Tag: Stanley Johnson

Chicago Bulls sign Alize Johnson, Matt Thomas and Stanley Johnson

The Bulls add a trio free agents to their roster as training camp approaches.

The Chicago Bulls continue to add to their roster as the offseason comes to a close.

The Bulls have signed forward Alize Johnson, guard Matt Thomas, and forward Stanley Johnson to help sure up their bench depth.

Alize Johnson signed a two-year deal with the Bulls following being waived by the Brooklyn Nets after the signing of LaMarcus Aldridge, first reported by ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski.

Johnson, who averaged 5.2 points and 5.0 rebounds in 18 games with the Nets last season, provides much-needed depth in the front court for Chicago as an above average rebounder who plays with great energy.

Matt Thomas, who spent time with the Toronto Raptors and Utah Jazz last season, brings some 3-point shooting depth to the end of the Bulls bench as a career 41.3% shooter from downtown.

First reported by The Athletic’s Shams Charania, Stanley Johnson, the former No. 8 pick of the 2015 NBA draft, averaged 4.4 points and 2.5 rebounds last season in 61 games with the Toronto Raptors and brings end of the bench depth on the wing for the Bulls.

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Free agency stock watch: Bruce Brown, LaMarcus Aldridge, Carmelo Anthony and more

As part of our ongoing series at HoopsHype, we are looking at whose free agency stock has gone up – and down – over the last several games.

Now that we’ve just about reached the All-Star break, NBA front offices are going to have some extra time without games to think about how they plan to move forward with their rosters.

Executives around the league always have tough decisions to make about who they plan to re-sign and who they plan to let walk during the offseason. But as the season progresses, it becomes a bit easier to evaluate who would be a good fit for their franchise and who might not be.

As part of our ongoing series at HoopsHype, we are looking at whose free agency stock has gone up – and down – over the last several games.

3 observations: Tobias Harris, bench play well, Sixers fall to Raptors

The Philadelphia 76ers finished off the Toronto Raptors on Wednesday inside the bubble.

The Philadelphia 76ers welcomed back their entire team on Wednesday when they took on the Toronto Raptors and there was a clear pep in their step. This was more of a warmup game for the playoffs as the Sixers already know their seed and their playoff opponent. All in all, this result was a 125-121 loss to the Raptors as the bench could not hold all the way on and Stanley Johnson scored late.

Tobias Harris led Philadelphia in this one finishing with 22 points on 8-for-13 shooting, six rebounds, and five assists and the bench unit led by Furkan Korkmaz had 21 with five rebounds, and Raul Neto finished with 17 points finished it off. Al Horford was solid in his limited minutes and Joel Embiid had double team issues before leaving with a hand injury.

With that said, here are the three observations from this contest:

Harris’ aggressiveness

As mentioned before, this was more of a warmup game for the Sixers to get ready for the playoffs. For Philadelphia to have a serious chance at success in the postseason, they will need Harris to be the one to accept more responsibility on offense and they will need a night such as this one out of him consistently. He was aggressive attacking the rim and there was a different mentality that he had on offense. He had a couple of nice post-ups as well using his size and strength to get the job done.

Horford making a difference

The Sixers will need Horford in the worst way when the playoffs roll around and Wednesday night was a good test for him on the team. His defense on Raptors star Pascal Siakam was very good as he frustrated him pretty much every time he was matched up with him using his veteran instincts to stay with the young and talented forward.

Offensively, there was not much more that coach Brett Brown could ask for. Philadelphia needs him to shoot more threes and become much more aggressive on offense and he obliged in this one. One can’t help but feel better about the Horford situation after this game. He finished with nine points, five assists, and four rebounds while knocking down two shots from deep.

Embiid’s double team issues

The Raptors are always a team that has success against Embiid due to the savviness of Marc Gasol and the aggressive defense that the team plays on a regular basis. They sent waves of double teams towards the big fella and he did not respond very well as he did not make the quick decisions that he was making in earlier games in the bubble. He had five turnovers on the night before leaving at halftime due to the hand injury. He and Horford led a lot of the bench reactions when the second unit was playing well. [lawrence-related id=36751,36747,36742]

Raptors’ roster holds the lowest-average draft position among NBA teams

The Toronto Raptors head into the resumption of play for the NBA season re-start with the second-best record in the Eastern Conference.

When the Raptors won the title in 2019, it was the only time that the NBA champions did not have a lottery pick on their roster since the league changed to a weighted lotto system in 1990.

In fact, the 2019 Raptors had the lowest drafted players among NBA champions since the Houston Rockets in 1993-94. (Although those numbers were a bit impacted by the fact that Mario Elie was selected at No. 160 overall, fully one hundred spots later than the final selection eligible in the modern draft).

This year, the only Toronto player selected in the lottery was Stanley Johnson. The former University of Arizona forward was picked at No. 8 overall in 2015. But he averaged just 4.8 minutes per game in 2019-20, making zero appearances in the starting lineup.

The only first-rounders on the team are OG Anunoby (No. 23 overall), Rondae Hollis-Jefferson (No. 23 overall), Kyle Lowry (No. 24 overall), Serge Ibaka (No. 24 overall) and Pascal Siakam (No. 27 overall). All of these players were taken in the second half of the first round.

Among NBA teams, the Raptors currently have the roster with the lowest average draft positions.

© Brad Penner-USA TODAY Sports

One interesting observation: the rosters with higher draft positions are not doing that well. The six NBA teams that have the lowest draft position all have winning records this season. Meanwhile, 10 of the eleven teams with the highest-drafted players have losing records.

HoopsHype’s Alberto de Roa contributed research to this report

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