Empty the Bench

I hope Greg Oden and Kevin Durant like the heat, because one of them just took a big step towards starting their career for the Hotlanta Hawks. The Hawks’ all-everything guard Joe Johnson could/should be done for the season after suffering a deep bruise in his right calf during Wednesday’s win over the Wizards. Initial indications have him missing three to four weeks, but there’s clearly no point in him rushing back to action. Expect the Hawks to shut him down… and lose anywhere between 85 - 95% of their remaining games.

Remember what happened when Michael Redd went down for the Bucks? They won just 3 of 20, and we fully expect similar results for Atlanta. When your record is 23-39 with Johnson in the lineup, it doesn’t take a mathmetician to figure out the Hawks will sorely miss JJ’s 25 points, 4.4 assists, 4.2 rebounds, and 2 three-pointers every night.

Hey, at least the Hawks are going to get a few more ping-pong balls out of this. Johnson’s fantasy owners get nothing as the playoffs loom large in a few weeks. There likely isn’t much available out there on waivers, but it’s worth considering veteran backup Anthony Johnson, whom the team acquired in a small trade-deadline deal. His playing time stands to increase by leaps and bounds, and he’s already shown what he’s capable of.

I actually have the good fortune of owning Joe Johnson in a league where I’m 0.5 games back from the #2 seed and a first-round bye… and just saw that another team has beat me to the waiver wire for Anthony Johnson. What a sonofabitch. Here’s my best options, now, to replace Joe at the G spot: Rasual Butler, Gerald Green… um… Damon Stoudamire, Grant Hill, Jose Calderon. Damn it. Hopefully your league isn’t as deep as mine, fellow JJ owners.