MAY 10, 8:22am: Johnson has officially opted in for next season, according to the Real GM Transactions Page.
MAY 2, 1:24pm: Clippers forward Wesley Johnson intends to play out the final year of his current contract, according to Shams Charania of Yahoo Sports, who reports (via Twitter) that Johnson will pick up his 2018/19 option.
An unrestricted free agent back in 2016, Johnson signed a three-year contract with the Clippers worth just shy of $18MM. The deal included a third-year player option for 2018/19, and by exercising that option Johnson will earn a guaranteed $6,134,520 salary next season.
Johnson’s option decision doesn’t come as a real surprise. Although he was a regular rotation piece for the Clippers, averaging 20.1 minutes per contest in 74 games (40 starts), his production was modest. For the season, the 30-year-old averaged 5.4 PPG and 2.9 RPG with a shooting line of .408/.339/.741.
Johnson is one of a handful of Clippers who have player option decisions to make this summer. While Johnson’s salary won’t have a major impact on the team’s cap situation, the Clips’ offseason outlook could vary significantly depending on whether DeAndre Jordan ($24,119,025), Austin Rivers ($12,650,000), and Milos Teodosic ($6,300,000) also exercise their respective options.
As our tracker shows, Johnson is already the fourth veteran who has exercised – or will exercise – a player option for 2018/19, suggesting we’ll see an uptick in opt-ins this year. Last summer, only five player options were picked up; in 2016, only three were exercised.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
The days of role players getting lop-sided contracts is over. Teams have learned enough from the Knicks(Noah,Hardaway Jr) lol.
Here’s a perfect example why tanking doesn’t work. You have to draft correctly no matter where you pick and having a high pick doesn’t guarantee success.
Wesley Johnson has become as mentioned above a serviceable role player but he was the number four pick in his draft by the Timberwolves I believe.
That equates to big-time bust. Tanking doesn’t work. I’m not saying the Wolves tanked but those teams that do tank to get a higher pick…. unless they draft well it doesn’t work …. you can get a great player at 15 and a fantastic player at 22.
Yea the sixers didn’t tank to get Joel embiid or Ben Simmons. Two superstar caliber players. The spurs didn’t tank to get tim Duncan. The suns didn’t tank this year and look they just happened to get the number one overall pick. You can get good players later in the draft but most teams that draft in the top 5 usually end up getting at the very least a high level impact player if not a budding star