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2022 Free Agents - Stanley Johnson

Summary
After signing a surprisingly-lucrative two-year $7.5 million contract in 2019, Johnson almost immediately fell out of favor in Toronto, and essentially fell out of the league before signing with the Lakers during the '21-'22 season and reviving his career.


Johnson's offensive game has not developed much since entering the NBA. He cannot create offense for himself, and hasn't shown to be much of a playmaker either.  Despite being considered a wing when he entered the NBA in 2015, his best position is probably at power forward (or maybe even a small-ball center) now because of his limitations on offense, and he has primarily played at power forward for the Lakers. Johnson has had more success operating less from the perimeter and more from the high post or dunker spot, where he can make simple reads.

Johnson is strong enough and athletic enough to guard multiple positions, but is not a good enough defender to offset his offensive deficiencies. He only shot 33% from three in '21-'22, and he's a career 30% shooter from outside. While he shot well from midrange and at the rim for the Lakers, he has struggled there for most of his career, so we'll probably need to see a larger sample size before knowing if that will continue. He had some nice moments for the Lakers, but hasn't shown enough to prove that he can be a valuable rotation player on a good team.
 
Cap Considerations
Johnson has a $2.4 million team option for 2022-2023, and if the Lakers decline that option he will be an unrestricted free agent with a $1.8 million cap hold and Non-Bird rights. Using his Non-Bird rights, the most the Lakers could offer him is a starting salary of $2.9 million, which should be enough since I do not expect Johnson to get offers above the minimum. If this wasn't enough and the Lakers wanted him back, they simply wouldn't decline the option in the first place, but technically speaking they could also use their MLE to re-sign Johnson if necessary.

In addition, since Johnson is currently on a two-year contract, his full $2.4 million salary for '22-'23 would count against the Lakers' cap, and more importantly, the luxury tax. However, if the Lakers decline his team option and re-sign him to a one-year minimum contract for approximately the same value, he would only count $1.8 million against the cap and luxury tax. Therefore, the Lakers have incentive to decline his option and re-sign him, rather than pick up his option. Johnson also has incentive for this to occur, due to the increase in the salary cap, his minimum for '22-'23 is about $80k greater than his option amount.

Other teams will have multiple ways to sign Johnson as even teams without cap space could possibly use any of the Non-Taxpayer MLE, Taxpayer MLE, Room MLE, or Bi-Annual Exception to sign him. It's also likely that he could be signed with a minimum contract.

Potential Teams: Lakers, Trailblazers, Hawks, Nuggets, Jazz

Predicted Contract: 1-year, $2.4 million ($1.8 million cap hit) with the Lakers

Actual Contract: Opt-In: $2.4 million with the Lakers

The Lakers ended exercising Johnson's team option for '22-'23, which was somewhat surprising considering the financial impacts noted above.

Last updated: 6/29/2022

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