[Old General Record] The Old Dream of the Sun: The Forgotten Fourth Core!

When talking about Joe Johnson, many fans' first reaction is the nickname of "single Joe". Calm and steady, killing the game silently has almost become his synonym.

But when you go back to the beginning of your career, you will find that this scorer, known as the key killer, was just a away god of war who was silly in front of big scenes and was teased.

And behind this, there is a rather tortuous growth story:

In 2001, Joe Johnson entered the league with the 10th pick. As the Suns' famous scorer, his first stop in his career was not in Phoenix, but in the Celtics with two guns in Antoine Walker and Paul Pierce. He started 33 of his 48 games with the Celtics. Although his overall performance is not outstanding, in terms of his rookie year, Joe Johnson has also received many opportunities.

The Suns in the 2001-02 season are entering a year of reconstruction. First, they traded Jason Kidd and Clifford Robinson in the 2001 offseason to exchange for Marbury. They traded Joe Johnson before the trading deadline to start a new round of comprehensive reconstruction.

By the way, the three Eastern Conference teams that traded with the Suns that year: the Nets, Pistons, and Celtics were just the top three in the Eastern Conference that season. These three teams advanced to the first round in the playoffs that year, and the Nets and Celtics even played to the Eastern Conference Finals. The three teams missed the playoffs the previous year.

This transaction indirectly helped the three teams to rebuild. Compared with the Suns who missed the playoffs for many years, it was indeed the best support of the year.

For Joe Johnson from the perspective of most fans, in addition to singles shooting and big heart performance at critical moments, he also has the ability to organize at the upper and middle level of swingers, and his defensive performance is also acceptable. He is an all-round swinger who can do anything.

It seems to be an advantage, but from a negative perspective, the word "all-round" also means that nothing can be done best; as for the legendary big heart, it was basically not available in the early stages. On the contrary, for a long time in the early days of his career, Joe Johnson was timid and worried about gains and losses on the court, and did not have the style of a peak single Joe.

Time comes to the 2002-03 season. Joe Johnson, who was mainly substitute in the season, averaged 9.8 points, 3.2 rebounds and 2.6 assists per game. Although the three-pointers are OK, his overall shooting percentage is 39.7%. If we look at home and away games, he averaged only 8.6 points per game, with his shooting percentage and real shooting percentage respectively; but when he was away, his shooting percentage could increase to 40.9% and 48.3%, and his average score was also increased to 11 points.

Many fans were curious at that time, and in an interview, Joe Johnson also talked about the reasons why he played better away than home:

"When he was at home, the voices of fans cheering for him all over the court were a kind of pressure for him, and he was also restricted because of the game. On the contrary, he felt like traveling away games, and was feeling more relaxed, and his results were naturally better."

This conversation once became a laughing stock at that time. After all, in the eyes of fans, normal NBA players should be confident enough, and there should not be any different treatments like Joe Johnson. So some fans began to tease him with the nickname "God of Away" and some fans even suggested that he move a little far away from Phoenix, so that he would feel like traveling in every game and naturally he could play well.

In fact, for Joe Johnson at that time, the most difficult part of his career was not lack of confidence, but mainly lies in the people who competed with him in the team: Anthony Hardaway.

After several serious injuries, Hardaway can no longer get back to his celebrity skills, and at most he is only considered a qualified starter. At that time, only half of his 5+2-year maximum salary contract was completed. After the Suns sold all the main players of the Mesozoic generation one after another, the only two that could not be sold were Hardaway and Tom Guliotta, who had a similar contract length but had a more serious injury.

The latter must be out of salvation, so the Suns put the opportunity on Hardaway, who had player options in the last two years of the contract.

In order to deal with Hardaway, the Suns planned to abandon it directly. After all, his fuel tank was still a little oily. If he really wanted to play, abandoning it directly might make him take the initiative to give up the player option for the last two years and go to other places, and the Suns would be able to get out of the trap. The Suns dared to choose to abandon Hardaway because there was a younger replacement in the team, and this person was Joe Johnson.

If we look at the fan ratio and player popularity, for Hardaway, even though his popularity was not at the top of the league at that time, he was also a genius who debuted with Jordan's successor, and he might not lose to any active star at his peak. At that time, less than three years have passed since his peak, and the fan base is still there. Even if you suffer from injuries, just by judging from strength, the young Joe Johnson may not be able to really beat Hardaway after the serious injury.

So, the next development is easy to imagine. From the day Joe Johnson decided to replace Hardaway as the starter, the Suns' in-squad battle began. After changing the core, the team's record became worse. At that time, the verbal battles between the media and the fans could be seen almost every day. Even because of the name of Suns coach Frank Johnson at that time, rumors about Joe Johnson being his illegitimate son were even circulating in the outside world.

2003-04 season, although the main lineup has not changed much, the Suns have been in a bad way since the start of the season. Xiao S, who won the best rookie, was even worse after being injured in December. The head coach stepped down in disgrace after 21 games in the season. After accelerating assistant D'Anthony, the Suns sent Marbury, who had signed a long-term contract in the offseason, back to New York in a few days in the New Year's Eve in 2004. By the way, Hardaway, who had long wanted to send away, exchanged for a bunch of expired contracts. Through this transaction, the Suns successfully signed Steve Nash.. After the transaction, there was only one group of characters left in the Suns' backcourt, but for Joe Johnson, he averaged only 12.8 points, 4.1 rebounds and 3.4 assists before the New Year's Eve in 2003. After entering 2004, he seemed to have untied his shackles, and his personal data was directly increased to 19.2 points, 5.1 rebounds and 5.1 assists.

