NBA teams
J.A. Adande, ESPN Senior Writer 7y

With game on the line, Utah wise to give the ball to Joe Johnson

NBA, Utah Jazz

You are excused if you feel the most eye-opening revelation about Joe Johnson's play for the Utah Jazz in this postseason is the fact that Joe Johnson is playing for the Utah Jazz.

Johnson's free agency move to Utah last summer didn't quite set off the app alert frenzy generated by Kevin Durant to Golden State. If and when anyone noticed Johnson's move, they struggled to figure it out. At age 35, Johnson traded the warm waters of Miami (where he landed after a buyout from the Brooklyn Nets) for the Great Salt Lake.

"I know people were like, 'What the hell?'" Johnson said.

Johnson looked at the Jazz roster, with the likes of Gordon Hayward and Rudy Gobert, and saw a young team on the cusp of winning. He figured his veteran leadership, along with 2016 offseason acquisitions George Hill and Boris Diaw (who was traded for Johnson back in 2005 when Johnson went from Phoenix to Atlanta) could push the Jazz over the top.

Nine months later, Utah's first playoff appearance since 2012 -- with two more chances to advance for the first time since 2010 -- means that Johnson was right. In the process, maybe he's proving that the way we've thought of him is wrong.

Often when we think of Johnson we think of his money. He has collected almost $200 million in gross salary over the course of his 16-year career, after all. Perhaps we should think he is money. Of players with more than four shot attempts in "crunch time" (defined as a game within five points in the final five minutes of the fourth quarter or overtime) in these playoffs, Johnson has the best shooting percentage at an astounding 80 percent. His eight crunch-time field goals are tied for the most with Chris Paul and Kawhi Leonard.

He started off these playoffs with a slow-motion rush (contradictory as that might sound) down the court in the final seconds of Game 1 against the Clippers for a short jump shot that bounced off the rim and dropped through the hoop as the horn sounded. It was his eighth buzzer-beating shot in the past 10 years, more than twice as many as any other player.

The statistical evidence might finally turn NBA observers who never quite warmed to Johnson. "Iso Joe" is gradually shifting from a derogatory term to something tweeted with praise and exclamation marks after every big bucket. Johnson has been undervalued -- although not underpaid -- for too long.

The ability to create your own shot is one of the most prized commodities in the NBA. Johnson consistently does it even though he can't blaze by or jump over defenders. He does it with a mix of strength, skill and patience. Watch him predetermine a spot and get there for his jumper, time and again.

Johnson also has had timely assists throughout the series and has been a surprisingly versatile defender. The Jazz used him to guard Blake Griffin at times before Griffin went out with a season-ending toe injury, and Johnson blocked a Griffin shot in the fourth quarter of Game 1.

Those are little details that matter right now, in the midst of the 2017 playoffs. How will we think of Johnson when we look back at the overall arc of his career?

One more season like this past one could make that really tricky. Or answer the question for us. It depends on how much stock you put in statistical plateaus. This season, Johnson and Pau Gasol became the 42nd and 43rd members of the 20,000-point club. That's the round number, but it's not the key number. Next year all Johnson has to do is match the 715 points he scored this season and he will move past Mitch Richmond and George Gervin into 37th place on the all-time scoring list.

Every eligible player above Richmond on the scoring list is in the Basketball Hall of Fame. Richmond might seem like a natural player comparison for Johnson, a steady if unspectacular scorer. But Richmond's career scoring average of 21 points per game is 4.6 points better than Johnson's.

Richmond also has the benefit of his association with the beloved Run TMC Warriors, even if that group was only together for two seasons before Richmond was condemned to the Sacramento Kings in a trade. Those moments were unforgettable for anyone who watched.

Maybe Johnson would have had his spotlight moment if he hadn't been injured in the 2005 playoffs, his last in Phoenix, and the "7 Seconds or Less" Suns actually broke through to the NBA Finals.

Or maybe his moment is right now, when we finally appreciate his consistency and scoring ability -- right after we finally realized he's on the Utah Jazz.

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