Here on Brooklyn Balling, I’ll try to recap the chaos that was the 2013-14 Nets season with a series of “Season Review” posts on the players, trades, and even coach that shaped how this year turned out. We start with Joe Johnson.
Whether it was his game-winning floater in the lane to beat the Phoenix Suns on November 15th or his buzzer-beating jumper to take down the Thunder–and kickstart Brooklyn’s raging streak to start 2014–Joe Johnson was ridiculously clutch yet again this past season for the Nets, continuing a trend from his first season in the Better Borough.
His scoring numbers in 2013-14 dipped a bit from 2012-13–from 16.3 points per game down to 15.8 which did accompany a 4.1 minute decrease–but his efficiency improved, as his PER went from 14.1 to 15.5 as his field goal, three-point, and true shooting percentages all increased as well.
After some poor percentages in his first Nets season, it appears as if Joe finally got used to the bright lights of New York City after just one season.
His play in the playoffs (this year in 12 games as opposed to just seven last year) was starkly better this time around, as his PER almost doubled, points increased by over six points per game, field goal percentage went from from 42% to 53% and true shooting percentage to over 62% from below 49%.
Simply put, Joe was an enormous matchup problem for both the Toronto Raptors and Miami Heat, as evidenced by his five 24-point-plus performances in his 12 postseason games. He was on fire in Brooklyn’s Game 5 loss and season finale in Miami, in which he went 15-for-23 from the field and scored a personal playoff-high 34 points. However, he just didn’t get enough help from his teammates to extend the series to a possible Game 6.
For all of the grief and criticism he (for some reason) gets from many due to his enormous contract and lack of emotion on the court, Joe has been an amazing leader for the Nets in his two years on the team and has been able to put up points consistently for a team that goes through way too many crushing scoring droughts.
Unfortunately, against the Heat especially, there were too many times that Joe reverted to ball-hogging, infficient “Iso Joe” mode that gobbled up Nets possessions and put up low-percentage, highly-contested shots that often didn’t lead to points.
In those crunch times, during which Brooklyn lost a bunch of playoff games, the Nets needed “Joe Jesus” who just wasn’t able to always get it done when the rest of the team faltered, and there’s nothing really that wrong about that. There were many times in the playoffs when Joe was the only Nets getting anything on offense, and that’s just unacceptable for a team with as many offensive weapons as Brooklyn.
Under contract for at least two more seasons, Johnson isn’t going anywhere, and at the not-terrible age of 32 on a team with possible free agents galore, that type of stability is necessary. Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett, Shaun Livingston, even Deron Williams and others may not be back, but Johnson will be and even though he’s not in the midst of his prime anymore, he’s still an amazing shooter and overall scorer with size that isn’t matched very much at his position.
His play down the stretch of the season and into the postseason has demonstrated how he is far from finished and can put up points very quickly. Also, contrary to popular belief, he’s a pretty good defender in Jason Kidd’s system and can put up decent rebound numbers from time to time. Overall, Joe’s a pretty darn good player and the Nets are lucky to have him, even with his hefty price tag and thankfully have him for at least the next couple of seasons.
He was a big reason for Brooklyn’s turnaround in the regular season and first-round win (and second-round competitive showing) in the postseason and was a calming influence on a team with a lot of personalities. Joe Cool, Joe Jesus, or the divisive Iso Joe are all nicknames for Joe Johnson, and they all somewhat capture some aspect of his game. However, none truly encapsulates all that he does for this Brooklyn Nets team.
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