Chris Johnson claimed off waivers by 76ers

[Monkhouse]

The Sixers have claimed Chris Johnson off of waivers, Marc Stein of ESPN.com reports (Twitter link). Johnson, not to be confused with the player of the same name on the Heat, was waived by the Celtics on Thursday as Boston began paring down their roster to the maximum of 20 players. This move brings Philadelphia’s roster count to 21, so they will have to release someone in order to add Johnson.

This move continues the trend of the Sixers adding young, minimum salary players for their season-long quest for the No. 1 overall draft pick. Johnson will compete for minutes at small forward, and with a strong training camp it’s conceivable that Johnson could end up contributing as a rotation piece during the regular season.

In 48 career games Johnson’s numbers are 5.8 PPG, 2.3 RPG, and 0.7 APG. His career slash line is .402/.338/.844.

http://www.hoopsrumors.com/2014/09/sixers-johnson-waivers.html

[Rick Robeys Return]

21 players and still below the salary cap floor, right?

[Monkhouse]

21 players and still below the salary cap floor, right?

The 76ers have like 8 players on rookie/minimum scale contracts. So yeah, most likely they are below the salary cap.

[obnoxiousmime]

Was about to post this.

Not that Johnson was a world beater but I'm disappointed we couldn't find the space to keep him around. It seems crazy that the team is so talent-poor and yet we have this situation where we can't even fit in a guy like Johnson. Ainge made so many moves for financial reasons that the roster is a huge mess right now. 4 guys alone (Bass, Thornton, Anthony, Wallace) basically have no future with this team and are just playing out their deals.

And yes, it hurts a little extra that it was the Sixers who picked him up.

[bostonsportsforlife]

Glad he's getting another opportunity even if it's with a division rival.

[slamtheking]

well that move should backfire for the Sixers -- CJ will now lead them to a better record than the C's

[JBcat]

Was about to post this.

Not that Johnson was a world beater but I'm disappointed we couldn't find the space to keep him around. It seems crazy that the team is so talent-poor and yet we have this situation where we can't even fit in a guy like Johnson. Ainge made so many moves for financial reasons that the roster is a huge mess right now. 4 guys alone (Bass, Thornton, Anthony, Wallace) basically have no future with this team and are just playing out their deals.

And yes, it hurts a little extra that it was the Sixers who picked him up.

While this is true how we are at the limit of players and the luxury tax, the benefit of taking on Wallace, Thornton, and Anthony is they were part of deals where we got additional draft pick which I like more than keeping someone like Chris Johnson.  The Bass deal I was fine with as we were still trying to contend at the time.  If Sully and/or KO really step up I don't mind keeping him to back them up.

[LooseCannon]

They probably claimed him mainly because his contract is fully unguaranteed this season with no guarantee date.  Philly's plan should be to flip unguaranteed contracts like Bogans and CJ to a capped-out team before the January guarantee deadline to teams that want to avoid luxury tax.  They should love to trade Bogans for a contract like Joel Anthony if it gets them the same sort of draft picks the Celtics got.