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At Media Day on Monday, Monty Williams was intentionally coy when asked about Cam Johnson in a starting role. The Phoenix Suns coach simply smiled and said, “We’ll see.”
Three days later, the oversized cat is out of the world’s most transparent bag: Johnson will be the Suns’ new starting 4.
“I think when you have Cam Johnson moving into a starting role, it allows for a guy or two guys to be able to step up,” Williams said. “Maybe it’s Dario [Saric], maybe it’s Jock [Landale], maybe it’s Dario and Jock that allow for Landry [Shamet] and Cam Payne to be even more turned loose, if you will. It’s hard to say. Like I said, I have an open mind about it, because we have changed the rotation, we have changed a few of our personnel pieces, or people. And so I’m looking forward to it. I think there’s an opportunity for us to grow.”
With Jae Crowder’s ongoing absence from training camp as a result of his social media-fueled trade request, Johnson’s place in the starting lineup was all but assured. But even before Crowder and the Suns decided to work on a deal, moving Johnson into the starting lineup made sense. He’s a burgeoning talent, a key piece of the team’s future, and after Phoenix’s second-round flameout, it was clear this group simply needed to pursue a different formula.
A source told PHNX Sports that Crowder was initially disgruntled about the lack of an extension he wanted after watching all four of the Suns’ other starters receive one over the last year. But as ESPN’s Brian Windhorst also reported, the last straw may have been when Crowder was told Johnson would usurp him in the starting five. With or without Bossman, this was always going to be the most logical next step for the Suns.
The question is, what’s the trade-off going from Crowder’s physicality and high defensive I.Q. to Johnson’s shooting prowess and all-around blossoming game?
Johnson only started 16 games for the Suns last year, and true enough, several of those games featured one or two missing starters for Phoenix, which may have increased his opportunities. But the results were still striking enough to be worth exploring:
Averaging 16 points per game on near 50-40-90 shooting splits is fairly eye-popping, especially when one remembers that Crowder managed just 9.4 points per game on 39.9 percent shooting overall last year.
In 42 minutes (making it the Suns’ 14th most-used lineup last year), the normal starters swapping in Johnson for Crowder boasted a monster Net Rating of +29.5. That’s a small sample size, but it doesn’t take an analytics expert to understand how replacing Crowder’s 34.8 percent long-range shooting with Johnson’s 42.5 percent marksmanship — fourth-best in the NBA — will elevate Phoenix’s top-five offense from last year.
If not for the question marks about the bench, the Suns would be a smart bet to lead the league in offensive rating this season. Johnson is used to first-team reps, and his familiarity with the other mainstays in this starting unit should make for a fairly seamless transition.
“It’s been good so far,” Johnson said Thursday. “It’s not like I’ve never played with that group before. Shoot, my first-year training camp, Kelly [Oubre] and Mikal [Bridges] were out, so I did every first-team rep the whole entire camp. Played first-team reps first year, bubble, second year, last year, so it’s not completely new. It’s just getting acclimated to playing with that group full-time.”
Aside from Johnson being unleashed and the firepower he brings to the table, the best part of this lineup change is that the Suns will be sticking to their guns — even if Crowder’s absence means it’s partially by necessity.
For better and for worse, plugging Johnson in at the 4 will create mismatches — for the Suns and for their opponents. Against certain teams, and especially in the playoffs, Williams may need to tweak his rotations, but for the most part, Phoenix will be hoping the shooting superiority of this group will overcome any size deficiencies or defensive mismatches on the other end. It’ll be action, rather than reaction.
Part of that is pushing the pace. The Suns have already progressed here, leaping from 24th in pace the year prior all the way up to eighth last season. Between Johnson, Devin Booker, Mikal Bridges and Deandre Ayton, Phoenix has the horses get up and down the floor:
Chris Paul has made it a point of emphasis over the last two years — to almost comical heights — to commit to pushing the tempo. But in the last two postseasons, opponents have repeatedly smothered him with defensive pests, hounding the Point God full-court.
It may not seem like much, but those 5-7 seconds of zig-zagging dribbles and backing down defenders just to get to half-court adds up, and aside from the physical toll on Paul, it costs Phoenix one-third of the shot clock just to get into their offense.
To that end, and with the goal of keeping CP3 fresher come playoff time, the Suns are holding true to Williams’ hint during exit interviews back in May, when he suggested guys like Bridges, Johnson and Landry Shamet needed more opportunities to initiate the offense.
“Those guys have the ability to facilitate, and I just haven’t given them the chance,” Williams said Thursday. “We’ve talked about being comfortable with uncomfortable change. There’s gonna be times where it doesn’t look great, but I think that’s where they’re gonna grow. And hopefully, as the season moves forward and we get to a place where we’re hitting our stride and moving into the playoffs, hopefully those guys are more comfortable because we let them explore and make mistakes and figure some things out. But they both have the capability to expand our offense that way, and that part is exciting when you think about those opportunities.”
Williams added it’s possible this new dynamic could include adding more plays into the mix, but for now, he’s keeping the new sets to a minimum. Instead, the Suns will continue to run their sets, only this time, putting Johnson and Bridges in more spots where they can make plays.
“I think you can add wrinkles over time, but I’d like to see them run the stuff that we have now and maybe we learn some things as they initiate offense and run some things a little bit differently,” Williams said. “I’ve already heard Chris talk about how nice it is to not have to bring the ball down the floor every time. And I think that’s going to be a way to keep Chris fresh early in the season and especially late.”
