At the start of this season, the Raptors small forward position was crowded by the free agent acquisition of Linas Kleiza, the return of the very popular Sonny Weems, and the newly acquired Julian Wright. Unfortunately Kleiza injured his knee in preseason and eventually had season-ending surgery and Weems missed about six weeks with back spasms so the Raptors needed D-League call-ups for part of the year. When Weems returned at the end of January, the starting small forward position was his alone until Johnson arrived.
"Acquiring James fell right in line with our plan of acquiring more young talent and/or assets," Raptors President and General Manager Bryan Colangelo told HOOPSWORLD. "We really didn't have a prototypical small forward at the time as Sonny is really more of a 2 than he is a 3, particularly on the defensive end of the floor. If anything, Sonny has lost minutes because of DeMar's emergence as a much more productive player."
"More than pushing guys, it is a great opportunity for us to evaluate our future and where we are going to go," said Triano. "(Johnson) could be a guy who is a part of our future. We like what we have seen so far. We followed him in the d-league and he had very good numbers there. He is going to get an opportunity to play consistent minutes in the NBA (here).
"He is a bigger guy than most of the guys we have. We have a lot of slight guys so physically he is stronger than some (of our) guys, especially at that wing position, and that's going to help us."
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"Acquiring James fell right in line with our plan of acquiring more young talent and/or assets," Raptors President and General Manager Bryan Colangelo told HOOPSWORLD. "We really didn't have a prototypical small forward at the time as Sonny is really more of a 2 than he is a 3, particularly on the defensive end of the floor. If anything, Sonny has lost minutes because of DeMar's emergence as a much more productive player."
"More than pushing guys, it is a great opportunity for us to evaluate our future and where we are going to go," said Triano. "(Johnson) could be a guy who is a part of our future. We like what we have seen so far. We followed him in the d-league and he had very good numbers there. He is going to get an opportunity to play consistent minutes in the NBA (here).
"He is a bigger guy than most of the guys we have. We have a lot of slight guys so physically he is stronger than some (of our) guys, especially at that wing position, and that's going to help us."
Read more NBA news and insight: http://www.hoopsworld.com/Story.asp?...#ixzz1Hj0anwM1