Amir Johnson is being labelled by the media as this year's first round pick.

From wikipedia
His game-by-game D-League stats
http://www.nba.com/dleague/playerfil...ame_stats.html

For those who don't know or have forgotten, AJ was the last high school player taken in the NBA draft. The new Collective Bargaining Agreement reached last summer no longer allows direct entry to the NBA from High School.

Video of his windmill dunk during his first NBA action (garbage time)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CmQMAp6azNQ

Video of his High School Dunk Competition
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JsTJnszt5g8

The question is, what do you think AJ can be, and how much playing time do you think he will earn with the Pistons this year?

It would be sweet to see AJ come on stronger than some of these highly pubbed 1st rounders... my hope is that AJ pushes Dice/Sheed/Delfino for some PT...
I would bet money that Evans is gone before the Feb deadline... nice stats and desirable contract.

Would it be to the Pistons advantage (as far as repressing free agent value) to have AJ light up the D-League or earn a couple minutes here and there with the big club?

I'm not sure myself.

Screw the D-league. I think he can really help of the bench.

Let him start the season with the big club for evaluation of strengths and weaknesses. If he can operate as a power 3, crashing the boards and overmatching opposing reserves down low, he gives Detroit something we can use.

I'm a huge Amir fan. This kid is just filthy. He had the 2nd, 3rd, and 5th best dunks in the SL last year. He's Darius Miles with a motor. As of this moment, I see him as a four who can defend threes. The only things that are keeping him from playing the three are his handle (which is improving), and his release. His release on his jumper is really low and slow. It's an off the shoulder thing, but he is bringing it closer to his eyebrow (which he has to do). He's not as talented as Miles, but I view this as a good thing. Miles constantly pushes the limits of his game, and ends up hurting his team. Amir plays within himself. In other words, Amir loves playing in the paint, and he takes what he's given on the perimeter, which I love.

In my opinion, he would go somewhere between 7 and 12 in this year's draft. He's a solid lottery talent.

Having said that, I don't see him as a rotation guy this year. His B-Ball I.Q. isn't all that great yet. He's not going to push Dice at the four, or Delfino at the three. He's talented, but not a rotation player on a championship team. I think that he'll be a star in the D-league though.

A.J. is a player.

D-league all the way. he should be turning heads in college. Still. We'll see if the d-league system holds a candle to a college program for developing players.

This is pretty much what was said about Delfino. If we go by recent history then Amir should take over Darko's place and sit on the bench until he is traded. Dumars recently said something to the effect that he is not concerned about not having a 1st round pick because rookies are too inexperienced for the Pistons.

I said it before last season started and I'll say it again. Acker and AJ need to be in the D-League.

Training camp with the big boys, D-League for the first half of the season and then re-evaluate at the all-star break. If they're ready to make the jump, bring them up and PLAY THEM RIGHT AWAY! Don't let them rot on the bench.

That gives them half a season to build confidence and half a season to get comfortable with the big boys before the playoffs.

I'm stupid. I forgot you can bring the players back up from the D-League. I agree with Jammer now. They'll have more time to improve in the D-league and if Amir, and Acker can help you can bring em back up.