Dermarr Johnson article from AJC

[Guest Walter]

In reply to:

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"Stackhouse very well could be out the door because of salary demands."

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WHAT? Do you think Washington traded for Stack (and the rites to Stack expecting not to pay him)?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?

In reply to:

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"Yeah, and so was Glover as well as other young players (Diop, Borchardt) who still landed in the first round because of their potential. In addition, Glover's injury was FAR worse than Grizzard's!"

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Glover had already had surgery and was near a year removed from his injury. HIS RELATIVE HEALTH POST RECOVERY COULD BE DETERMINED! This was not the case with Grizzard nor can it remotely be the case with DJ at the time one must make the decision to guarantee him another $3 million. Moreover, Grizzard would have been drafted MUCH higher than his counterpart that he started over in Gerald Wallace last year, EVEN IF GRIZZARD HAD BEEN INJURED. Grizzard was undoubtedly a lottery pick last year! And he was a lottery pick in a much harder draft than DJ's (the weakest draft in memory?!?)! Does this mean he is more atheletic than Wallace? NEVER! DJ isn't near as athletic as Wallace. But Grizzard was then and may remain better all-around.

Diop? He was HEALTHY at the time of the draft and had worked out for teams MANY TIMES! Moreover, he's 7', 315 Lbs and STILL a MISTAKE of a pick. Bad picks are not good arguments for why other picks should have been made higher!

Borchardt? Oops. Another mistake. His stock did drop from top 10, but maybe you missed it. He too was healthy enough to work out for teams. Missed that too I guess.

In reply to:

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"No, your stock doesn't go up but if you have enough potential, see Glover, Diop, Borchardt, etc, teams will take a gamble on you because of the potential gain. Apparently, teams didn't feel that the upside with Grizzard was worth the risk."

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Whatever. See above. Teams NEVER saw Grizzard work out for them and/or other teams. They did in every other case you cited.

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"No question DJ's stock and asking price are going to be affected by his injury but all it takes is ONE team willing to take that risk and he could be gone."

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Gone where? He's a restricted FA even if we do renounce the 4th year on his deal. Secondly, WHO?!?!? Who is gonna pay more than say $3 million for DJ 8 9 months from now during the FA signing period. That's 9 months!!!!!!!!!!! 2+ months for every vertebrae, I guess. What do you think this is...his arm that's hurt? Please go meet with someone that has a fractured vertebrae. Then imagine 4 of them. Then imagine that person 20-30 Lbs lighteer and 30-40% weaker competing at the highest level of sports in 10 months. Then ask who the [censored] is that stupid.

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"Uh, Kwame Brown's stats last year were almost identical to DJ's first year stats, he had a HORRIBLE summer league before his 2nd season and I don't see him going anywhere."

In reply to:

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Kwame is two years younger and a year less experienced at a position in which players develop a year or two behind. Yet, he's still as good as DJ in their respective first year (and better in his second summer than DJ was in his).

[Traceman]

[Traceman]

You defend players such as Joanthan Bender (who has done NOTHING) and yet you always look for the negative with DJ.

And Miles? What has he DONE? The trade for Miller was made based on Miles' potential but his actual production hasn't been much better than DJ's. Of course you give Miles the benefit of the doubt regarding his potential while DJ gets NOTHING. You talk about DJ's lack of skills but look at Miles. He can't SHOOT! The most basic fundamental in basketball and he is a HORRIBLE at it. If it wasn't for dunks and layups, how would he score?

In addition, you always KILL DJ regarding what his production is relative to that of a #6 pick. Well look at Miles! Do you think 9.4 ppg and 5.4 rbg is acceptable for a #3 pick? He averaged a a whole whopping POINT per game more than DJ despite the fact that he played more than 3 mpg more than DJ did! Is that the stuff of a #3 pick?

Lets go further. Look at the #3 picks and #6 picks over the last 10 drafts:

'93 - Penny Hardaway Calbert Cheaney

'94 - Grant Hill Sharone Wright

'95 - Jerry Stackhouse Bryant Reeves

'96 - S. Abdur Rahim Antoine Walker

'97 - Chauncy Billups Ron Mercer

'98 - Raef LaFrentz Robert Traylor

'99 - Baron Davis Wally Sczerbiak

'00 - Darius Miles DerMarr Johnson

'01 - Pau Gasol Shane Battier

'02 - Mike Dunleavy DuJuan Wagner

Based on the above, I'd say that DJ was a [censored] of a lot closer to equaling the production of a typical #6 pick than Miles has been to equaling the production of a typical #3 pick. In fact, up to this point, Miles hasn't even come close to the production of any of those guys except Dunleavy and Dunleavy hasn't even played a game! Five of the last 10 #3 picks (50%) have played in the All Star game and Gasol probably will too one day. Conversely, Walker and Szcerbiak are the only two #6 picks (20%) who have played in the All Star game. Obviously, a #3 pick is supposed to SIGNIFICANTLY outproduce a #6 pick but that has not been the case with Miles and DJ.

Your scoffing at the notion of comparing DJ to Miles shows just how deep your bias is. They both have a lot of potential and that is why they were drafted as high as they were. From a production standpoint, neither has done a whole lot but Miles certainly has not produced so much more than DJ that there is no comparison. There clearly IS a comparsion and relative to their draft position, an argument can be made that DJ has produced MORE!

