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After being interested in the free agent small forward since the opening night of free agency, the Clippers have finally brought in the guy they liked: Wesley Johnson. The 27-year-old Syracuse product has largely been a disappointment after being drafted 4th overall in 2010, but he's rounded his game into a solid, if mediocre, player.
The feeling around the league tends to be that, even at 27, he still has an untapped quality inside of him--he's not his best self yet, and teams have been trying his whole career to get what they see inside of him to come out. He brings career averages of 12 points and 5 rebounds per 36 minutes to the Clippers, along with shooting splits of 41% from the field and 35% from three.
Earlier in the summer, Doc was reportedly selling Johnson on a starting role. It it believed that there is a chance that Wes could be the replacement for Matt Barnes, playing most of the minutes to preserve the Clippers' other new forward, Paul Pierce, who could come off of the bench.
The deal is for the veteran's minimum, essentially doing nothing to the Clippers' flexibility to make other moves while giving them another rotation-level player. Shams Charania had the report first, and Sam Amick confirmed that it was a minimum deal.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Free agent forward Wesley Johnson will commit to a deal with the Los Angeles Clippers, league sources tell RealGM. Terms being discussed.</p>— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) <a href="https://twitter.com/ShamsCharania/status/618497521908875266">July 7, 2015</a></blockquote>
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Wes Johnson has agreed to join the Clippers on a minimum deal, I'm told. <a href="https://twitter.com/ShamsCharania">@ShamsCharania</a> reported he was headed that way.</p>— Sam Amick (@sam_amick) <a href="https://twitter.com/sam_amick/status/618498249939222528">July 7, 2015</a></blockquote>
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