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RaisingArizona wrote:Jones must have got him mixed up with Cam Reddish. Hate the pick, hate the day.

Golanator wrote:Not who I thought we’d get but like any new rookie it’s not his fault we overdrafted him and hopefully he turns out to be a stud!

bwgood77 wrote:

Golanator wrote:Not who I thought we’d get but like any new rookie it’s not his fault we overdrafted him and hopefully he turns out to be a stud!

Yeah, certainly not gonna hold it against him, and I love shooters so he might end up being one of my favorite players. Seems like we got high iq, ready to go players which is good.

Domejandro wrote:

bwgood77 wrote:

Golanator wrote:Not who I thought we’d get but like any new rookie it’s not his fault we overdrafted him and hopefully he turns out to be a stud!

Yeah, certainly not gonna hold it against him, and I love shooters so he might end up being one of my favorite players. Seems like we got high iq, ready to go players which is good.

Cameron Johnson is a good player, you guys will absolutely like him; I have him top ten on my big board. The issue I have is that Phoenix could have traded down even further and corralled him, but oh well.

CBS Sports

This pick was made by the Suns, who traded 6 for 11 and Dario Saric. The Suns did this because they've got all this youth. Johnson's a guy who's as ready to play. But what a stunning move. No one expected him to be this high. Johnson was not even one of the 24 players invited to the official draft green room. This is wild to me. Grade: D

Sportingnews.com

Well, this is unexpected. Johnson is actually headed to Phoenix along with Dario Saric for the rights to draft Jarrett Culver at No. 6, which begs the question… Did the goats make this pick? Johnson was largely projected as a late first-rounder in most mock drafts.

I actually like Johnson quite a bit. I thought he would be an excellent selection for a team in the early 20s as a player who could come in and help right away. He's probably the best shooter in the draft, and he has positional size. He's able to get his jumper off over most defenders. There's a ton of value in that alone.

But Johnson is also already 23 years old. He's a limited to non-existent on-ball creator. He's skinny and almost certain to struggle defensively at the next level. He also has an extensive injury history and had reportedly been flagged by multiple teams for those injury issues. His best case scenario is a 3-and-D combo forward.

Phoenix, a team drastically in need of a point guard, passed up the chance to draft a good one at No. 6 in Coby White in exchange for a fine role player? This selection is frankly awful.

Grade: F

The Ringer (surprisingly lenient)

The Suns have suddenly become conservative with their lottery picks. A year after they traded up to no. 10 to take Mikal Bridges, an experienced wing with a proven 3-point shot, they took a similar type of player in Johnson, a fifth-year senior from North Carolina with one of the best 3-point shots in this year’s draft. Johnson isn’t as good defensively as Bridges, but his size (6-foot-9, 205 pounds) should at least allow him to survive on that end of the floor. Johnson will have an immediate role in the NBA, which means he is a pretty safe bet to give them solid minutes off the bench, even if he never ends up as a high-level starter. He hasn’t shown the ability to do much on offense beyond shoot, but he won’t need to if he’s playing with Devin Booker and D’Angelo Russell, the latter of whom they may target in restricted free agency.

Grade: B

SI

This is an extreme reach for the Suns, who are grabbing a player most teams expected to be available in the 20s here at No. 11 after trading down from No. 6. This is hard to explain—Johnson is one of the draft’s best pure spot-up shooters, but he’s already 23 years old. It feels like the Suns are drafting for need here, and this is an extremely high juncture in this draft to do that. Phoenix would seem to be trying to accelerate its rebuild, but this decision is questionable, given the way this draft seemed slated to fall. The choice itself makes some sense, but the execution here is the issue I have. Grade: D–

The Phoenix Suns must be desperate for shooting. Cameron Johnson, taken 11th overall, can supply that in spades, but good luck getting anything more from him.

He is the anti-upside prospect of this class. His college career spanned five years and two schools. His 23rd birthday is already behind him, meaning he's older than Devin Booker and Ben Simmons. In other words, any flaws in Johnson's game—his handles and athleticism are suspect—are unlikely to be corrected. It's a strange investment for a club that appears nowhere close to the playoff picture.

But his lethal long-range shot is a safety net, both for his career and the Suns offense, which, it's worth noting, finished 28th in three-point makes and 30th in three-point percentage last season. With good size (6'8½") and better understanding of off-ball movement, he's the early favorite to pace this class in spot-up splashing. This past season, he buried nearly three triples per night at a 45.7 percent clip.

The Suns had enough frontcourt clutter that they effectively salary-dumped TJ Warren onto the Indiana Pacers earlier Thursday, per Wojnarowski. Johnson just crowds things again, only with far fewer scoring tricks up his sleeve.

Grade: D+

SB Nation

Grade: D
Johnson is the oldest player expected to go in the first round and simply doesn’t have enough upside to warrant a pick this high. He’s arguably the best shooter in this draft class, as a 6’8 forward who shot 46 percent on threes in his fourth year of college ball. He doesn’t offer much else outside of his shooting, though. Johnson lacks the physicality to make an impact defensively and will also struggle to finish through contact in the NBA. He also doesn’t create much off the dribble.

The Suns still don’t have a point guard, though it’s possible they target someone like D’Angelo Russell in free agency. Paired with Mikal Bridges, the Suns now have some shooters on the wing to surround Devin Booker. It might sound good on paper, but Johnson is simply too one dimensional to get picked this high.

Washington Post

Analysis: In one of the night’s biggest surprises, the Suns selected the 23-year-old Johnson after trading down five spots. A proven shooter who hit 46 percent of his three-pointers last season at UNC, the 6-foot-9 Johnson will be expected to contribute immediately for a Phoenix offense that ranked 28th in efficiency. Given that this is his first draft as Suns GM, James Jones will face scrutiny for taking a player who didn’t receive a green room invite and who is older than Phoenix’s franchise guard, Devin Booker, who is entering his fifth NBA season. — Ben Golliver

What he brings: The 6-foot-9 forward is a master of using screens and spacing to his utmost advantage. The senior astonishingly scored more than 1.4 points per screen and cut — per Synergy Sports, those rates ranked within the 97th and 89th percentile of DI, respectively — and Johnson was at his best using body control, sharp cuts and angled positioning to keep defenders off-balance before he launched into his shooting form. Johnson doesn’t look like instant offense, but his offensive rating ranked 15th best in the nation this past season, as there was little defenders could do to break Johnson from settling comfortable into his shooting rhythm game after game. — Matthew Giles

Uproxx

11. Phoenix Suns (via Minnesota): Cameron Johnson, UNC (Grade: D)
Phoenix continues to be Phoenix. On the bright side, Cam Johnson is perhaps the best shooter in this draft and it helps to have a legitimately skill. Unfortunately, that is the only above-average trait that Johnson brings to the table and, value-wise, taking him at No. 11 is very, very aggressive. (edited)

Yahoo Sports
Twenty-four players were invited to the NBA draft green room. Somehow the Suns took one who wasn’t there at No. 11 overall. On the bright side, Johnson is an elite shooter — maybe the best in the entire draft. As a senior at North Carolina, the 6-foot-9 combo forward shot 45.7 percent from behind the arc, excelling as a catch-and-shoot threat but also showing an ability to hit a pull-up jumper if a defender runs him off his spot. The problem is Johnson doesn’t do much else at an above-average NBA level. Nobody will mistake Johnson for a playmaker, rugged rebounder, slasher or defensive stopper. He can be a marksman off the bench, but as one of the oldest, most mature players in this draft, he doesn’t have much more upside than that. When you’re drafting in the lottery, you’d like to have higher expectations.

Grade: D