Bulls pick analysis: James Johnson

Good: He's got excellent size and athleticism for both forward spots. He's a ridiculous 257lbs, but he's really athletic, posting good times in the sprint and agility drills, bench pressing a ton, and jumping out of the gym.

In short, he compares very well physically to plenty of successful players. The closest contemporary comparison might be Ryan Gomes, but with way more athleticism. Perhaps Lebron James if Johnson loses 10-15 lbs. Yes, really.

He's a trained martial arts expert, which suggests to me excellent body control and the potential for good discipline.

Productively, he's demonstrated good but not great returns to his unworldly physical abilities. First, Wake Forest played at an NBA Pace. That's something that's not generally noted, but it's pretty important when considering how guys adjust. For example, Blair and Pitt played a game that had something like 80 possessions per 48 minutes. The slowest paced NBA team, the Blazers, played 86.6. The Bulls played 93 I think. Wake Forest played about 90 possessions per 48 minutes. So he might be a bit more used to that sort of play from the get-go.

Within this background, he produced at good but not great levels. He's got range out to the 3 point line, he can rebound, and he finished pretty well. He appears to be able to pass the ball.

Bad:
The only physical negative I see is that weight. He's got 12% body fat in a world where the average successful NBA SF has 6-7% and the average PF has 8-9%. With proper conditioning, I'd guess his proper playing weight would be about 245lbs.

Statistically, he was right on the margin of "troubling" in two areas. First, he fouled quite a bit, though he's not a foul machine. Second, he was just under 70% as a free throw shooter, which isn't all that great, but marginally acceptable. Third, for a guy with his physical tools, he really didn't get to the line a lot compared to what really top notch guys do.

Other:
* He apparently annoyed Chris Paul so badly that Paul told the Hornets not to draft him if available. Usually good players want their college teammates, especially if they think they can be good pros. That's sort of annoying.
* He's talked about an MMA career if basketball doesn't work out. The upside of that is he's a bad ass. The downside is I don't want him thinking aobut what happens if basketball doesn't work out.
* He came to basketball a bit late. I think I read he only started playing a couple years into high school.

Conclusions:
James Johnson has the tools to be an absolutely spectacular player. His physical gifts are second to none, even for the NBA. And his skills are impressive. He's demonstrated every tool you'd want from a basketball player on the court. Except...
... and overwhelming commitment and drive to succeed. That's the common theme. Physically he's gifted, but he's not in the best shape he could possibly be in. Productively, he's demonstrated superb skills, but hasn't produced to the level one could imagine a player with his skills producing at. In short, it's all there, and even if he half-asses it, he can still be useful. But if he really commits and works his ass off, he could be amazing.

 

FWIW, he wasn't Chris Paul's teammate. They played against each other in summer pickup games at Wake Forest, and Chris Paul got mad because Johnson kept talking trash. You have to be playing pretty well to continually trash talk and NBA superstar, and not be laughed out of the gym in embarassment, so I'd assume Johnson wasn't sucking in those games.

I like the pick. Johnson has a really high ceiling, all sorts of skills, and the guy is strong. We should probably just trade Tyrus Thomas now, to give us some room under the luxury tax to re-sign Gordon, and just give Johnson the starting power forward spot from the get go. You know Reinsdorf isn't giving Tyrus an extension this summer or next. May as well end this now, and get a first round pick out of it.

 

The Chris Paul thing is from when James Johnson was in for a workout, and threw a punch at Chris Paul. Chris Paul was mocking Johnson, saying how he's not a fighter. Johnson said something to the affect, watch this punch, I'm not going to punch you, but watch this. Then he threw a punch and stopped right before Paul's face, making Paul a believer. (and probably scared, peeing his pants).

 

A first round pick out of Tyrus Thomas? I don't think that's going to happen, unless it's a really late one. He hasn't shown enough in the NBA to warrant giving up a high or mid-first pick for, and he's been in the league for 3 years, which is going to be troubling to some GMs.

 

It's great that he has some bulk, but it sure seems to me that he lacks excellent size for the 4. Sure, a few guys his height and reach have made it to some extent like Millsap and Gomes but the vast number of 4's in the league have more height and length.

 

Source? Link?

 

It would be dumb to throw out Tyrus for a 1st round pick at this point due to the draft. For all we know Johnson is better at the 3 in the nba. In fact, Tyrus and Johnson might be an excellent set of forwards as they could cross-switch a lot.

 

The pick would definitely be lottery protected.

 

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2009/writers/luke_winn/01/28/james.johnson/1.html

A little bit different story han what the radio guys said (punch at workout), but same basic story.

 

Thanks for the link, Денг Гордон. I'm still not buying that this one incident would turn off Paul so much that he would say not to draft the guy. If anyone has more info, I would be interested.

 

Sure, he's not 6'9", but he seems more or less fine. My understanding is they mainly see him as a 3 that can play the 4, rather than vice versa.

Anyway, Lonny Baxter? What the hell Denny.

 

Othella was like 6'9 Denny, yes still undersized but not like Johnson