Johnson holds career averages of 1.4 assists per game in his three NBA seasons. In 66 games last year, he only ran 29 pick-and-roll possessions as the ball-handler, per NBA.com, and ranked in the 26th percentile on those possessions. No one should be expecting him to suddenly become some playmaking point-forward.
But the trial and error process of experimentation could bode well for Phoenix come playoff time, when opponents hone in on stopping Booker and Paul. And in a starting role, with more minutes and more freedom, Johnson will give them a clearer view on his outlook as this team’s potential starting 4 for the long haul.
“As I’ve said ad nauseam, he’s more than a shooter,” Williams said. “He’s got playmaking, he has the ability to be a connector because he’s a willing passer, and his athletic ability is something that most people don’t talk about.”
As much as everyone on this roster will miss Crowder, the Suns still feel they’ve got enough to carry on without him. Every NBA player has that kind of confidence, and there’s no question the Suns are slightly worse now until they figure out what they’re getting back in a potential Jae Crowder trade. But part of their assurances trace back to their faith in Cam Johnson.
“I’m expecting to see a lot of stuff from Cam,” Cam Payne said at Media Day. “I feel like he’s been working out a lot. His game has changed from even playing pickup. I feel like he’s gonna be ready to step into that role. I mean, one thing about our team, like I said earlier, anyone who gets an opportunity, they’re always ready, and that just speaks volumes of the culture here in Phoenix. Just always stay ready, and I think Cam will be perfectly fine. He’s gonna have a hell of a season.”
Still, there are one or two potential pitfalls that need to be addressed: defense and rebounding. The Suns have been an elite defense with Crowder in the starting rotation, and while Johnson is no slouch, he’s not on that same level of physicality or defensive experience.
There’s a reason the Suns coaching staff have showed newcomers footage of Crowder’s execution to help them learn their defensive schemes. Assistant coach Kevin Young’s assertion last year that Bossman may be the smartest defender he’s ever seen is no small praise either. The Suns’ point-of-attack defense wasn’t always stellar, but their ability to recover and make flawless rotations on a string often featured Crowder in the middle of it all. Johnson has big shoes to fill.
“Defensively is where I told him he has to draw the line in the sand, if you will — whether he’s guarding smaller guys or some of these dynamic guys that he’s gotta guard,” Williams said. “Conversely, I think about those guys having to guard him. And that’s something that is exciting when you think about how that could open up our offense a bit.”
Williams is right to point out the mismatches on the other end; for every opponent that tries to bully Johnson with superior strength and size, Phoenix stands a good chance of spreading them out with shooting, speed and ball-handling on the other end.
However, even at 6-foot-8, Johnson will be slightly undersized. The league is trending in his direction at that position, but there’s a reason the weight room was such a priority for the 26-year-old wing this summer.
Johnson said on Thursday his goal wasn’t to add weight, but rather, get stronger while staying in the 220-pound range. At 221, he accomplished his goal, which should allow him to maintain his agility while also being more stout against the starting-caliber 4s he’ll face nightly.
Johnson said he, Bridges and player development coach Corey Vinson were lifting every day for most of the summer, with a “comprehensive” regimen that felt like college all over again — upper body, lower body, coordination, athleticism, you name it.
“We were in here lifting hard,” Johnson said. “That was, like, our our thing this summer. We had a lot of fun, and them lifts, we’d be in there lifting for two hours. Corey was killing us in the beginning.”
The result is a stronger Johnson, who will look to channel a sturdier base into another area of concern: rebounding. Fortunately, he’s well aware of the task at hand.
“That’s gonna have to be a huge focus of mine is to rebound — rebound a lot better than I have in my first couple years,” Johnson said. “And guard, be a lot more physical. I think that’s where I’m gonna have to elevate my game a lot. Because in that first unit, we have guys that can score the ball, we have guys that can play out of pick-and-roll, so I’m gonna have to contribute in as many ways as I can.”
For his NBA career, Johnson has averaged 3.6 rebounds per game, including a career-high 4.1 per game last year. He’s also never averaged more than 26.2 minutes a night in a season, which will surely change this year, but the point still stands: This needs to be his greatest area of growth.
Of course, Johnson isn’t unfamiliar with people telling him to rebound. It was always a point of emphasis at North Carolina, and last year, he shared how his mother would always get on his case about hitting the glass. So how many rebounds is she expecting this year?
“Mom wants 10 [per game],” Johnson laughed. “Mom’s greedy!”
Expecting Johnson to average as many boards as Ayton did last season is obviously unrealistic, but even something in the 6-7 range would help, considering Crowder only put up 5.3 rebounds per game last year and 4.7 the year prior.
Crowder’s absence has put the Suns in a tough spot as they try to block out the noise and finally get over that championship hump. But Cam Johnson was always trending toward this moment, this season. Now all he has to do is keep his same mindset to capitalize on it.
“My big thing throughout my three years here, going into my fourth, is just control what you can control, try to be your best self day in and day out, continue to work, and continue to be somebody that can be held accountable to play and play at a high level,” Johnson said. “I’m excited for every season, I’m excited for every opportunity, and this is just another one of those, and I’m looking forward to just getting better in all aspects of the game.”
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