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Restricted free agent and Denver has his Early Bird rights, if I remember correctly.
DerMarr Johnson is a young small forward who can be molded under Bruce Bowen. He is available and just wanted to see what you guys thought.
Last edited by timvp; 07-15-2005 at 04:09 PM. Reason: changed title
Restricted free agent and Denver has his Early Bird rights, if I remember correctly.
Nuggets just picked up the option on Leonard and need to sign buckner. I could see them letting Johnson go, but probably not to the spurs.
As far as I know he is unrestricted and played for the minimum last season. Sounds like a good pickup to me.
You are correct. He's unrestricted.
Yeah, he's unrestricted and Denver doesn't have his Early Bird rights. Hmmm...what is Denver doing with their MLE?
Word is that they are trying to sign a shooting guard. They may not resign him.
Johnson is at least mildly intriguing. He almost had it all taken away from him, so you'd think that his primadonna days are over and that he's just in the business of appreciating the opportunity to play. He has great length on the wing and seems willing to play at least some defense. Perhaps he's an answer.
remember: headbands = championships.
I'm telling you Linton Johnson is the future for the Spurs at SF. He's great.
The reason I believe he is a good fit is that he reminds me of Stephen Jackson somewhat. Not because of the headband though. He is long and was a high school standout. He came into the league too soon and that may have hurt his career thus far, but I think there is a lot of potential there. He has great length.
I know the Spurs have looked at him in the past, so maybe they are looking again.
6'9". 25 years old. Just turned 25. Hit almost 50% of his shots last season.
hmmmm. I'm intrigued.
The guy was a 6th overall pick so there has to be something to him. When Michael Cooper was the coach of the Nuggets he really liked DerMarr. Coop had the intention of making him a defensive guy because of DerMarr's wing span.
Hopefully Denver ends up using their full MLE (or most of it) on a 2.
Spurs will have up to $2.735 mil starting to offer and an opportunity to eventually move into the starting lineup.
I think that the Nuggest really want to get either Marko Jaric or Flip Murray. They also seem to want to resign Buckner who is also a good defender.
...what about Devin Brown?
Devin Brown seems like he may get an offer from some other team that may cause the Spurs to pass. Plus he is more of a 2 than a 3. I think the Spurs need to look into getting someone to back Bowen up.
Even if Devin stays, I think the Spurs will look to get another 3 -- at the very least someone to ride IR and learn the ropes.
I think DerMarr Johnson would be a great guy to fill the void that GRob leaves if he isn't re-signed. I am not saying that DJ is better than GRob, but he is younger and more athletic. The guy put on like 10-15lbs of muscle after his rookie season to show he wanted to improve. That's hard to do.
Oh, if Johnson panned out it would be huge for the Spurs, since the only way he would join them is for a relatively small contract ($2.7 mil starting or below).
Which is prudent because so far Devin has not fully recovered from his back injury. I'd hate to see the Spurs enter next season with an injured guard as their only dedicated backup to their 34 year old small forward.
From basketball-reference.com (http://www.basketball-reference.com/...johnsde03.html)
DerMarr Johnson
Most Similar Season at Age
20. Aleksandar Pavlovic
21. Jonathan Bender
24. Buck Johnson
What's hard to peg with Johnson is the effect of his neck injury from a few years back. Last year was pretty much his first full season back. I recall reading that folks in Denver really thought the Nuggets rise coincided with Johnson getting more and more minutes during the season, though it's very hard to separate whatever effect Johnson might have had from the effect that Karl had.
Of course, then in the playoffs, Karl started him for two games before benching him and seeming to forget all about him in Game 5.
I just see this guy like a Stephen Jackson. The more S. Jack played the better he got. Now look at him. I am not saying that the exact same thing will happen to DJ, but there is the possibility. Remember that S. Jack was considered a very good player in high school, but got into trouble. He paid his dues and now he is one ofthe leading scorers on his team with a championship ring. DerMarr Johnson looks like he would excel under Pop and PJ Carlisimo.
The thing with Jack is that he had an asshole coach in NJ. The Spurs seemed to have the right way of coaching him. He wasn't given anything but an opportunity to play. But they didn't simply scold him 24/7.
In Indiana, he didn't have that. Unfortunately I think he fell in with Artest and the Pacers didn't really try to reign in Artest. They (and Jack) paid the price for that.
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