March 13, 2011

Alexander Johnson - 11 games, 23.2 mpg, 19.6 ppg, 9.4 rpg, 1.2 apg, 0.6 spg, 0.5 bpg, 3.0 TOpg, 61% FG, 0% 3PT, 60% FT

[Shawn] Taggart played extremely well for Shanxi, and the roster turnover started to settle down. But after only 8 games for the team, Taggart hurt his knee and was out for the rest of the season. So again Shanxi had to hit up the market, bringing in ex-NBA big man Alexander Johnson, who had managed only one CBA appearance in the previous season before suffering an injury of his own. As ever, Johnson put up terrific per-minute numbers; as ever, Johnson couldn't play huge minutes due to his constant foul problems. All the while, Rodgers, a Chinese league veteran and prolific scorer, seems to have survived the whole season. It was reported that he had been replaced by A.D. Vassallo in mid-January, yet Vassallo appears not to have ever taken the court.

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January 5, 2011

Alexander Johnson - The Rockets waived Johnson in preseason, and he too is unsigned and looking. It is a surprise as to why. He is strong, athletic, aggressive and relentless, with good touch, decent hands, a great rebounding rate, and even the ability to create some offense for himself. He absolutely cannot stop fouling, but since he would not be a big minute player in the NBA, this doesn't matter as much. Unless he is hurt, Johnson should be signed somewhere, anywhere, and the NBA is as feasible of a place for him as any.

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September 28, 2010

Harris and Johnson are players who have long been on the cusp of the NBA without ever quite managing to stick. Johnson in particular is a fine talent, a talented scorer and good rebounder who would have stuck by now were he able to just stop fouling. Working against Johnson is the fact that because they signed through 2011 at the end of the 2009/10 season, they aren't on one year contracts, meaning they aren't subject to the veteran's minimum reimbursement thing better described on the Rockets salaries page. As a result, if Johnson makes the team, Houston pay him $885,120 instead of $854,389 next season. Not that it will matter much, because Patrick Patterson just made him superfluous.

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July 14, 2010

Alexander Johnson

Johnson is signed to the Rockets to an unguaranteed contract for next year. He continues to make and miss the fringes of the NBA, able to score and rebound but still unable to stop fouling. When not in the NBA last season, Johnson was in the D-League, where he averaged 23.3 points and 11.2 rebounds for the Sioux Falls Skyforce and was arguably the league's best player. The Rockets gave him a chunk of their MLE at the very end of the season, in a Spurs-like act of loyalty buying, and he now has a decent chance to make their roster again. But with the arrival of Patterson, and the presence of Mike Harris (who has a similarly unguaranteed deal), it is not a clear path to survival. Johnson is also now 27 year sold, so it's time to stop with the silly fouls.

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March 24, 2010

- Alexander Cantarell Johnson

Florida State product Johnson went to camp with the Utah Jazz this year, but despite 31 decent preseason minutes, he did not make the team. He then went to China to play for the DongGuan New Century Leopards. However, he got injured after only thirteen minutes in his first game and had to be carried off the court; it was the only CBA game he played. A couple of month passed while Johnson rehabbed his injuries, and then in late January he re-emerged in the D-League with the Sioux Falls Skyforce.

Johnson quickly became one of the best players in the league; in 19 games he is averaging 22.6 points and 11.2 rebounds, shooting 56% from the field and 75% from the line. However, the problem that marred his earlier NBA forays remain; put simply, Johnson makes mistakes. Not a Mike Greenberg-style racial epithet mistake, nor the Gilbert Arenas sort of gun wielding mistakes, and nor the Mark McGwire type of mistake whereby you shoot protein-based poly-peptides into your veins to gain a competitive advantage using the ridiculously terrible defense that other people were doing it too. No, Johnson's mistakes are instead made on the court. In addition to those good numbers above, Johnson also averages 4.0 turnovers and 3.0 fouls in only 32 minutes per game; this from the same man who averaged a foul every 8 minutes in his NBA career with a turnover rate of 18.9%. For comparison's sake, the notoriously turnover prone Eddy Curry has a career turnover rate of 16.6%, wuth a single season high of 18.4% (2006-07).

It was never size, scoring ability or rebounding ability that hampered Johnson's NBA prospects. He has enough of all those. Instead, it was the mistakes, the turnovers, the fouls, the free points and possessions for the opposition. Johnson is an NBA calibre player even with this flaw, and is an entirely deserving call-up candidate. But he is now 27 and hasn't cured this problem. If he does, awesome. If he doesn't, the next couple of years will be spent on the fringes.

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March 7, 2010

- Alexander Johnson: 13.0mpg, 7.0ppg, 3.0rpg, 1.0apg, 3.0fpg, 1.0spg, 0.0bpg, 60% FG, 0% 3PT, 100% FT (left after 1 game)

Unusually, DongGuan (not to be confused with Guangdong) have spent half of this season playing with only one import. They started the season with Johnson and Tate, but Johnson played in only one game before leaving (subsequently joining the D-League), and Cedric Simmons didn't arrive until 16 games later. Tate left after 16 to be replaced by Kelley, and the Simmons and Kelley duo is what Dongguan have now.

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