Joe

Johnson

Jackson is reportedly the Nets’ top choice for their coaching vacancy, although the team appears content to play out the season under interim P.J. Carlesimo. While this may throw some cold water on those reports, no one should take the quote as a guarantee. Jackson and his camp have never been shy about using public denials as a way to strengthen their negotiating power. We have a feeling Phil’s name will pop back up once the Nets ramp up their coaching search.

COVID has already swept through the Celtics’ roster with eight players on protocols, and Tatum won’t be eligible to play until Jan. 5 at the earliest. He won’t play in Week 11 and will get either two or three games in Week 12, so fantasy managers should shuttle him into an IL+ spot wherever possible. Jaylen Brown should feast as the primary offensive weapon in the meantime, with Dennis Schroder, Marcus Smart and even Joe Johnson helping to pick up the slack.

Johnson is 40 years old, and is one of the greatest scorers of this generation, but he has not played a game in the NBA since 2018 with Houston. Johnson was drafted by the Celtics in 2001, and played 48 games with the team his rookie season before being traded to Phoenix. Now 20 years later, the seven-time All-Star will return to Boston, and is expected to be in the lineup on Wednesday against Cleveland. Though this is an amazing story, at 40 years old, we can’t expect too much from Johnson from a fantasy standpoint.

Johnson last played in the NBA in 2017-18 with the Rockets and Jazz, and the results were uninspiring. He’s been staying sharp playing in the Big3 league, where he apparently won a championship in 2019 with a team called the Triplets and was named the league’s MVP. Even if he signs with the Bucks, he won’t help fantasy managers.

Quentin Richardson didn’t suffer with Nash out, either. He hit four three-pointers in the second half, and each came off a Johnson assist. Not very much can stop the Suns these days. As for Nash, he’s expected to practice today.

Johnson has 26 boards in the last three games. His skills on the glass are one reason why the Suns have been able to succeed with a small lineup. Kobe Bryant is the leading backcourt rebounder at 7.44 rpg. By contrast, only four forwards (and no centers) average at least 4.0 assists per game -- LeBron James, Kevin Garnett, Chris Webber, and Richard Jefferson.

He is in a rut and the Suns are starting to show some small traces of vulnerability. Shawn Marion has had two-straight tough nights and Quentin Richardson was non-existent against the Spurs a night before exploding for nine threes. Some of the blame can be placed on the Spurs, who quietly look like the best team in the league and handed it to the Suns on Tuesday. As long as the Suns starters take turn slumping, they’ll be fine.

The Hawks would likely still sign JJ to an offer sheet, but without the sign-and-trade aspect of the deal, Phoenix would more than likely match the offer, making JJ a Sun. Of course, the future impact of signing Johnson could put the Suns in some trouble when they go to re-sign their other big name free-agents-to-be (Amare Stoudemire), but they don’t seem to care at this point.

Wow. The order, sought by Belkin in a Boston court, temporarily prohibits the majority of the Hawks’ owners from removing him as the team’s NBA governor — a position Belkin used this week to block a trade his partners want to make to get Johnson. Former Hawks star and current Vice President is not happy. ''This is real damaging. This can’t work if everybody is pulling in different directions.’' A hearing is scheduled for 11 a.m. Tuesday in Suffolk County Superior Court in Boston. The court ordered that ''in the meantime’’ the defendants ''desist and refrain’’ from removing Belkin as governor. Belkin says he wants Johnson to be a Hawk, but feels they’re giving up too much for him by including two lottery-protected first-round picks. We’ll have to wait and see what happens tomorrow, but one thing is clear. If the ownership group doesn’t get on the same page in a hurry, it’s probably going to be another long decade for the Hawks.

The Hawks ownership group includes guys based in Boston, Washington D.C. and Atlanta, and Steve Belkin, out of Mass. is the one apparently holding up the deal. This isn’t the first time the group has had a ''disagreement’’ either, as the league apparently had to intervene and try to cleanup some in-fighting that was taking place between the three ownership groups. ''They [the league] just said, ‘Hey, you guys, work it out,’ '' Belkin said after the April meeting. Then, each side apparently tried to buy the other out, but none of the three would agree to part with their shares. Nice. This sounds almost like a family feud over dead Grandpa’s money, and all three brothers hate each other. It’s no wonder the Hawks have trouble drawing key free agents or a fan base to Atlanta. Ted Turner, anyone?