Toronto Raptors: James Johnson Impressing Raptors Staff and Fans with Stats

Most Raptor fans know about how the Raptors traded their First Round pick (via Miami Heat) to the Chicago Bulls in exchange for SF James Johnson.

Bryan Colangelo made this trade a few weeks after hearing that injured SF Linas Kleiza had gone through surgery and is expected to miss a whole year from playing basketball. This means that Kleiza would not be back for the Raptors until midway of the 2011-2012 season.

The Raptors made a couple of different lineup changes by putting either Sonny Weems or Julian Wright at the starting position. None of the decisions by head coach Jay Triano worked out well, and Bryan Colangelo knew he needed to make a trade or sign a free agent in order to have someone that can play consistently night in and night out.

This trade was done just a couple of days before the trade deadline, and the move was criticized by many Raptors fans mainly because they traded away a first rounder, despite the fact that the pick would be around 25-30th overall.

In his few games as a Raptor, he was thrown into the starting lineup and is managing fairly offensively, and has been playing amazing defense. He has been getting steals and blocks like he is Josh Smith.

His offense is not his greatest asset, but when he needs to score, he gets the job done. Not a very good shooter and he likes to play in the paint area, which has been a positive for him as he has been getting easy points down there.

Many people claim that Johnson is a lazy player, but for the Raptors has not shown any signs of laziness, just fatigue from running around on the court, and every player experiences that.

Colangelo made a good acquisition for the Raptors and improved the roster for a good while.

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