Finally, this last quote denotes the fact that you are INCAPABLE of understanding what I have been saying all along.

"The fact remains however that choosing to not exercise DJ's option does nothing to preclude us from resigning him/ matcing any offer."

That is simply NOT TRUE! We CANNOT match ANY offer to DJ. We cannot exceed the MCE to sign DJ and our Bird Rights for DJ only go up to a little over $3 million. If a team offers him more than $3 million, he can sign with whatever team he chooses. Devean George didn't HAVE to resign with LA, he CHOSE to resign with LA because they offered him the same contract that the T'Wolves were offering. DJ MIGHT do that, but he is ounder no obligation to do so.

I don't anticipate teams offering DJ a big contract next year but again, we COULD lose him without compensation.

[Traceman]

would cut someone with as much potential as DJ (snicker) who they could have had for a minimum, non guaranteed contract. I wonder if the Hawks would have cut E Mail to make room for a healthy DJ?

[Guest Walter]

Miles was a HSer (HELLO?) who had Lamar Odom in front of him and more young scoring talent around him on the second team than near our whole team last year. DJ had Email. Good grief.

Also, while you want to argue mere possibilities. I am here dbating probabilities. The overwhelming probability isn't that DJ gets an offer above $3+ million, 10 months removed from an injury in which he fractured FOUR vertebrae. I'm willing to bet significant sums on it. Better to take the 99% chance that DJ won't be resigned to any value over $3 million after 10 months than to pay it for a guy coming off of FOUR vertebral fractures.

W

[Guest Walter]

...who knows where DJ would have fallen had his weaknesses been exposed given more time in college, had he been injured at the time of the draft having not worked out for teams, etc.

Who knows if DJ would have gotten 1/100th the look he has to date were he selected 2nd rd for similar reasons. Can you imagine a team sticking with DJ after his first summerleague, preseason, season, and 2nd summerleague had he been a 2nd rder? Tack on his NCAA play and he looked like perhaps the worst draft pick in memory relative to draft position (save Koncak). No way. And given the comparisons between Grizzard and DJ, physically to position to game, had DJ stayed in school and have his lack of aggressiveness, limited skill, etc. further exposed like he was during the NCAAs and been injured during workouts he very well could have dipped to the 2nd rd. Just ask Terrance Morris, another superior talent yet unaggressive player (although he didn't suffer injuries) whose stock dropped each year after his Soph year.

W

[Traceman]

"Miles was a HSer (HELLO?) who had Lamar Odom in front of him and more young scoring talent around him on the second team than near our whole team last year. DJ had Email. Good grief."

First of all, DJ had ONE year of college, it's not like he was a 5th year senior like Mo Pete or Courtney Alexander.

Second, Odom missed FIFTY THREE games last year! How in the [censored] was Miles behind a guy who missed SIXTY FIVE PERCENT of the season! Miles was behind Corey Magette in the rotation and while Magette is a good young player, he's no Odom.

Third, the "2nd team" of the Clippers last year consisted of Q. Richardson, Miles, Boykins, Shawn Rooks and Harold Jamison! Besides Q, where is the "young scoring talent" around him? Jamison? Rooks? Boykins? Please!

Finally, DJ started FORTY SIX games last year where he was AT BEST the 3rd option and usually the 4th option (I think Lon ran a LOT more plays for Nazr than DJ) on a team with two 20 ppg scorers in the starting lineup. Miles definitely had more of a green light with the 2nd team than DJ did with the first team.

There are NO more excuses for Miles than there are for DJ and in fact, he has LESS of an excuse. His production was what it was for LA. Hopefully in CLE, now that they are buliding the team around him, he will be able to shine. I don't think he will ever be a big time scorer but if he can give CLE 16/8/4 this season, I think that would make him a huge success.

As for DJ, I'm NOT debating whether or not the team is making the right decision by not picking up his option. I UNDERSTAND why the Hawks will not pick up DJ's option and I have posted that REPEATEDLY! What part of that statement can you not comprehend? Good Grief! All I have said is that we COULD lose DJ next year! Period!

[Traceman]

Based on your theory, DJ should have just skipped college and went to the NBA stright from highschool huh?

As for his NCAA performance, that occurred BEFORE the draft so obviously, the Hawks were not worried about it. Conversely, the probably realized that DJ was a kid, no matter how talented, who had not yet fully developed his game and who had never been in that situation before. they probably thought (correctly in my opinion) that he was going to be a quality NBA player once he matured and learned the game.

As for how he looked relative to draft position, again, he looks a [censored] of a lot better relative to draft position at this point than Miles does. In fact, he looks a [censored] of a lot better relative to draft position than a LOT of young players including Kwame Brown, Tyson Chandler and Jonathan Bender. But of course those guys (save Chandler) get a pass from you for some reason.

As for DJ staying in school and his stock dropping, I don't see it. If he were going to be a senior in college this year, I think he would have CLEARLY been one of the best players in the country and a DEFINITE lottery pick. I can't think of anybody in college who is THAT much better than he is (LeBron James is in high school). If Kirk Hinrich is a projected lottery pick, I KNOW DJ would have been!

By the way, apply this same ridiculous scenario to Miles. Imagine him going through 4 years of college without ever developing a J. He might have gone undrafted!