Who can the Philadelphia 76ers bring in as the 15th man?
By Tim Zhai
Joe Johnson
Joe Johnson is the other name linked to Philadelphia recently. A seven-time All-Star and a potential future Hall of Famer who has a career average of 16 points and four rebounds, Johnson is looking for a comeback after not playing in the league last year.
Although known for his scoring ability, Johnson is not a highly efficient scorer. His career true shooting percentage of 53.0 percent isn’t amazing and shooting 37.1 percent from deep over his career won’t help the Sixers stretch the floor.
Must Read. 15 greatest seasons in franchise history. light
On top of being a 38-year-old ineffective scorer, Johnson’s defense won’t impressive Sixers fans. In his last season of playing in the NBA, Johnson was well below league average on defense. His opponent had a higher effective field goal percentage by 1.3 percent when Johnson was on the court compared to when he wasn’t, putting him in the 28th percentile of this category in the league, according to Cleaning The Glass.
Johnson failed to sign with an NBA team last year and instead opted to play for the BIG3 League, in which he was named League MVP. Could Joe Johnson contribute to this Sixers team? Philadelphia already has an abundance of forwards, it’s unlikely that Johnson will be ahead of James Ennis, Mike Scott or Jonah Bolden in the depth chart.
The verdict? I would take Joe Johnson in a heartbeat if he was eight years younger, but Iso Joe as he is right now? He should angle for a comeback on a different team, maybe one that doesn’t have seven forwards on its roster.