I don't see how your HATED Joe Johnson. Even though he never will live up to his contract, he is still a versatile SG most teams in the NBA would love to have. Like it or not, he just wasn't the player our team needed him to be. But he was able to keep this team relevant. And the reason why they're doing not much better than us despite payroll is because that team has overpayed for players in order to assemble a team that can at least win a few games. This isn't like baseball where having deep pockets means you can sign whoever you want. Once you go over the tax line you better have your most important pieces in place or making moves to get those players gets a whole lot harder. Billy King has dug that team a grave that will be hard for them to get out of. Who pays Humphries 12 million, Joe Johnson 20+ million, Wallace 10 million... the list goes on.