Joe Johnson.. definitely not a MAX guy.

you can't read and you have no deductive logical ability.  you are probably a "level 2" basketball fan, one who knows the players, but has no understanding of the economics of the game.  stay out of this discussion, its over your head

no one said he was a bad player.  the point is that johnson is not a max player, and your own statement backs up that point, since when he was in phoenix, he was the 4th banana and was able to kill it since he did not have the defense focusing on him.... Johnson has great hops, is a very good player, and had a great regular season piling up stats.  But a great player player plays great in the playoffs against other great teams.  Johnson has consistently not done that as "the man"

It could be one of three:

Vin Baker

Jim McElvane

Jerome James

...Coincidently, this also describes 80% of the GM's in the NBA, hence, Joe will get his money somewhere....

It was definitely McIlvaine. Never averaged more than 4 pts or 4 rebs per game. I think they signed him to prevent a rival team from snatching up. Genius move. He made $32 mil over his 8 year career (high of $6 mil).

James parlayed his solid playoff performance in 2005 (12 pts 7 rebs per game) and got a 5 year $25 mil deal (?) with of all teams, the Knicks.

I love this guy. I once went to a CLipper/Knicks game and spent the ENTIRE game just staring at him sitting on the bench. He constantly strolled to the locker room, without even getting permission. At one point, he pulled out a nail clipper and started trimming right there. it was awesome. He didnt have a care in the world. And I respected him for that. Its not his fault the Knicks gave him all that money! Never averaged more than 5 pts and 4 rebs but the Knicks gave him a big contract. Only in the NBA.

Jeromer James was a waste and Baker had alcohol issues but the guy is Jim MCillvaine .. he played here for the Bullets with Ben Wallace, Big Gheorge Muresan, Rasheed Wallace, Juwan Howard, C WEbb..

He was a serviceable BACKUP .. ala Scott Hastings , but he got paid because he played more for the Bullets when Webber and Muresan were hurt .. he could really block shots ..

whats crazy is Jim M. was taken in 2nd rpund and signed one year deal for $300k. than, after averaging a robust 1.7 pts and 1.9 rebs in 9 minutes, he got a 7 year $33 mil deal! This was when the sonics were denying Kemp a deserved raise.

Once again though, you can't fault a player for signing the contract.... That was pat riley being an idiot for offering Howard a huge contract out of nowhere when no one else was even in the ballpark, and then washington being idiots for matching it....... Juwan Howard was a solid player and a "good pro" before and after the contract, the difference being that once he signed the contract, the expectations were well above for how he performed historically and how he was capable for performing in the future.....

dude, ease up on the caps.. and a true beast as u say shouldnt need to be in the rights system or have a good point guard to be successful, you said it in your last sentence...