But the problem is that data growth has not been transformed into record. When the Suns only had 29 wins in the season, more and more fans began to regard the scorer as a brush.

It was just that at that time, the Suns didn't have much time to wait for Joe Johnson to prove himself. After half a season breaking out, his contract was about to enter his final year. It is obvious that the Suns had the chance to renew his contract with him in the offseason in 2004, but the problem is that the persuasiveness of the sample for half a season is not very enough, especially when the Suns had just signed Nash at that time, no one could guarantee whether Joe Johnson was really breaking out or was it made by himself. If the ball rights were taken away, would it turn back to its original monotonous appearance?

In the official statement later revealed by the media, the Suns first offered 40 million for six years to Joe Johnson in the offseason in 2004, but the price he wanted was 50 million for six years. After bargaining, the Suns were willing to raise to 45 million in six years, but Joe Johnson still insisted on 50 million.

It is this 5 million gap that ultimately leads to the two sides parting ways.

Of course, there is another explanation for this matter. When Xiaos participated in the show, he revealed that Joe Johnson was willing to stay at the team for a lower six-year period of 36 million, but because the team had already spent a lot of money before, the Suns did not make a decision in the end, so naturally the two sides did not reach an agreement.

Now, we have no way to know who is true and who is false. What I know is that after the start of the new season, Joe Johnson, who joined forces with Nash, not only did not regress, but instead played at the best backcourt of the year.

At that time, Joe Johnson was already very important to the Suns. In addition to strong singles and certain organizational skills, he was also an excellent weak-side shooter. Although the shooting speed was slow, the victory was stable. With Nash helping him connect the open position in the base corner, Joe Johnson's three-point shooting percentage in the 2004-05 season was as high as 47.8%, which was more than 10% higher than his career average.

It is just at his slow pace that it is still a bit embarrassing to choose to participate in the three-point competition.

When the season entered the playoffs with 62 wins and 20 losses, the Western Conference No. 1 Suns met the Grizzlies with sufficient staff in the first round and unexpectedly swept to advance to the second round. The opponent in the second round happened to be Nash's old club Mavericks and his old friend Nowitzki.

Nowski was still a little short of distance from evolving into MVP, and at least Marion's defense could still limit it. Therefore, the 25-point victory in the first game of the series was basically in line with expectations; but unexpectedly, in the second game between the two sides, in a wave of offense and defense transitions, Joe Johnson, who had rarely dunked in the past, chose to dunk, but was caught up and blocked by Starkhouse foul. Joe Johnson's hand just hooked on the basket, but lost his center of gravity and fell to the ground, and he bleeded blood on the corner of his eyes and exited the court.

After Joe Johnson was injured and left the game, the Suns finally lost the second game. Although Jim Jackson made up for the starting position, the Suns' weak rotation was becoming more and more obvious, especially Joe Johnson's high load before injury, which was difficult for others to replace. In the end, this round of the series with obvious advantages, the Suns played extremely hard. Although relying on Nash's performance, they finally defeated their old club 4:2, but also consumed a lot of physical strength.

Joe Johnson's fall was injured and retreated longer than expected. In addition to missing all the Mavericks' series, he could not even return to the team in the first two games of the Western Conference Finals against the Spurs, resulting in the Suns, who had a home advantage, losing two home games as soon as they came on the court. Joe Johnson, who returned to the team in the third game, had just appeared but could not find his game state at all. It was not until the fourth game that he returned to normal, but the Suns were already 0:3 behind.

To be fair, the Suns in 2005 were indeed not necessarily better than the Spurs. If they could maintain a complete lineup, they might still be able to fight, but under the influence of injuries, it would be no surprise that they would lose the game in the end.

The Suns at that time were actually a bit strange. If it was Nash's team, it seemed a bit strange; if it was Nash and Sir, Marion's contribution could actually be counted with them. Even if they are regarded as a three-core combination, it seems that Joe 1 Johnson is not very happy. Although he was nominally the fourth player in the team at that time, his actual ball rights are basically second only to Nash, and he is the team's well-deserved second core of the ball.

From the hindsight, after the 2004 offseason was not able to renew the contract in advance, the Suns no longer wanted to keep Joe Johnson. It happened that the outside world was rumored that Joe Johnson was very unhappy that the fans regarded the Suns as the three-core team, but instead regarded themselves as air.

It was even rumored that in the regular season game against the Heat, because Joe Johnson defended Wade scored 19 points in the first half, Joe Johnson was directly scolded by Sir: Do you want to defend? It is said that from then on, there was a knot between the two.

Then facing the five-year and 70 million contract issued by the Hawks, the Suns insisted on six years and 60 million unwilling to make more. Joe Johnson would rather go to the Hawks to be the boss than stay in the Suns to be the fourth. In the end, the Sun finally agreed to release Joe Johnson first and then send him to the Hawks, and exchange Boris Dior and the two first rounds.

Considering Dior's subsequent performance, two first rounds are added, it seems that the Suns may not lose money on the books, but on the Suns' later playoff stage, when they need to compete for bayonets at critical moments, they can no longer find a candidate who can make stable contributions and score points. Most of the time they can only rely on Nash, who has a heavy offensive organization task, to play the role of the attacking role. In the years when the Suns failed, perhaps many fans were missing, the person who was able to rely on singles to make stable points..

Therefore, even though Joe Johnson was gradually recognized by most fans after leaving the Suns, and even played for the Hawks far more than the Suns, for Suns fans, this singles scorer is still an old player worthy of Phoenix fans’ miss.

After all, the original Suns fans watched him step by step from nothing to anything.