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Jazz agree to 2-year, $22-million deal with Joe Johnson

Rob Foldy / Getty Images Sport / Getty

Iso Joe is taking his solo act to the Beehive State.

The Utah Jazz have agreed to a two-year, $22-million deal with free-agent forward Joe Johnson.

Johnson, who turned 35 earlier this week, will return to the Western Conference for the first time since 2005, when he was a member of the Phoenix Suns. Since then, he's been named to seven Eastern Conference All-Star teams, made one All-NBA third team, and played in 86 playoff games between the Atlanta Hawks, Brooklyn Nets, and, most recently, Miami Heat.

Johnson isn't the shifty, off-the-dribble threat he once was, but his game has aged quite well, and he's successfully reinvented himself as a bully-ball wing who can post up smaller defenders and barrel his way to the hoop.

He can also, it turns out, still shoot the heck out of the ball. After a slow start for a moribund Nets team last season, Johnson was rejuvenated when he was bought out and signed with the Heat. In 24 games with Miami, he averaged 13.4 points and 3.6 assists, while shooting 51.8 percent from the field and 41.7 percent from 3-point range. The Heat went 16-8 after acquiring him, and came just one win short of the East finals.

Johnson gives the Jazz - who shored up their weakest position by trading for point guard George Hill last month - another long-range spot-up threat, as well as a secondary playmaker who can take some pressure off Hill and Gordon Hayward. He can head up bench units or slot in as a small-ball power forward, and he'll round out a deep wing rotation that includes ascendant young shooting guard Rodney Hood.

Perhaps most importantly, he'll give the Jazz experience and veteran presence as they try make the leap from team-on-the-rise to bona fide Western Conference irritant.

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