Joe Johnson, unbelievably, still underrated

[Atlantaholic]

Joe Johnson is fourth among SG in points, and first in assists, and he is still only 26... The season is still young, so the numbers don't mean much, but he has done nothing but produce for us since he has been here, and yet people continue to doubt his worth... The only shooting guards I would rank above him right now are Kobe, Wade, and TMac (when healthy). Joe Johnson carries the youngest team in the NBA on his back on a nightly basis and though he is not perfect I, for one, am damn glad he is a Hawk.

[BHayley]

Amen.

Let's just get him some help, get him a real coach, so he can stay with us forever. I don't want him requesting a trade in February

[exodus]

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Joe Johnson is fourth among SG in points, and first in assists, and he is still only 26... The season is still young, so the numbers don't mean much,

but he has done nothing but produce for us since he has been here, and yet people continue to doubt his worth.

.. The only shooting guards I would rank above him right now are Kobe, Wade, and TMac (when healthy). Joe Johnson carries the youngest team in the NBA on his back on a nightly basis and though he is not perfect I, for one, am damn glad he is a Hawk.

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Agreed all around. I see him getting criticized all the time and i just don't get it.

[Atlantaholic]

Mostly I see people complain about his "value". They think that he is not producing up to his paycheck.

Last I checked he is drawing the NBA's 28th highest salary this year... I think it's safe to say that he is most freaking definitely in the top 28 players in the league, so frankly, I don't get how people can think we aren't getting value from him.

[TheDude]

good thread...needed to nip that in the bud....Go Joe!

[Packfill]

I think the reason Joe doesn't get alot of respect is because the team has been so terrible during his tenure here. If the team wins and becomes relevant again then he will suddenly gain much more respect.

[Atlantaholic]

This is most likely the main reason that people don't give JJ his due... it isn't justified in the least, but natural I suppose.

[Packfill]

I think at some level a players team needs to have success before the individual can be considered one of the best. Not that this applies to JJ, but lots of o.k. players but up really good stats on bad teams.

[thesheedera]

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I think at some level a players team needs to have success before the individual can be considered one of the best. Not that this applies to JJ, but lots of o.k. players but up really good stats on bad teams.

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Without a doubt. I think JJ's an excellent player but I think he needs to focus on being a facilitator. I think he needs to shake off the urge to play isolation ball and I think he needs to instigate ball movement.

I wouldn't call him selfish, but I think he's a big reason why our offense doesn't "flow". He still puts up good assist numbers becuase he's good passing out of double teams and he's good at dishing after penetration, but he could do so much more promoting ball movement and flow that I think in turn would imrpove the squad, increase the Ws, and earn him the elite status more quickly.

Incredible talent and he's still so young, but I think he has the potential to be a top 5-10 player in the NBA if he learns to trust and leverage his teammates better.

[AnnArborHawk]

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I think at some level a players team needs to have success before the individual can be considered one of the best. Not that this applies to JJ, but lots of o.k. players but up really good stats on bad teams.

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Without a doubt. I think JJ's an excellent player but I think he needs to focus on being a facilitator. I think he needs to shake off the urge to play isolation ball and I think he needs to instigate ball movement.

I wouldn't call him selfish, but I think he's a big reason why our offense doesn't "flow". He still puts up good assist numbers becuase he's good passing out of double teams and he's good at dishing after penetration, but he could do so much more promoting ball movement and flow that I think in turn would imrpove the squad, increase the Ws, and earn him the elite status more quickly.

Incredible talent and he's still so young, but I think he has the potential to be a top 5-10 player in the NBA if he learns to trust and leverage his teammates better.

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My gut reaction is the same, that JJ should be facilitating the offense more. But if you look at the stats, he's averaging more than 6 assists suggests he IS facilitating. But certainly if you watch him at times, it seems like he plays a lot of one-on-one. The argument there is, he is the best player on the team and the "go to" guy that you expect to be able to do that.

So the question is, what do we want Joe to be? I definitely don't have the answer to that. Although at times I wonder how differently he'd play if the Hawks DID bring in the tried and true veteran he's been looking for. Until then it's hard to know if Joe doesn't quite 100% trust his teammates, or if he's being coached to be selfish at times. I think until we get that veteran or change coaches, it's hard to put that blame on Joe.

I for one would like to see him have a little more fire in his belly and take over games in the 4th quarter. He's done it at times with his play, but at other times he's been stifled by double and triple teams.

But I agree with earlier posters that Joe may not get his due until the team starts winning. Joe's had a few poor shooting games this year, but over the course of his tenure with the Hawks, you can't really say Joe is the reason this team is losing.

We may not find out if Joe is that true "show stopper, take over the game and bring us home" kind of guy until we get that new coach or veteran help. I wonder if bringing in a coach who's coached a true superstar might bring some more of that out of Joe.

[lovinthegame]

Yeah agree but I think JJ is better sg than Wade. He is always underrated and I was looking at an interview that Gilbert Arenas gave for slamonline and he and the interviewer were both talking about how underrated jj is. I was happy to see someone else finally giving him his props. Gilbert even stated how much depth the ATL hawk team has. And he said if the hawks put their size to use they could stop him (or something like that). Finally someone else in the league recognizes what we're working with. I hope we can get some type of structured offense together so we can star winning more games-thats our main weakness to me. We have too much talent being wasted right now.

[Peoriabird]

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I wouldn't call him selfish, but I think he's a big reason why our offense doesn't "flow". He still puts up good assist numbers becuase he's good passing out of double teams and he's good at dishing after penetration, but he could do so much more promoting ball movement and flow that I think in turn would imrpove the squad, increase the Ws, and earn him the elite status more quickly.

My gut reaction is the same, that JJ should be facilitating the offense more. But if you look at the stats, he's averaging more than 6 assists suggests he IS facilitating. But certainly if you watch him at times, it seems like he plays a lot of one-on-one. The argument there is, he is the best player on the team and the "go to" guy that you expect to be able to do that.

So the question is, what do we want Joe to be?

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Joe is an Allen Iverson type facilitator. Iverson can rack up assist but is by nature a ball hog that destroys ball movement! Joe destroys ball movement therefore makes it easy on the opposing defense. I agree there needs to be more ball movement in this offense but on the other hand when you give the ball to Josh Smith you know what's going to happen!