Heat's on to re-sign Johnson

[azdad1978]

Paola Boivin
The Arizona Republic
Apr. 19, 2005 12:00 AM

Eight minutes into Monday's game against Denver, Suns coach Mike D'Antoni couldn't help himself. At a break, he turned to the press table.

"What happened?" he asked, looking at the television monitor.

"Memphis won," he was told.



"That's too damn bad," he said, smirking. "I think I'll go sit down now."

He didn't, of course. The Suns rarely take a play off, let alone a game, and their reward is the NBA's best record, which was secured when the Grizzlies beat San Antonio and enhanced by the Suns' 128-114 victory over the Nuggets at America West Arena.

Those who thought the Suns' up-tempo style of play would run out of gas at season's end, here's a nice serving of a 128 points for you. Those who thought this team would self-destruct from a clash of titan egos, we offer guard Joe Johnson, who has quietly put the burden on General Manager Bryan Colangelo to work his fiscal magic again.

"His stock went up, didn't it?" forward Shawn Marion said after the game.

The Suns passed up an opportunity to sign Johnson to a contract extension last year. The third-year player becomes a restricted free agent this summer and may force the Suns into a position that requires them to match an offer from another team, unless a deal is done sooner.

"My priority No. 1 is to sign Joe Johnson," Colangelo said during Monday's game. "My other priority No. 1 is to sign Amaré Stoudemire to an extension."

Colangelo laughed.

"You notice I said both are priority No. 1."

Indeed we did.

"They should have done it last year," Marion said.

Johnson made a strong case for himself Monday. He scored 26 points on 10-of-14 shooting and took the life out of every Denver run with a timely three-point basket. These types of performances will help Johnson command a hefty chunk of change and will present Colangelo with the daunting financial task of keeping this group in place next year.

"It's a business. I understand that," Johnson said. "It will be interesting to see what happens this summer."

The personality trait that has prevented some from embracing Johnson's game is all but gone. He used to beat himself up over mistakes, and it would carry over into his game. Now, he takes a deep breath and moves on, often guarding the opponent's best player in the process.

D'Antoni can't keep him off the floor. Johnson is averaging 39.6 minutes per game, seventh best in league after leading the NBA in minutes last season. He is second in three-point field-goal percentage behind Minnesota's Fred Hoiberg, who, entering Monday's game, had made 100 fewer three-point shots than Johnson.

"Just because he's so quiet sometimes we misinterpret that for lack of emotion," D'Antoni said. "He's just a quiet guy. It's just his nature. The guy makes big shots in big moments so something's churning inside and his adrenaline gets going in big moments."

Steve Nash said he's Johnson's "biggest fan."

"Something fans may not realize is how big he is. There are power forwards his size in this league."

He's quicker and smoother than one would expect from his 6-foot-7, 230-pound frame and "comes to play every day," Nash said. "He guards the toughest guy every night. He gives us great defense; he gives us incredible versatility offensively. He can score a variety of ways but he can also be a playmaker, and he's really fun to play with.

"He's someone you want on your team."

And not just this year.


http://www.azcentral.com/sports/columns/articles/0419boivin0419.html

 

[CardNots]

Johnson is not going anywhere. I don't see the issue here. This is no different than Swift for Memphis last year. We make a statement we will match any contract offer. Nobody will waste their time.

 

[Joe Mama]

Johnson is not going anywhere. I don't see the issue here. This is no different than Swift for Memphis last year. We make a statement we will match any contract offer. Nobody will waste their time.

I think you are right. Doug Collins was asked last night about the Phoenix Suns re-signing Joe Johnson, and he said they would definitely re-sign him. At this point it wouldn't shock me if he got a near maximum contract.

And yes, it now looks like they made a mistake in not signing him for the six years at $50 million last summer. However I still say it was the right decision at the time. JJ had shown flashes of brilliance, but he was far from consistent. Of course one could always argue that Q had never been consistent, and they gave him a similar deal.

Joe Mama

 

[Amare32]

If the suns had the chance to sign Joe to that 50 million deal which was reported then we made a mistake. He will likely get like 5 or 6 million more now.

 

[SweetD]

We still don't know what the new CBA will look like. Until then we can only go off of the numbers now. JJ didn't except the offer that the Suns gave so he was the one that also wanted to waite a year and it worked out for him.

 

[WaywardFan]

I'm not close so I feel terribly out of the loop (except what I can glean from this board), but it seems we have Nash, Marion and Richardson wrapped up for a while.

This means, like Bryan said, they need to get Johnson and Amare wrapped up. This would give us a young athletic starting five for a long time.

But, with all these big contracts, with that constrain the team too much that it won't be able to ever get any complimentary support players? Assuming Johnson and Amare get the max, will those 5 contracts kill the payroll?

 

[elindholm]

Assuming Johnson and Amare get the max, will those 5 contracts kill the payroll?

That's up to the ownership. The Suns will be over the salary cap no matter what, so the only way they can add payroll will be through the draft and the use of salary-cap exceptions. And they can use those no matter what Stoudemire and Johnson end up getting. There won't be any league rules preventing the Suns from adding talent, any more than most other teams in the league are constrained (since most are over the cap).

I think it's extremely unlikely that Johnson will get close to a maximum contract, however. Yes, he's looking good these days, but he's still an erratic fourth-option player, at the deepest position in the league, who has never come close to making an All-Star team. To pay him close to max money would be asinine.

 

[SweetD]

I'm not close so I feel terribly out of the loop (except what I can glean from this board), but it seems we have Nash, Marion and Richardson wrapped up for a while.

This means, like Bryan said, they need to get Johnson and Amare wrapped up. This would give us a young athletic starting five for a long time.

But, with all these big contracts, with that constrain the team too much that it won't be able to ever get any complimentary support players? Assuming Johnson and Amare get the max, will those 5 contracts kill the payroll?

Yes but the main issue was the Suns were not selling out every game last year or even close. Now the team is making money this year and can use the investments to keep the team in tacked. I also know that the Suns have been very aggressive in getting marketing partners to re-up for more money and longer contracts.

 

[thegrahamcrackr]

We still don't know what the new CBA will look like. Until then we can only go off of the numbers now. JJ didn't except the offer that the Suns gave so he was the one that also wanted to waite a year and it worked out for him.

Exactly. It is not out of the realm of possibility that the max a team an offer him is slightly lower than 50 million.

 

[George O'Brien]

A lot of people talk about how much the team can afford, but that is not likely to be the real issue. The real issue is whether they are committed to the D'Antoni style of basketball. All evidence is that they are.

Signing JJ would mean the Suns would be restricted to using the MLE and the draft for adding players. There would be little chance of signing a standard center in this configuration, since good ones go for more than the MLE.

D'Antoni is trying to prove that a team can win big without a classic center. That won't happen without JJ.