SEPTEMBER 19: The Pistons have officially signed Johnson, the team announced today in a press release.
SEPTEMBER 12: Joe Johnson and the Pistons have reached an agreement a contract, tweets Chris Haynes of Yahoo Sports. League sources tell Shams Charania of The Athletic (Twitter link) that it’s a partially guaranteed one-year deal.
Jeff Goodman of Stadium (Twitter link) first reported that the two sides were on the verge of an agreement. A report earlier this week indicated that Detroit was the frontrunner for the free agent forward.
Johnson, 38, has appeared in nearly 1,400 career NBA games, counting the postseason, but didn’t play in the league in 2018/19 after finishing the ’17/18 campaign in Houston. The 17-year NBA veteran showed he still had something left in the tank during his run in Ice Cube‘s BIG3 league this summer, earning MVP honors and leading his 3-on-3 team to a championship.
Following his stint in the BIG3, Johnson drew interest from a handful of NBA teams, reportedly lining up workouts with the Sixers, Bucks, and Nets in addition to the Pistons. However, Detroit emerged as the apparent favorite in part due to Johnson’s connection to Pistons vice chairman Arn Tellem, a former agent who used to represent Iso Joe.
Assuming Johnson finalizes a deal with the Pistons, he may have to compete with Christian Wood for the team’s final regular season roster spot. Michael Beasley was also expected to vie for that spot, but Goodman suggests the former No. 2 overall pick will be released to open up room on the 20-man offseason roster for Johnson.
Technically, it doesn’t appear that Beasley actually signed with the Pistons after agreeing to terms on a non-guaranteed contract with the team last month. Now that he’s the odd man out, his deal will likely just never be completed.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
That’s really saying something if he makes Michael Beasley expendable.
Yes and did you see ISO Joe’s contract is partially guaranteed? That means they can cut him in Camp when he shows up too slow and old to keep up with 20-somethings.
Joe Johnson’s skill used to be closing out games and getting buckets. I don’t think the Pistons will be in many tight crunch-time games the last minute or two of the fourth quarter.
Johnson will be cut in Camp.
I like how you capitalize “Camp” Makes it seem way more important.
Sorry not intentional. Voice to Text does it. Not sure why.
Pistons were 41-41 and may be at that level still, which if anything suggests they would be in more close games not less. I tried to google it and got sent down rabbit-holes, but they seemed to be middle of the pack in close-game success.
I think this signing is about adjusting the kind of veteran leadership Detroit has… Blake & Reggie are a bit high-strung perhaps.
Predict he will stick.
We’ll see how it plays out. Should be interesting to watch. Not sure why Joe would choose the Pistons, unless they’re the only team to offer him at least a partial guarantee. Good for him though and maybe he’ll be one of the very few guys to come back as an older player?
Good for Joe and good for the Big3.
I would have much rather had Beasley. He can play the 3 or 4 and that’s exactly what the pistons need
If Beasley is a difference maker for them, they’re in trouble anyway
Neither would be a difference maker but Beasley plays the positions the team needs more depth at
Beasley is just as bad a defender as Melo, maybe even worse.