Is Amir Johnson Raptors’ unsung hero?

Nov 28, 2014; Toronto, Ontario, CAN; Toronto Raptors forward Amir Johnson (15) during their game against the Dallas Mavericks at Air Canada Centre. The Mavericks beat the Raptors 106-102. Mandatory Credit: Tom Szczerbowski-USA TODAY Sports

The Toronto Raptors have been one of the biggest surprises in the NBA. We all knew they were going to be good, but not this good. As expected, much attention is being lavished on players who have been carrying their offense. Kyle Lowry is having an All-Star season, newly-acquired Lou Williams has been a lethal weapon off the bench and Jonas Valanciunas has been a decent scoring threat from the post. There’s a guy named Amir Johnson whom no one talks about. Johnson is averaging 9.6 points and 5.6 rebounds. It’s not that impressive, at all. With the emergence of Patrick Patterson in the playoffs last year, many fans wanted to see Johnson replaced in the starting lineup. Johnson is a vital player that does a lot of little things to make this team better. Johnson may not have the offensive skill sets to be an All-Star in this league, but he has found his role and embraced it. I’m now going to shine some light on a guy no one talks about.

In the modern NBA, many starting big men can shoot jumpers. Most teams’ frontcourt consists of one big man who can stretch the floor with the shooting ability paired up with a big who bangs inside and clog up the paint. One of the main reasons for this is because teams don’t want to clog up too much of the paint so that guards and wings can drive to the basket with less bodies in the paint.

The Raptors have two starting big men who cannot shoot. Both Valanciunas and Johnson are capable of making jumpers but they’re not good at it. So why not put Patrick Patterson at the 4 to get rid of the spacing issue? Because Johnson is not the issue when it comes to spacing.

Johnson has a knack for finding open space when guards are driving to the basket. Look how he sneaks in under the basket where no defender can see him.

In the pick-and-roll situation, Johnson forces his defender to make a very tough decision. In this play, Valanciunas set a ball-screen for Greivis Vasquez, then rolled to the basket. Kevin Love, who is supposed to guard Johnson, is the weak-side help guy. Love is responsible for guarding the roll-man while Anderson Varejao gets back. But Johnson being open doesn’t let Love commit to Valanciunas.

The Raptors are a guard-oriented team. Their ball handlers do a lot of heavy lifting when it comes to offense. When the Raptors get a stop on defense, they tend to run this delayed fast break where they try to get an early look for a quick shot. This is where Johnson comes in. The Raptors might not run a play for Johnson, but he is always a part of offense because he is so good at screening. Look how wide Johnson’s feet are. He swarms Monta Ellis with his ball screen.

Not many NBA teams defend the pick-and-roll by showing hard. There are just way too many guards that are athletic enough to destroy the double team or split screens. When it comes to defending the pick-and-roll, most big men’s priority is to keep ground and try to contain guards from getting deep into the paint. What Johnson’s screening does in the pick-and-roll is that he provides more time for guards to attack the opposing team’s big man. Johnson’s excellent screen provides just enough space so that Kyle Lowry can either pull up for a jumper or beat David West and go to the basket.

No one thinks of Johnson as an offensive player, and he’s not. But he does enough to make an impact. Most big men are taught to run to the rim in transition to get early deep position for easy buckets. For example, Zach Randolph of the Memphis Grizzlies is one of the best at scoring easy layups by running the floor in transition and posting up.

What I love about Johnson is that he knows what he cannot do. He’s not a post scoring threat like Randolph. You don’t give Johnson the ball in the post and let him score using post moves. That is not the type of player he is. He is an agile athlete who can outrun most big men in the NBA. In this play, Johnson simply outruns Brandan Wright to put himself in a better position to grab an offensive rebound or score an uncontested layup.

As a result, he gets an offensive rebound and scores a put-back.

Johnson might not be a fancy scorer fans love. But he makes his teammates better, and that’s rare for a big man that doesn’t demand double teams in the post. This is why he earns $6.5 million per year. He has been a vital part of the Raptors’ success, and he will have a lot of suitors when he becomes a free agent after this year.