Report: Joe Johnson wants to stay a Brooklyn Net, for some reason
By now, it’s pretty obvious that no team is going to deal for Brooklyn Nets swingman Joe Johnson. Not unless there is a desperate general manager out there that is truly deluded, or if the next Nets GM follows the team’s owner’s whims, turns into a Billy King Jr., and deals him for a batch of players with contracts that last past 2015-16.
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Johnson makes nearly $25 million this year in the final year of the contract he signed in 2010, the second-most (Kobe!) of any player in the NBA. In the months before the NBA’s salary cap rises to levels that can fit that sort of deal, it’s going to be hard to make any salary exchange for the former All-Star work.
Complicating matters is Johnson’s play. He was never as exalted as many (including two GMs in Atlanta and Brooklyn) had him pegged, but he was always a damn good all-around swingman that figured to age well. A smart player with great footwork and shooting touch, Johnson was presumed to at least be a helpful contributor into his mid-30s.
Instead, he’s fallen off badly. The 34-year old needs 11.2 shots to score 11.2 points, and his Player Efficiency Rating is down into the single digits. The guy who was an All-Star (if a dubious one; ask Kyle Lowry) 23 months ago is now a millstone, and any hope the Nets would have in pawning off a “see, he can still score!”-veteran on a contending team for a collection of flotsam and possibly a lower rung draft pick has likely been shot to bits.
So, buyout, right? Johnson, with nearly $200 million (!) career earnings following the completion of this contract, gives a wee bit up in order to join a contender and go after that elusive first championship. Everyone happy?
Nah. According to Marc Stein at ESPN:
Now, this could be bargaining.
Johnson shouldn’t be shamed for wanting his cake and the ability to eat it too – every penny of the pro-rated remainder of that $24.89 million left on his deal, and the chance to hook up with a team down the stretch. Players can still be bought out after the Feb. 18 trade deadline, they just have until March 1 to sign with a new team and retain playoff eligibility. Unless you’re Ben Gordon and not exactly well-liked by your team’s front office, bad teams will usually do all they can to accommodate players that they don’t need, that want to jump to a playoff squad.
Nobody knows who will be running the Nets between now and Feb. 29, but Joe is respected and a desperate Brooklyn front office will want to stay on the nice side of Johnson’s agent B.J. Armstrong.
One thing that would seem to get in the way of any parting of the ways between Johnson and the Nets is Brooklyn’s future. However miserable it may be.
Heading into the season, it was obvious that any deal involving the swingman would have to feature expiring contracts and draft considerations in exchange for his veteran talents. The Nets weren’t just going to exchange Johnson’s final year for a series of smaller final years, as not only would that be a lateral move, but it would make Brooklyn even rougher to behold game-by-game. As we all are more than aware of at this point, the Nets have no incentive to tank – the more games the team loses, the better off the first round draft pick they’re obligated to send Boston will be. Johnson’s competency was thought to be something to lean on, as the team waited the lean days years half-decade out.
So, keep the former All-Star, watch as he wins a few games for you and lends a bit of name recognition to one of the NBA’s least-watched teams, and say goodbye in July, right?
Well, it’s cruel to say, but we seem to be at a point where Joe Johnson is actually helping the Nets tank.
He wasn’t as awful as Kobe Bryant was earlier in the year, Johnson’s usage rate was nearly half of that of Kobe’s to start the season, but Joe wasn’t much better. Johnson is currently shooting 37 percent from the field, he’s turning the ball over more often, and he isn’t really contributing in other areas. He’s started every game and is playing 34 minutes a night – par for the course for a player who is eighth among active players in all time minutes; stuck behind a group of veterans that are all at least five years older than him.
Kobe has improved, while Johnson has stayed below water save for a couple of solid-enough games in the New Year. It wasn’t as if he was gangbusters last year or in seasons before, that PER was right around the average mark the last three years, but this drop-off has been steep and unexpected.
So now, as with all things Brooklyn Nets-y, we’re stuck in the horns of a dilemma. The Nets didn’t want to deal Joe because they didn’t want to tank – not out of pride or distaste for The Process, but because they wouldn’t stand to benefit from it. They’re stuck with a rather tank-worthy record at 10-28, though, and it appears Johnson is helping the team lose games.
The Nets could let Joe run free prior to March, but he doesn’t want to give up any salary, despite making a whole lot of salary since signing his first big deal in 2005. The Nets are under no obligation to waive the guy and pay him the remainder of his deal (once his new team’s minimum contract is factored into what he’s owed).
Playoff squads could possibly talk themselves into hiring Joe Johnson if he is waived, but isn’t he going to be the guy you see at the end of the bench in warm-ups, in the Sad Bench Shot, as the clock ticks down on some team’s second round ouster?
The solution, at this point? Johnson plays out the string in Brooklyn, and the two quietly go their separate ways when his deal expires this summer.
How wonderfully anonymous. The most appropriate ending we can think of for the Brooklyn Nets, and Joe Johnson.
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Kelly Dwyer is an editor for Ball Don’t Lie on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter! Follow @KDonhoops
