much can your 2-guards spread the floor? Their defender is already tasked with standing on the perimeter.

[SamMitchells]

I'm not convinced..
When James Johnson plays he's the most useful player on the court both on offence and defence. Remember when he went off like 3 20 point games in a row or something? When we destroyed the Clippers after they got demolished by CLEVLAND on TNT?
He's so fricken good, IMO the best player on the team. I love that drive / post up move which usually results in a bucket or a foul.
He's great on defence too, gets so many passing lane steals and shot blocks, great rebounder and can defend any position.
He's like the best overall player on the team. I don't think floor spacing matters that much tbh. But I have no stats to prove that. I just assume he's good enough to work with Patterson / JV....

[SamMitchells]

Like why don't they Re watch the clipper game and just copy those lineups lol, the spacing seemed to work well then, what happened? The court got smaller ?

[ezz_bee]

There are drawbacks to playing Johnson, and giving him burn wouldn't have won us the series given

1) Lowry sub par performance
2) Otto Porter Jr. giving Derozan problems
3) Neither JV nor Ross making a big leap (unlike Beal and Porter, who both stepped up).

But the reasons for not playing him don't really make sense in the context of what happened on court. Defense and rebounding was terrible.

[S.R.]

I'm not convinced..
When James Johnson plays he's the most useful player on the court both on offence and defence. Remember when he went off like 3 20 point games in a row or something? When we destroyed the Clippers after they got demolished by CLEVLAND on TNT?
He's so fricken good, IMO the best player on the team. I love that drive / post up move which usually results in a bucket or a foul.
He's great on defence too, gets so many passing lane steals and shot blocks, great rebounder and can defend any position.
He's like the best overall player on the team. I don't think floor spacing matters that much tbh. But I have no stats to prove that. I just assume he's good enough to work with Patterson / JV....

He also has a very solid post game that they never use.

I hate this unquestioned thought that good spacing depends on having as many three point shooters on the floor as possible. You know what a good offense depends on? Have a good personnel in a good system.

The #1 ppg team this year was GSW - usually had 4 shooters and a C on the floor, probably the final evolution of some D'Antoni offensive principles with great spacing and whole-team-ball-movement. The #2 ppg team this year was completely different - LAC had a very traditional #1-5 lineup with a #5 who can't shoot, a #4 who doesn't have 3 point range, the bigs finishing lots of PnR's, a SG who shoots, a SF who's the 3 & D specialist, a PG who facilitates (and takes over when needed), and a microwave 6th man - almost a textbook traditional team makeup.

Those teams are built completely differently, each to suit the strengths of their personnel, and both were very, very effective offensive teams this year.

Given their personnel, the Raptors should have been emulating the Clippers instead of the Warriors.

[Axel]

There are drawbacks to playing Johnson, and giving him burn wouldn't have won us the series given

1) Lowry sub par performance
2) Otto Porter Jr. giving Derozan problems
3) Neither JV nor Ross making a big leap (unlike Beal and Porter, who both stepped up).

But the reasons for not playing him don't really make sense in the context of what happened on court. Defense and rebounding was terrible.

Sad thing is, we have some decent rebounders. Both Lowry and DD have proven that they can rebound from the back-court.

Reg Season

                                    

Player                MP ORB DRB TRB

DeMar DeRozan       35.0 0.7 3.9 4.6

Kyle Lowry          34.5 0.8 3.9 4.7

Patrick Patterson   26.6 1.6 3.8 5.3

Amir Johnson        26.4 2.1 4.0 6.1

Jonas Valanciunas   26.2 2.7 6.0 8.7

Terrence Ross       25.5 0.4 2.4 2.8

Lou Williams        25.2 0.3 1.6 1.9

Greivis Vasquez     24.3 0.3 2.4 2.6

James Johnson       19.6 0.9 2.8 3.7

Tyler Hansbrough    14.3 1.4 2.1 3.6

Chuck Hayes          8.8 0.6 1.1 1.8

Landry Fields        8.3 0.4 0.6 1.0

Greg Stiemsma        3.9 0.5 0.4 0.9

Lucas Nogueira       3.8 0.3 1.5 1.8

Bruno Caboclo        2.9 0.1 0.1 0.3

Playoffs

                                    

Player                MP ORB DRB TRB

DeMar DeRozan       39.8 1.3 5.0 6.3

Kyle Lowry          32.8 1.8 3.8 5.5

Amir Johnson        28.0 1.8 5.3 7.0

Terrence Ross       26.8 0.0 1.5 1.5

Jonas Valanciunas   26.5 2.3 7.0 9.3

Patrick Patterson   26.5 1.0 2.5 3.5

Lou Williams        25.5 0.5 1.3 1.8

Greivis Vasquez     25.3 0.0 1.8 1.8

Tyler Hansbrough    12.0 0.3 1.3 1.5

James Johnson        6.0 0.0 1.0 1.0

Bolded players were below reg season average in rebounds. Our problem was that we missed so many shots, that the number of rebounding opportunities was well higher than normal.

[Puffer]

...Those teams are built completely differently, each to suit the strengths of their personnel, and both were very, very effective offensive teams this year.

Given their personnel, the Raptors should have been emulating the Clippers instead of the Warriors.

THIS. My (and most others) point the whole year. Casey is driving round pegs into square holes by forcing a bunch of good players into offensive and defensive systems that they can't excel in.

[SamMitchells]

Given their personnel, the Raptors should have been emulating the Clippers instead of the Warriors.

Yeah but instea we play Lou Lowry and Vasquez at the same time.

It seems to be a pure coaching deficiency.

[Axel]

Yeah but instea we play Lou Lowry and Vasquez at the same time.

It seems to be a pure coaching deficiency.

On top of all of the lazy awful play, I think that line-up was my biggest peeve in this series.