Last year Ron Chow and I were lucky enough to land the number one pick in the Dropping Dimes Expert League. Rewind to one year ago and LeBron James had major free-throw issues, issues I would find a way to deal with, but with the #1 pick, we went with Chris Paul. That league had two slots for centers, and as we watched our tier of big men empty out before the draft snaked its way back to us, we realized the draft forced us to go in another direction. Thus, we matched Paul with the best multi-faceted guards on our draft board. One of them was this next pick.

Round 2, Pick 10: Joe Johnson, PG/SG, Atlanta Hawks

Here are the numbers and league ranks for Johnson last season.

Field Goal Percentage: 0.437 (did not significantly rank)
Free Throw Percentage: 0.826 (42nd)
Three-pointers made: 149 (18th)
Points: 21.4 (13th)
Rebounds: 4.4 (86th)
Assists: 5.8 (17th)
Steals: 1.06 (42nd)
Blocks: 0.2 (did not significantly rank)
Turnovers: 2.47 (25th)

Playing devil’s advocate, what separates Johnson from a player like Brandon Roy, a first round fantasy pick? Roy will score a little bit more, but Johnson outdistances him in three-point shooting by a ton. Both put up about 4-5 boards and 4-5 dimes on the stat sheet. Both are adequate swipers of the rock, as evidenced by their average in steals. There was a time when Johnson could single-handedly destroy a team with his poor field goal shooting and high turnover rate, but he has put together a couple of solid seasons on the Hawks. Johnson has hit his ceiling in fantasy potential, while Roy could just be getting started, and this possibility likely makes up most of the distance between their selections in fantasy drafts this year. However, that does not change the fact that Johnson brings a lot of fantasy hoop goodness to the table.

Dwyane Wade was the third pick in this draft, a position he will land in a lot in leagues this year. “Flash” plays like a superhero, but he does not shoot that many moneyballs, and that is where Johnson comes in. Similar to the team of Kobe Bryant and Andre Iguodala, this team has point guard stats without employing a traditional point guard. When the third round pick comes around, some flexibility presents itself. One could take a true point guard, or go the other way and draft a big man, saving the point guard slot for a later round.