November 2, 2019

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June 29, 2017

Wesley Johnson
SF, 6’7, 215lbs, 29 years old, 7 years of experience

Very poor season in which he shot a true shooting percentage of .448%, 434th in the league amongst all players and eighth last amongst qualified ones and was not noteworthy defensively either. Completely lost his outside shot and made no inroads into his long-standing ball handling limitations, finishing inability or his fear of contact around the basket. Johnson would be a ‘projectable’ three-and-D role player given his length and athleticism were he not 29 and regressing. Not a creator, finisher, slasher or cutter, and whereas he should be a defender and transition threat, he is just neither aggressive nor confident enough. Lost his place to Mbah A Moute and lost it emphatically.

Player Plan: One guaranteed year at $5,881,260, then one player option year at $6,134,520. Surely no trade market for him other than as a filler contract, but assets are too few and far between to merit attaching one to him to salary dump. Keep, look to dump for the right price, hope for a redux, and be prepared to stretch.

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October 1, 2010

DerMarr Johnson proved a long time ago that being an athletic 6'9 shooting guard is only an asset if you do something with it. DerMarr never did, showing himself only to be a jumpshooting specialist who's only average at jumpshooting. (You might also want to keep him away from his similarly heighted namesake, Wesley, who is a bit too similar offensively to DerMarr for comfort.)

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August 12, 2010

Of the aforementioned 29 players signed so far, all but Wesley Johnson, DeMarcus Cousins, Greg Monroe, Gordon Hayward, Avery Bradley, Craig Brackins, Quincy Pondexter and Lazar Hayward have performance incentives in their contracts. This means that the top three picks all have them, as do most of the ones below them. So when I say it is standard practice to have performance incentives in rookie scale contracts, I am not just yanking your crank. It really is.

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July 14, 2010

Wesley Johnson

I am coming around on the idea that Corey Brewer and Wes Johnson can start together on the wings. Both are ideally small forwards, but between those two and Flynn, the Timberwolves get two ball handlers and enough shooting. Brewer probably won't be able to defend all shooting guards, but I'd rather him do it than Johnson.

Of course, I am only assuming that this is the plan. They might start Luke Ridnour at point guard and bump Flynn to the two. Or bump Flynn to the bench and start Martell Webster at point. Or bench Kevin Love and start Ramon Sessions at power forward. Or bench all of them in favour of the seminal Darko/Love/Pekovic/Hollins/Stiemsma lineup. When you build a roster made of point guards, small forward and power forwards, and make no apparent effort to find any shooting guards, it's hard to figure out the plan.

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June 27, 2010

Pick 4: With their first of 5 picks tonight, Minnesota selects Wesley Johnson from Syracuse. Stu Scott is straight in there with a painfully poignant fact; Johnson is five years older than Favors. Ouch.

Johnson produces the first bad shirt of the night, a yellow number with a white collar and cuffs. He also yields trousers made from an old lady's picnic mat, and the whole ensemble has to be seen to believed.



What has been seen, cannot be unseen.

Johnson is a strange pick for the Timberwolves. They need a shooting guard - in fairness, there is not an elite one in this draft - and they need a big man to replace Al Jefferson upon his increasingly inevitable departure. But Johnson is neither of these things. He is a small forward, and the point is not really debatable. He has a fine jumpshot and is athletic enough even at 6'7 to defend many two guards. But Johnson simply can't dribble. The limit of his dribbling is uncontested dribbles on the fast break, or dribbling in one step to turn a three pointer into a long two. Jay Bilas compares Johnson to Shawn Marion, but it's only true if Shawn Marion played like Anthony Morrow on offense. And he obviously doesn't. Johnson's athleticism and help defense tendencies make him an intriguing defender and rebounder, but even there, he was prone to switching off and can be beaten off the dribble. He was a fine player for Syracuse - I'm from England, and I watch the telly - but he's not a number 4 pick.

After last year's draft, it's refreshing to see David Kahn choose somebody who can't dribble. It's not advisable in a man slated to play guard, though. If Corey Brewer can play shooting guard full time, Johnson slides in nicely as a rebounder and athlete who is able to create his own (jump)shot; however, in spite of all his improvements last year, Brewer can't really do this. And even if he could, it's not optimal.

After the four point guard draft and the Al Jefferson/Kevin Love quandary comes this, the two small forward problem. Minnesota's lineup remains woefully unbalanced.

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