Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Johnson deal to Suns was money matter
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Tyler Johnson knew the spreadsheet was catching up to both himself and the Miami Heat. That, he said, made his trade to the Phoenix Suns less of a surprise.
“I totally understand,” Johnson told reporters in Phoenix upon the start of this next chapter of his NBA career. “I expected maybe there was going to be a move from the Heat standpoint. There’s a lot of guys who played similar positions over there and there’s a lot of money in those positions.”
Or at least there was, with Johnson’s $19.2 million salaries for this and next season swapped out in the deal that brought in the less costly deal of Ryan Anderson, with Wayne Ellington also sent to the Suns in a trade largely based on reducing the Heat luxury-tax bill.
The shift puts Johnson, 26, outside the Heat umbrella for the first time in his five-season NBA career.
“I’m still grateful to the Heat organization for what they’ve done for me,” he said of going from undrafted Fresno State prospect in 2014 to the four-year, $50 million contract earned on two-way grit developed in the Heat system. “I’ve had a lot of good mentors in the league.”
That didn’t mean the move wasn’t initially unsettling. Unlike with Ellington, it was Johnson’s first trade.
“I’ve never been traded obviously, but I know around the trade deadline everyone gets a little antsy. So when you get that, ‘Call me ASAP,’ I kind of knew what it was,” he said of the Wednesday text from his agent, as he was preparing to move on from the Heat’s Tuesday night victory over the Portland Trail Blazers.
“I think my initial reaction was, ‘What am I going to do with my kids?’ I have two kids so that was probably the biggest thing, is trying to figure out what’s going to go on with them, where are they going to be at. So that was first.”
Then, instead of taking flight with the Heat for Friday night’s game against the Sacramento Kings, it was on to Phoenix.
Phoenix coach Igor Kokoskov said Johnson was viewed as a complement to what the rebuilding Suns are attempting to achieve.
“He can definitely guard point guards. So you are who you’re guarding,” Kokoskov said of Johnson being cast at point guard, a role that produced uneven results with the Heat. “He can contain. He can really, really do a good job on any elite, offensively elite, point guard in this league.
“He’s a two-way player. Being in Miami’s culture, you can’t survive if you’re not that kind of player.”
Former Heat forward James Jones, who runs the Suns’ personnel operation, said on a radio appearance that Johnson was the right fit at the right time.
“Primarily, he’s a guy in his prime that fits a position of need for us and he’s had an opportunity to play some meaningful basketball,” Jones said. “He’s played in the playoffs. He’s carried the load.”
Johnson, who texted with Dwyane Wade after the trade, said he plans to serve as mentor, arriving as the Suns’ highest-paid player.
“Just continue to be who I am,” he said. “But also maybe a little bit more from a leadership standpoint, trying to accelerate some of the younger guys and teach them things I’ve been able to pick up.”
Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said Friday that Johnson certainly has the ability to export the Heat’s culture.
“Tyler Johnson has Miami Heat blood inside of him,” he said. “He’s been in the culture long enough. He is just a first-rate human being, a competitor, as competitive as any guy you can have. He’ll be great for that organization. And it’s a great opportunity for him.”