Sure, he's no one-of-a-kind. But if he's an "Asset", why give him away for NOTHING? He's a very solid glue guy. Stuck/AA/Jonas/Max/Wallace would be murderous defensive lineup. It's like giving up Jonas for nothing right now.
I agree he's one of those "asset" guys, but I think that's part of the reason he got traded. He's exactly the type of player you'd risk losing to free up cap to get a better player. Plus a guy like Jerebko is the type of player you should replace him with. Not the same position, but they both bring that hustle and defense. And you'd assume Jerebko still has room to grow in his game.
What does a steady diet of minutes look like? You can make all the excuses you want but Amir is not making too many Piston fans regretful so far.
Arron Afflalo is an example of why Joe is a really good GM. Denver owes Joe a solid for "giving" them AA. AA owes Joe for appreciating him enough to send him somewhere he could get major mins, start, and show the league that he deserves to be here; he never would have gotten that opportunity in detroit. Do not think for one minute that other GM's, players and agents didn't notice this gesture; it's why we can land FA's when we have caproom, because the ENTIRE LEAGUE (sans Darko) knows that Joe is a standup GM. If a person can't see the value in this move then that person must be really short sighted.
I wouldn't trade Jerko for Amir Johnson. I do wonder though- What would it take for you guys to pull the trigger on a Jerko trade? Suppose salaries didn't matter. Would you do it for David Lee? Rajon Rondo? Caron Butler? Chris Bosh? Dwyane Wade?
I'm not sure how much better JJ can get, so not Lee. Rondo, Wade, Bosh no brainer. Butler is hurt too much, despite being a damn fine offensive player. While Wade is the obvious choice, I'd say Rondo is second because he's a big pass first PG and would be deadly playing with Ben Gordon.
After reading all the replies, I realized something. Amir will become the legendary NBA player he was meant to be when all the stars line up correctly to ignite the karma that is oozing out of his belly button. We were foolish to not wait long enough. @KGREG: Great points bro!
Here is how I look at it. From a production perspective, Amir gives you more per minute than Jerebko in every stat except for fouls. We played Amir and we play Jerebko for less minutes than it would take Amir to foul out anyway, so that limiting factor is not allowed to play out for either guy. So, the only area where Amir is worse is that he will commit 1.5 more fouls per 25 minutes than Jonas would, which translates into about 1 point for the other team. If his other performance makes up for that, then he's a better player. If it doesn't make up for it, then he isn't.
TaShawn, I don't know about Amir so I don't know what energy he brings to the game but it's not just the numbers that win games. For example when JJ stoped a fastbreak some time ago in a cruisal part of the game, it wont show in any stats.
Amir was an energy player. The main argument I could make for him last year was that we happened to do very well while he was on the court (i.e., his +/- was unusually high compared to his stats). The biggest thing that doesn't show up in stats is playing solid defense (without getting steals, blocks, etc.). Take Bowen for example. I think that Amir and Jonas are both pretty decent in this area. The main difference is that even though they are physically similar, we'd have Amir guarding power forwards (guys like KG even) and we have Jonas guarding SF's more often. That is where some of the foul differential may come from. The REALLY good defensive players tend not to foul very often though. Ben Wallace is a great example of that. It's sometimes hard to tell why that is the case. Possible reasons are 1) they are fundamentally sound... good footwork, etc., 2) they get respect from the refs, and 3) the other team avoids challenging them. Amir clearly didn't have any of these things going for him and IMO, he should have layed off on the help D at times in order to stay in the coach's good graces.
So that means that after 20 or so games, Jonas is about as good as Amir after several years in the league? I'll take JJ.
I will call this a landslide in favor of JJ as soon as he gets 90% of all votes....currently sitting at 87% Go Jonas brother!
Except that they don't show that he is currently as productive. Here is what they show. He is 95% the scorer, 69% the rebounder, 58% the stealer, and 46% the shot blocker as Amir. The one category that he exceeds him is assists, where he is 14% better. Even though Jonas is less productive than Amir, it is still really great to have such an effective young player on the team. I'm glad he is getting so much support from the internet fan base and the coach.
Amir needs a steady diet of mins. He needs to play 21 MPG in 7 min intervals. Failure to abide by this specific formula will lead to that clumsy foul prone version.
Here is a ranking of the Pistons from best to worst this year. I was able to determine the ranking by using the most important stat in basketball... foul frequency. Atkins Rip Ben Wallace Gordon Prince Stuckey Bynum Daye Villanueva Brown Wilcox Jerebko Maxiell Summers This should pretty much settle any further debate on the matter. If you are wondering if Stuckey is better than Bynum for instance, just refer to this.
