Johnson A Complete Player

<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post"> Old-school defender

Johnson can guard point guards and big men alike. In the season opener against Philadelphia, he spent time chasing 6-foot blur Allen Iverson around on the perimeter as well as sticking a forearm in the back of 6-10, 250-pound Chris Webber. "You don't realize how big and quick he is until you're out there trying to go around him," Toronto guard Fred Jones said. "He's got those old-school defensive fundamentals down. But honestly, I think his best defensive move is the fact that you're going to have to guard him on the other end. That's where he makes it really tough. Because if you go at him on one end, he's coming right back at you on the other."

Off the dribble

Crowding Johnson on the perimeter is one of the most common ways of trying to defend him. But even at 6 feet 7 and 235 pounds, he's nimble enough to regularly split double teams and maneuver around smaller or larger defenders. He also has a nasty crossover move. "A lot of the great players in the league today are multifaceted, multitalented players," said Milwaukee coach Terry Stotts. "Joe Johnson, Dwyane Wade, LeBron and Kobe and you go down the list."

Creative genius

Johnson's assist numbers are down (4.1 this season from a career-high 6.5 last season) but that's due in large part to his being shifted from point guard to shooting guard . Still Johnson remains the Hawks' best and most creative playmaker. "I'm still buzzing about the pass he made in Cleveland on his patented runner when he kicked the ball to Josh Smith for a dunk that sealed the game," said former NBA scoring machine Dennis Scott, now the Hawks' radio analyst. "And that's the difference between him and most of these other guys. Any other guy shoots that."

Offensive artistry

One of the most common mistakes made by opposing teams is sending a physical defender to force Johnson away from his comfort zone on the wing. "It's tough to take anything away because he can do everything well," Cleveland coach Mike Brown said. "It's tough to put a little small guy on him because he'll take him into the post. And if you put a bigger guy on him, he'll take him out on the perimeter and use the mid-range pull-up game." Johnson became a deadly shooter playing in Phoenix where he hit 48 percent of his 3-pointers 2004-05. He's shooting 43 percent this season from the arc. "There are very few guys in the league that have that capability," said former 3-point specialist Steve Kerr, now an analyst for TNT and Yahoo! Sports. "The other guys that come to mind off the top of my head are Ray Allen and Michael Redd."</div>

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