Johnson & DeRozan: The devoted Raptors

Will ailing ankles rule forward out of future plans?

It is so easy to think of the partnership of DeMar DeRozan and Amir Johnson as a Raptors-only entity. Bryan Colangelo drafted DeRozan in June 2009 and traded for Johnson two months later. The two players have stuck with the Raptors since then, even as nearly everything else about the franchise has changed.

However, when Johnson came to Toronto after a few summer months (and zero games) with Milwaukee, the two players were already familiar with each other. Of course — both are Los Angelinos.

“Back home, Amir was a big deal,” DeRozan said after the Raptors’ practice in suburban Vancouver on Friday afternoon. DeRozan is 27 months younger than Johnson. “Amir was one of the best players coming out of Southern California. He was in all of the magazines, all of the newspapers. I looked up to Amir Johnson. I wanted to be Amir Johnson.”

All the way across the continent, they have played nearly 400 games as teammates at the game’s highest level. Barring injuries or trades, the pair will cross that threshold early in the regular season. Whether it goes much beyond this season remains in doubt. While DeRozan is under contract with the Raptors through 2016, and possibly a year longer if he opts in to the final year of his deal, Johnson will become a free agent after this season. It is difficult to believe this is the final year of the five-year pact that Colangelo was widely mocked for handing Johnson in 2010. Time has a funny way of chugging forward.

Johnson has come to represent the soul of these Raptors, constantly playing through pain in his wonky ankles. Raptors general manager Masai Ujiri has prioritized continuity, re-signing reserves Greivis Vasquez and Patrick Patterson to multi-year deals in July, as well as bringing back Kyle Lowry.

“After that last Game 7 [against Brooklyn], we sat around in the locker room and all looked at each other and told each other that we want to do it again,” Johnson said on Friday. “We all knew everyone was coming back. There was no doubt in my mind.”

Will that apply to Johnson, though? There are a few factors working against him. Patterson is under contract for two years beyond this one, and Ujiri might decide giving long-term contracts to both players, similar as they are, is a poor use of resources. The league’s revenues, and thus the salary cap and luxury tax thresholds, are likely to continue

We all knew everyone was coming back. There was no doubt in my mind

to rise, but the Raptors might want to remain flexible enough to chase a major star in free agency.

Through his career, Johnson has been a superior rebounder and defender to Patterson. However, anyone who has spent significant time watching the Raptors over the last few years knows that Johnson’s ankles have bothered him tremendously.

“He’ll come in before a game limping, and you’re like, ‘Man, maybe he’ll be ready for the next game.’ And he’ll end up playing,” DeRozan said. “The heart and soul he brings to this team is amazing.”

So, Johnson spent a good portion of the summer trying to make sure he can exude the same commendable qualities without as much of the pain. He spent significant time at the P3 Peak Performance Project in Santa Barbara, Calif. The centre’s analysts examined those ankles extensively.

“It was kind of like a video game scenario where they put the little dots on you and they can basically break it down where they can see your skeleton on the video screen,” Johnson said. “They had me doing a series of moves where I slide, I jump and I run and they can see the way I land or the way I move.

“It came down to where I just had to either move either my heel slightly one way or my ankle slightly another to prevent me rolling my ankle. If I take a step this way maybe it has me turning my ankle, but if I turn the ankle and step this way it prevents it from rolling. So I have been working on this all summer pretty much and change the way I move or take different steps.”

While DeRozan and Lowry are generally seen as the team’s leaders, Johnson’s example functions as the Raptors’ spine. Even if he makes it through this season relatively healthy, Johnson will be 28 and entering his 11th NBA season next year. Some of those years featured hardly any playing time, but he has endured a physical beating since coming to Toronto. His case will be a test of Ujiri’s vision and values as they relate to the Raptors’ composition.

“It’s funny: [Johnson] is family to me,” DeRozan said. “It’s like we don’t even play basketball together.”

For the moment, he means that only in the spiritual sense.