when will James Johnson get starter minutes?

[yobore]

For the second season in a row he is clearly one of the most effective players on the team, but he still doesn't get used much

http://www.82games.com/1314/1314MEM.HTM
http://www.82games.com/1415/1415TOR.HTM
This year he has yet to play a bad game for the Raps.

I have two theories for why coaches won't play him enough:

1. They overestimate ugly plays. While his impact is consistent he has occasional plays where he zones out ad does something dumb on offense that look really bad but they're not worse than another player having a similar result.

2. This is probably the main reason: Insecure coaches will always play the players they're supposed to play over a cheap filler no matter how well the cheap filler has played. This is because when things go wrong it'll look like the GMs fault whereas if things go wrong with the cheap guy everyone will be furious the high pick high paid guy wasn't on the floor

[Qwyjibo]

The problem on the Raptors is that Johnson may not be a great fit with the other starters. Take Ross out for Johnson and then you only have one good shooter in the lineup (Lowry).

[Done_And_Done]

If he keeps playing like this it won't be long before he's snatching minutes from Ross. He's been one of my favorite players on this team to watch this year. His improvement from his previous stint here is very discernible

[Done_And_Done]

The problem on the Raptors is that Johnson may not be a great fit with the other starters. Take Ross out for Johnson and then you only have one competent good shooter in the lineup (Lowry).

This is true.

Plugging JJ in as a starter with this cast greatly limits our perimeter scoring

[yobore]

If he keeps playing like this it won't be long before he's snatching minutes from Ross. He's been one of my favorite players on this team to watch this year. His improvement from his previous stint here is very discernible
Last year was a breakout year for him. He blew up last year before worse players got healthy and took all his minutes.

The raptors starters have stunk in the first quarter. Maybe in theory having a shooter is good but having a stopper is nice too

[Qwyjibo]

Last year was a breakout year for him. He blew up last year before worse players got healthy and took all his minutes.

The raptors starters have stunk in the first quarter. Maybe in theory having a shooter is good but having a stopper is nice too
I think the Raptors are just going to hope that Ross figures things out on defense. He has no excuse not to given his quickness and athleticism. All that he's asked to do is hit threes and play defense. Derozan isn't suddenly going to develop consistent range on his jumper.

What I would like to see is James Johnson coming in more as the PF ahead of Hansbrough and going small. Not many teams in the NBA are going to be throwing out two strong post players together all game. No reason he can't be getting around 25 mpg as a backup SF/PF.