One guy that gets lost in the big man shuffle is JaJuan Johnson. This guy is a big-time athlete and can jump out of the gym. As a senior at Purdue, JaJuan was a Consensus-All American as well as the Big Ten Player of the Year and Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year. He's also got one solid year of NBA experience under the tutelage of KG. What interests me most about JJ is his great athleticism and play on defense. Nbadraft.net said the following about JJ, "Has very impressive leaping ability with unusual explosiveness for a big man." While JJ is "very agile and mobile," his post play on both ends of the court isn't great on account of his slight build and lack of weight. At 6'10, with a 7'2 wingspan and a 9'0 standing reach, JaJuan has very good length for a 4, but his small build will continue to limit his opportunities to play for the new-look, PF heavy Rockets. With this in mind, I think that the Rockets should strongly consider grooming JJ to play the 3. Doc Rivers commented last season, "I'm not even sure he's a big." Though JJ needs to increase his range, he has a nice shot, and the short-comings of his post play at the 4 should become a nice strength at the 3. Nbadraft.net said that JJ "Has the speed to play the small forward position at the next level." With Royce and Machado possibly providing bench play this year, JaJuan could be the source of some spectacular dunks. His solid defensive skills, combined with great length and agility, could prove to be another Parsons-like jewel at the SF position. I hope that the Rockets come to the same conclusions about JJ, and focus on letting him duel with Marcus and Carlos in training camp. Let's go Rockets! (28 days, 9hrs till pre-season)
Im not sure they are going to have the time to do this, but if they can do what they did with Jordan Hill to JuJuan then they might get a valuable player to their roster. -Meaning, they need to work with him to focus on the Two things that are going to make him valuable in the NBA as a big man. Defending the post, and rebounding. Maybe they can develop JuJuan in the same way, but Im not sure they have the time, man power(CD), and buy-in from JuJuan to make that happen in this short amount of time they have to do something with him.
Question of ignorance: If we assign players to D League team, do those players count towards our 15 roster spots?
Yes, if he is on the roster and assigned to the D-League he still counts against your 15 man roster count.
I'm definitely cool with this if it means he'll be getting experience at the 3. Working on ball-handling etc...
If he thinks he's going to be a 3 in the NBA then he's setting himself up to fail dramatically. If he wants to have a successful career then he needs to transition himself as a 4/5 garbage collector like Jordan Hill did.
"...fail dramatically." I think that's an extreme assessment. He definitely has the athletic tools for the job. He's the same size as Chandler - perhaps lighter. He doesn't have the ball-handling that Chandler does, but neither did Shane. What makes you think he'll be a dramatic failure, opposed to say a "likely failure?" I can see him becoming a Chris Singleton type: great defender, good post skills for SF, runs the court well, knocks down the trey, but has mediocre ball-handling skills.
I believe I read on a Celtics page that they actually liked JJ and were somewhat disappointed he was traded. Although they got a better player in return. Not that it means much, but maybe he can contribute at some level. Can't wait for camp to start.
Everyone liked him and he indeed has great potential. Thing is we always get players(who I really liked for years) as fillers in trades but waive them or send them to RVG, it's annoying as hell.
Its supply and demand. There are few garbage collector versatile bigs that you can count on to defend the post, and rebound the hell out of the ball. 6'8" to 6'10" athletic bigs who think they are an offensive player with superstar talent, but rarely refine the talent that will actually get them playing time in the NBA..... do you really want me to go down the list??? Maybe long-term he could succeed as a "project 3." However, given the Rockets current situation, and his contract status, there is no time for playing around. If he wants to capitalize on this situation, and get playing time this season so he doesn't end up in Europe... This is his only way on the court unfortunately.
"There are few garbage collector versatile bigs that you can count on to defend the post, and rebound the hell out of the ball." That's the problem. You can't count on him. He's just not a very good post defender at the 4 position. His frame and metabolism doesn't seem to want to cooperate with weight/size gain. I think he has just as much of a chance at 3 that Marcus does. JJ's perimeter defense may be better too. He's a Tweener that could probably play both positions, but I don't think he'll overcome the logjam at 4. I think he has a better opportunity at 3. My opinion.
Johnson may be a 4 who doesn't play like a 4, but that doesn't make him a 3. Some guys just aren't very good and have rather limited potenital. To me, Johnson is one of those guys and I'd be surprise if he'd made the team.
Which you're entitled to. Put aside the Rockets depth chart for a minute and think NBA supply and demand. He shouldn't be thinking in terms of just this one team, but how am I going to succeed long term in this league. Maybe the Rockets have more 4's than 3's now but that does not matter. He's got to make an impact RIGHT AWAY to even make the roster. How is he going to do that? Defense, blocking shots, and rebounding. Anything short of Kevin Durant level skills wont get him PT this season with the Rockets. They have no room for projects at the wing position. They can only have 15 players on their roster come the end of October, and if the choice is Johnson vs. Royce White on who makes the cut... guess whose gone bye-bye?? As for his size/Metabolism- He's almost exactly the same size as Jordan Hill when he came into the NBA, and now if you put just 10 pounds on Johnson they would be the exact same player physically. Jordan might float around from team to team in the next 5 years, but he's going to have a career in the NBA because he has one or two defined skills that all NBA teams need right away. Johnson doesn't have that, and he's not going to find a team that will have the space on their roster to develop him long term. He's already become victim to his draft postion and contract that will continually put him low on the totum pole when his team needs to move a contract/player. If he wants a career in the NBA, he MUST HAVE that skill that teams need.
