As trade deadline dust settles, Tyler Johnson says he expected Heat to make move. Here’s why
In the aftermath of Thursday’s trade deadline, the Heat moved forward with it’s modified 13-man roster, Tyler Johnson played his first-ever NBA game from outside the Heat umbrella and Wayne Ellington prepared to sign with his new team.
This past week included some changes to a Miami team that had mostly remained intact for the better part of three seasons.
“I think no one on this team expected for us to be together for three years,” Heat forward James Johnson said. “So the relationships that we all built — not just Tyler and myself, just Tyler with everybody else and Wayne Ellington with everybody else. We built those relationships, especially going to war for three years. So that’s one thing. But family is always going to be family. This business of basketball is great when it introduces you to great guys like those two guys.”
On the same night the Heat allowed a 17-point lead slip away in a painful 102-96 loss to the Kings, Johnson made his Suns debut and finished with five points on 1-of-9 shooting, two assists and two steals as a reserve in Friday’s defeat to the Warriors. And Ellington is on the verge of signing with the Pistons after he was waived by the Suns following the trade, according to a league source.
Did the deal that sent Johnson and Ellington to Phoenix and brought forward Ryan Anderson to the Heat on the eve of trade deadline day surprise any of the parties involved? For Johnson, there was the expectation that Miami would make some type of move.
“I expected that maybe there was probably going to be a move made from the Heat’s standpoint, and I totally understand,” Johnson told reporters in Phoenix. “There are a lot of guys who play similar positions over there and there’s a lot of money in those positions. I understand how everything works.”
With the trade, the Heat cut its luxury tax bill from $9.7 million to $1.8 million and addressed a crowded rotation that was loaded with wing players.
But just because Johnson expected Miami to make a move doesn’t mean he wasn’t initially caught off guard when he heard his name was involved. Just hours after helping the Heat defeat the Trail Blazers on Tuesday night, Johnson woke up Wednesday morning to “10 missed calls from my agent telling me to call him ASAP.”
“I’ve never been traded, obviously,” he said. “But I know around the trade deadline time, everybody gets a little antsy. So when you get that, ‘Call me ASAP,’ I kind of knew what it was.”
Johnson now finds himself as part of a franchise that’s rebuilding around a young core. The Suns entered Saturday with the league’s second-worst record at 11-46.
Rather than fighting for a playoff spot with the Heat, the 26-year-old Johnson will be asked to serve as a leader as the third-oldest player on Phoenix’s roster. It’s a trait he believes he has after playing alongside Dwyane Wade for most of his career.
“I’m still so grateful to the Heat organization for what they’ve done for me,” said Johnson, who developed into a rotation-level NBA player with Miami and eventually played his way into a four-year, $50 million contract after joining the organization as an undrafted free agent out of Fresno State in 2014.
“Luckily I’ve had a lot of good mentors in this league. I was just with Dwyane. I just talked to him about some of the things I should be doing when I come over here, and the biggest thing he was talking about was just getting that communication going and making sure everybody can get on the same page and make sure everybody is working on the detail.”
It’s a role Heat coach Erik Spoelstra believes Johnson is ready for.
“Tyler Johnson has Miami Heat blood inside of him,” Spoelstra said Friday. “He’s been in the culture long enough. He’s 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 good opportunity for him.”
As for Ellington, he’s poised to join a Pistons team that’s just one-half game behind the Heat for the Eastern Conference’s eighth and final playoff spot. Ellington is expected replace most of the playing time that opened up after Detroit traded three-point shooter Reggie Bullock to the Lakers.
“We knew he was going to go somewhere,” Spoelstra said of Ellington. “I can feel sadness about him moving on. At the same time, I also want the best for him. I view him as Heat life. This profession, there are a lot of moving parts with it, and guys change teams, compete against each other and we had Dwyane in a situation where we were competing, battling in playoff spot. That did not take away from my love for him. It’s competition.”
The Heat will be reunited with both Ellington and Johnson soon. Miami hosts the Pistons on Feb. 23 and the Suns on Feb. 25 in back-to-back games at AmericanAirlines Arena.
This story was originally published February 9, 2019 at 11:34 AM.
