The Indiana Pacers announced that they cut three players, including longtime Pacers veteran leader James Johnson. Johnson was so highly celebrated in his return that a major takeaway from media day was how badly this roster needed him and how much this team loves him.
Unfortunately, his on-court value was not low enough to deserve a roster spot. That makes sense for a late-30s power forward who has not been playable in nearly half a decade. At his peak, Johnson was a playmaking point forward who would happily fight anyone messing with his teammates. He is no longer at his peak.
However, Johnson's value to the Pacers does not have to end as his playing career does. The 39-year-old spent last season at home but is clearly looking for a job to get back into the basketball world.
With how important he is to this team's morale and how much everyone in the locker room cares for him, it makes sense for the Pacers to offer Johnson to take his role as an envoy between players and coaches off the cap table and into the world of DocuSigns and submission deadlines.
Indiana should bring him back as a coach on the end of the bench where he was already sitting.
A 16-year career is stupidly impressive
James Johnson has had a funny career. He was drafted as a near-lottery pick to the Chicago Bulls out of Wake Forest University, only to find himself playing for 10 different franchises across a 16-year career.
How did he do this? How did an inefficient, undersized center who shot 30% from three on his career manage to turn 30 career playoff games and a career 4.1 points per game into one and a half decades of roster spots in the most churn-heavy league in basketball history?
Well, quite simply, everyone loves him, and he picks up on the little things.
It is Johnson who has been the voice of maturity in rebuilding Locker rooms. It was Johnson who told the struggling Miami Heat to get themselves together on behalf of coach Eric Spoelstra in 2018 and who took that downtrodden, miserable, cap-strapped shell of what they once were and helped return them to the playoff race.
If coaches speak highly of you and teammates speak highly of you, it's safe to say that you will have a long career. However, when you add to that the fact that every opponent not only hates playing against him but is actively scared of him as well, you get a player that any team should have on the roster.
Maybe the fighting is gone, but the brain is still there, and the emotional elements of connecting with players on behalf of coaches are something Rick Carlisle could really use.
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