Former NBA lottery pick Stanley Johnson will resume his playing career in the NBA G League, having joined the South Bay Lakers, according to the team (Twitter link). South Bay is, of course, the Los Angeles Lakers‘ G League affiliate.
Johnson, the eighth overall pick in the 2015 draft, began his NBA career in Detroit before being traded to New Orleans in 2019. He then played for the Raptors for two years from 2019-21, earning a spot in the team’s regular rotation last season.
Although he joined the Bulls for training camp this fall, Johnson didn’t end up earning a spot on the team’s 15-man regular season roster, as Chicago opted to hang onto Alize Johnson and Matt Thomas instead.
Johnson has proven capable of providing energy and defensive versatility off the bench, but his offensive game has always been limited. In 371 career regular season games, he has averaged 6.2 PPG on .375/.298/.761 shooting in 19.7 minutes per contest.
As a member of the South Bay Lakers, Johnson will continue to be an NBA free agent, giving him the ability to sign outright with any NBA team at any time.
Good defense and athleticism, very similar to Gary Payton II. Every team can use a guy like that at the end of their roster.
Career 37 fg% lol. Under 30 from 3 and he barely shoots them (I guess that’s why). And if you actually watch him he’s average at best on defence. Makes dumb mistakes. I was bummed when the Raptors signed him and I saw nothing in his game to prove me wrong. Energy is about all he has going for him. That and he’s still only 24 somehow.
You can’t even compare Stanley to GPIII. Gary got way better defense
Would probably help the Lakers more than washed up Trevor Ariza
There are a lot of players who could help the Lakers considering most of the roster is washed up. Nine of the 15 players on the team are on 1-year deals, so almost of them will be replaced in 2022. A lot of Lakers fans thought the team was going to be insanely deep this season, but as usual whenever they’re missing LeBron they almost always lose. Their window’s closing fast.
I didn’t mind him on the Raps, he showed flashes at times. He will definitely get a chance again this year.
Cashed in coming out of college as the 8th pick, but all I saw of him at Arizona was a good athlete with a grown man build, but not much of a basketball player. Years later, still no improvement as a player. He’ll be ok in the GLeague but all that is (basically) is Adult AAU ball – everybody looks ok in that setting.
He’s in a tough spot because to even get big money overseas he’d have to play basketball better (be more skilled).
South Bay also acquired Mason Jones rights – I think you didn’t report it yet link to twitter.com
Johnson’s coach will be Myles Simon. This could be very good for him – Simon and Johnson careers mirrored each other’s – both played high school for legendary coach Gary McKnight at Mater Dei and then for HOF coach Lute Olson at the University of Arizona. Simon in fact help recruit Johnson to the U of A
sean miller was his coach in college and so…yeah.
An average athlete with below average basketball IQ. Not likely to get out of G League without major injuries propelling him back to the NBA.