The ballad of Amir Johnson

Amir Johnson was taken with the 56th pick in the 2005 NBA Draft. He was to be the last high school pick ever taken, and the Pistons knew what they were getting: A 6'9" PF with freakish athleticism who was as raw a basketball player as you'll ever see (no references to Darko here, please).

But, that raw athleticism showed quickly. In the second to last game of his rookie season, he put up 18 points and flashed the potential that had Joe Dumars drooling. In fact, in his first 2 seasons, he only played a combined 11 games but he had a PER of 0ver 20 in those games. Fans clamored for him to play more. Dumars basically sent a mandate down to Flip Saunders to play him more.

These last two seasons, under Flip and Curry, he was given that opportunity. But, his numbers were never better than 3.5 pts and 3.5 rebounds a game. He struggled playing man-to-man defense, averaged over 2.5 fouls a game in under 15 minutes a game, and saw his minutes dwindle as both seasons progressed. This postseason, he only played in 13 total minutes of a series that was over as soon as LeBron stepped on the court for game 1. Even with the series basically decided, he could not get on the floor. In hindsight, we should have saw this deal coming considering how much he had fallen out of favor with Curry.

But, he was a 2nd round pick. And, a late one at that. In the 2nd round, if you can draft an NBA player, then you've done well for yourself. With the salary room we have created, we may now be able to turn Amir Johnson into a first round pick. All things considered, even with all of that untapped potential, shouldn't we be happy we got this much out of a late, late second round pick?