Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Johnson on revival alongside Waiters: ‘Doubt at your own risk’
MIAMI — The warning has been issued. “Doubt at your own risk,” James Johnson said of the notion that the Miami Heat have moved past himself and Dion Waiters and the dual potential that proved so enticing during 2017 NBA free agency.
“We’ve been grinding and we’ve been working together,” Johnson said during a break from taking in Saturday’s Big3 performance at AmericanAirlines Arena. “I feel like he’s ready. He looks the best that I’ve seen since he’s been a Miami Heat. And I’m healthy.”
That was the case for neither last season, Waiters never quite right after missing the first half of the season following January 2018 ankle surgery, Johnson also getting a delayed start, due to May 2018 hernia surgery and then a midseason shoulder injury further derailing his comeback.
The result was Johnson losing his starting role at power forward to Kelly Olynyk and the Heat loading up on potential replacements for Waiters, including freeagent prize Jimmy Butler and first-round NBA draft pick Tyler Herro, the shooting specialist out of Kentucky.
Now the question is whether this season will be viewed as time winding down, with the contracts of Johnson and Waiters expiring in two seasons, when the Heat are expected to make their next leap into free
agency.
Not so fast, Johnson said. Rejuvenation, he insisted, is at hand, with camp to open in seven weeks.
Unlike Waiters, who has taken to social media to display his re-sculpted physique, Johnson has preferred a more reserved approach, save for the decidedly gaudy blonde Afro currently being sported.
“Dion is adamant about his and I’m more silent,” Johnson said of recovery schedules, not coifs.
Waiters also was more adamant about how limiting his recovery from ankle surgery proved to be last season, especially without the current return to prime conditioning. Johnson, by contrast, was silent about his limitations last season.
“If I tell someone, then the opposition would know,” he said of muting talk about his challenging recovery. “And that’s not what I’m about. They don’t need to know and I don’t make excuses.
“Every time I strap up my laces, I’m ready regardless of the situation. The year I had last year was the year I had last year and I accepted that and I moved on and this summer will tell.”
With his 33rd birthday coming at midseason, Johnson appreciates the possible need for a more forwardthinking approach from coach Erik Spoelstra, especially with the youth of Derrick Jones Jr., KZ Okpala and even Justise Winslow potentially part of the equation at power forward.
So, just as when Johnson lost his starting role last season, there will be no rocking of the boat from the tri-captain.
“I still feel the same way. I didn’t lie about that,” he said. “Whatever coach Spo puts me at, the minutes, whatever, I’m going to be OK with that.
“I’m at a point in my career where I work hard, I play and I do whatever I have to do. If I was to complain about that, then we wouldn’t have no UD in our locker room.”
The reference was fellow tri-captain Udonis Haslem insisting on professionalism no matter the travails, including last season’s 39-43 lottery finish.
It is why Johnson said he was so heartened by Haslem’s decision last week to return, at 39, for a 17th NBA season with the Heat.
“It made my season,” Johnson said. “And we haven’t even started yet. Absolutely. Because he’s the one to hold people in check. He wants confrontation and he’ll call people out.
“As a leader, you want him to call people out. And I’m not excluding myself. I’ve been called out by UD a lot of times. And that’s the gratitude of it. You take it and you keep moving.”