JJ Gave Up His Minutes for Ross

[DG88]

Many on this board on Monday were blasting Casey for not playing JJ, but I made a point in the PG thread that may be JJ decided to give his rotational minutes to help get Ross going. It looks like my assumption was correct. Casey was on Prime Time Sports yesterday and here's what he said about that situation:

Casey says that while the team does want to focus more on Ross, there will be games when Johnson will return to his usual rotational minutes.

“James understood,” Casey said. “He understood the fact that it may be a situation where we want to work with Terrence and get him going and that the next night may be his night, so he just has to stay ready.”

Full interview here:
http://www.sportsnet.ca/basketball/nba/ ... right-now/

Again the whole reason for JJ not playing was to help his teammate come out of his funk for the betterment of the team. We saw JJ cheering for Terrence throughout the game and wasn't sulking. This wasn't Casey being an idiot like a lot of you on here think. It also tells me that the locker room is still very tight even with the slump that they went through.

It's time for a lot of you on here to take a step back instead of jumping to ridiculous conclusions and making this board unreadable.

[Hue Durant]

why he couldn't put JJ and PPat in the starting lineup while putting amir and terrence in the second, nobody knows.

same players, same spacing, no starting GV.

[DG88]

why he couldn't put JJ and PPat in the starting lineup while putting amir and terrence in the second, nobody knows.

same players, same spacing, no starting GV.

Why mess the rotation that much. Amir is our best help defender and was big that night. Everyone here wants these drastic changes but that will only make things worse.

[ATLTimekeeper]

It's a little misleading. He didn't volunteer his minutes for Terrence. He just understood the decision.

[COY0607]

Lou Williams is the one who should be losing minutes.. JJ should in the SL instead of Vasquez, Vasquez and Ross should be back-up guards

but then who would take the last second heave at the end of EVERY SINGLE QUARTER

[_Choco_]

JJ wants value in the Ross trade, like a true teammate

[_Choco_]

JJ wants value in the Ross trade, like a true teammate

[WeTheNorth77]

why he couldn't put JJ and PPat in the starting lineup while putting amir and terrence in the second, nobody knows.

same players, same spacing, no starting GV.

Why mess the rotation that much. Amir is our best help defender and was big that night. Everyone here wants these drastic changes but that will only make things worse.

How do you know that will make things even worse? That lineup is one of the most underutilized lineups in caseys rotations (remember seeing the stats on that some were here). Lowry, DD, JJ, patman and JV. I would love to see him try that a little more to see how it works out. Not in the starting lineup but sometime during the game possibly in late 1st or early 2nd quarter.

[justinmacd]

Lou has been way under 40% shooting since the start of December. Throw in some lousy defense and you have a guy who is getting way too many minutes. JJ not playing is ridiculous. There are always minutes to go around.

[whysoserious]

It's a little misleading. He didn't volunteer his minutes for Terrence. He just understood the decision.

That's what I was going to say too. More he understood why the coach didn't play him in that situation. And for all the flack JJ gets sometimes about attitude he was up cheering for Ross a lot as helped secure that win.

[DemoleDemolezan]

I did notice he seemed very enthusiastic. I hope he stays positive. I like him as a part of this team.

[I_Like_Dirt]

Lou has been way under 40% shooting since the start of December. Throw in some lousy defense and you have a guy who is getting way too many minutes. JJ not playing is ridiculous. There are always minutes to go around.

The fg% is misleading in this case because Lou is still finding ways of scoring effectively by hitting 3s and drawing fts. His TS% for December was 54.6% and for January has been 54.4% so far. That's not superstar level for a guard like he was hitting in November, but is still pretty damn good. By contrast, Kemba Walker's TS% is 51.0%. Derrick Rose is sitting at 50.6%, and even at the height of his superstardom, his career high was 55.0%. Tony Parker is sitting at 55.2% on the season. Dwyane Wade, who is actually having a solid season offensively, is sitting at 55.2%. Kyle Lowry, on the season, is at 54.3%. Louis Williams doesn't offer much else, but when it comes to scoring, he keeps some pretty good company. His defense isn't great, but is still functional. He's been basically the equivalent of Jamal Crawford (55.0% TS% on the season so far) to the Clippers. The Raptors would only be hurting themselves by cutting his minutes. He's basically got the perfect role for himself as the 6th man.

And to top it off, Lou doesn't turn the ball over at all. The only Raptors who have a lower turnover% than Lou who also get regular rotation minutes are Ross and Patterson, basically guys who never dribble the ball. Being both efficient, high volume, and with low turnovers is the recipe for an excellent offensive player.

[hankscorpioLA]

Lou has been way under 40% shooting since the start of December. Throw in some lousy defense and you have a guy who is getting way too many minutes. JJ not playing is ridiculous. There are always minutes to go around.

The fg% is misleading in this case because Lou is still finding ways of scoring effectively by hitting 3s and drawing fts. His TS% for December was 54.6% and for January has been 54.4% so far. That's not superstar level for a guard like he was hitting in November, but is still pretty damn good. By contrast, Kemba Walker's TS% is 51.0%. Derrick Rose is sitting at 50.6%, and even at the height of his superstardom, his career high was 55.0%. Tony Parker is sitting at 55.2% on the season. Dwyane Wade, who is actually having a solid season offensively, is sitting at 55.2%. Kyle Lowry, on the season, is at 54.3%. Louis Williams doesn't offer much else, but when it comes to scoring, he keeps some pretty good company. His defense isn't great, but is still functional. He's been basically the equivalent of Jamal Crawford (55.0% TS% on the season so far) to the Clippers. The Raptors would only be hurting themselves by cutting his minutes. He's basically got the perfect role for himself as the 6th man.

And to top it off, Lou doesn't turn the ball over at all. The only Raptors who have a lower turnover% than Lou who also get regular rotation minutes are Ross and Patterson, basically guys who never dribble the ball. Being both efficient, high volume, and with low turnovers is the recipe for an excellent offensive player.

The force is strong in this one.

Great response.

[underdog33]

Lies, Smokescreen, Damage control, whatever you wanna call it. You think we actually believe this crap ? <tinfoil hat>

[tecumseh18]

Being both efficient, high volume, and with low turnovers is the recipe for an excellent offensive player.

But ... but ... eye test!

Anyway, I would expect JJ to get a lot of run tonight against Green, who conveniently is coming off the bench as well. If we want to give Casey credit, maybe he's picking up on what Atlanta did against the Celtics last week - i.e. resting key players in advance of a big game.

[itbobby007]

ILD, nice response indeed, agree w/ HankS

[GoSu]

OP, what Casey said and how you interpreted it are totally different things.

[artsncrafts]

uhh.. so many players should be benched for JJ. Hell start JJ at PF or even C if you are going to play Thans and 4 pg

[Flight33]

I've just learned to ignore most of the posters all realgm, who have clearly shown me that they are puckheads disguised as Raptor fans on this board.

[barrist]

yah... he didn't "give up" his minutes. they were taken from him and he "understood" why, according to Casey.