Ding: Wesley Johnson Is Soft As Cream Cheese (paraphrase)

MILWAUKEE — This is the Wesley Johnson era.

Whether it's Mike D'Antoni or Byron Scott coaching, whichever part of Kobe Bryant's body isn't working right, the past two seasons have been marked by the Los Angeles Lakers having no choice but to invest in irrational hope that someone as soft as Johnson suddenly grows nails.

Of course, that hasn't happened, which is why Johnson wasn't even in the Lakers' injury-depleted starting lineup as they played a forgettable Wednesday night game against the Milwaukee Bucks in front of only 12,544 fans.

The Lakers' starting lineup might well have been the worst ever fielded in franchise history: Jordan Clarkson, Wayne Ellington, Ryan Kelly, Tarik Black and Robert Sacre. Their season scoring average—all added together—was 27.9 points, which is the same as what Bryant averaged by himself for the 2011-12 season.

Johnson did play in the 113-105 overtime loss, and he wasn't even as bad as youngsters such as Clarkson and Kelly, whom the Lakers are testing. But Johnson was noticeable more for two awkward moments than his seven points.

In the first half, Johnson made a three-pointer but appeared to land on O.J. Mayo's foot, twisting Johnson's right foot. Johnson was unable to shake it off. He fouled to stop the game so he could leave—but not before he howled in pain loud enough to echo throughout the not-so-full arena.

After a few minutes calming down on the bench, Johnson discovered when he got up to retreat to the locker room that he had overestimated the pain. He was able to put his weight on the foot. Um, basically all his weight.

So with what the club termed a "mild" sprain, Johnson played in the second half. Except he happened to get poked in the left eye.

Johnson went down like it was a bullet to the head.

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Johnson lying crumpled in the lane from an eye poke evoked memories of the occasion a decade ago when Devean George turned an ankle under the basket and lay there, writhing in pain and creating a scene of devastation of which Bryant just had to take note.

The next day at Lakers practice, Bryant took to the court at the exact same spot under the basket—and re-enacted George's life-threatening injury to full exaggeration and even fuller enjoyment.

That just goes to show you what a different ballgame it is now.

Not only is Bryant no longer in position to mock anyone's injuries, Johnson was actually the one given the honor of debuting Bryant's new Nike Kobe X sneakers.

So there Johnson was, Kobe's official representative in those new sneaks…showing just how soft the sole could be.

Bryant was as suckered as anyone by this Wesley Johnson era. He brought Johnson, who also worked with Bryant's agent, to Orange County during the summer for private workouts that were meant to prime Johnson for a breakthrough season. Bryant and the Lakers desperately needed Johnson to show more want-to than he did last season—when he squandered a golden opportunity: D'Antoni was trying to teach Johnson how to be the next Shawn Marion, who built what should be a Hall of Fame career as D'Antoni's versatile power forward.

There was logic in the Lakers re-signing Johnson to a one-year deal not even worth $1 million. There's still apparent upside with his speed, length, vertical and three-point range. His physical attributes mean he can be a wing defensive specialist, an important role that most players simply cannot fill. And Johnson has had so little stability in his career, bouncing from Minnesota to Phoenix to L.A., that maybe another season with the Lakers and with Bryant's support could make something click.

But this season has been no different. The Lakers' starters at the opening of training camp were Steve Nash, Bryant, Johnson, Carlos Boozer and Jordan Hill. Nash and Bryant are hurt, Boozer is thriving in a new bench role and Hill has had a career year.

Johnson has just been…Johnson.

Someone who worked with Johnson previously was insistent when the Lakers first signed him that it was a wasted venture: Johnson was unwilling to try to be more, and he never would be willing.

Sure enough, here he is in his second Lakers season, averaging the exact same 9.1 points as in his first Lakers season. At 27, he has been given a career-high 29.1 minutes per game, but except for one key late-game steal against James Harden in Houston, Johnson has floated the same as always—afraid to attack the basket unless he has a fast-break path to it, unable to hold his ground consistently on defense.

Johnson simply doesn't want more. He's not a deadbeat; he did agree to work out with Bryant. He's not a bad guy.

He just talks about improving and then plays the same way he always has, squandering potential. He wants nothing but to sit in the back seat.

It's as uninspiring as could be.

And that's the kind of thing that logically leads Lakers fans to embrace the backward tanking sentiment. After all, there's a vast difference between trying to sell yourself that Johnson will flip a switch just before turning 30 and dreaming someone like Milwaukee's Giannis Antetokounmpo, 20, will reach his long arms out to future greatness.

Antetokounmpo scored a career-high 25 points against the Lakers on Wednesday. Milwaukee is a season-high five games over .500 now, and Lakers coach Byron Scott spoke with noticeable longing when he described the Bucks as "a lot of athletic young guys."

Scott's perimeter athletes—Johnson, Nick Young and Jeremy Lin—are no longer young, and Scott hasn't converted any of them to his love-to-defend mindset.

Perhaps things will be different if the Lakers keep and use that top-five pick in the next draft. That, unlike what has been going on for two years with Johnson, would at least be a realistic visualization exercise.

Lacking draft picks or young talent, the Lakers have had to take low-percentage gambles on post-hype sleepers such as Johnson.

But there can be no doubt: It's no fun at all to watch someone with no interest in waking up.



Kevin Ding is an NBA senior writer for Bleacher Report. Follow him on Twitter, @KevinDing.

 

Damn, Kevin coming out swinging and spewing the venom.

 

Airhead...

 

Good to see you, dude.

 

I posted it because I enjoyed the comparison to Devean George.

 

Much ado about nothing really to me. I don't really get dumping on Wes now. He sucked at the beginning of the season and then he slowly rounded out into some very decent play for a long stretch there before tank city happened. I'd still keep him probably if he came back cheap enough. He adjusted finally to the correct role which was 3 and D and before Kobe went down I believe Wes was shooting close to or at 40% from 3, which is very good. He's never been exceptional. But this year he's finally become decent at what he does.

 

I don't think he's much worse than a lot of other backup SF's in the league, the problem is that he's a starter here. If we had a good team and he was simply a bench role player we might not notice him as much. He'd be our Devean George, or Luke Walton. For a former top 5 pick that isn't good, no, but at a certain point you can't judge a player on that anymore. He may have not lived up to potential, he may have been poorly drafted, but he is what he is now. I wouldn't take him back as anything other than a backup for the minimum, but taking into account the lack of fire in him and the level of soft, I'd probably rather look elsewhere for that spot for next season.

 

No, he was fantastic in the clutch, for losing, always play him in the 4th in close games

 

Wes held up to his form on that turnover late in OT when Victor picked his pocket for the slam