Season report card for Atlanta Hawks rookie Jalen Johnson

The Atlanta Hawks drafted well when they selected Jalen Johnson with the 20th pick in the 2021 NBA draft. When you look at Johnson’s numbers in his 22 games at the NBA level this season it is a little hard to understand why I say they drafted well.

The problem for Johnson is that the Hawks franchise as a whole and Nate McMillan in particular would need to change their attitude towards playing rookies for Johnson to have received more minutes than he did. Johnson only averaged 2.4 points and 1.2 rebounds in 5.5 minutes per game.

He shot the ball well from the field going 53.7 percent from the floor. He was poor from the perimeter, shooting only 23.1 percent from behind the 3-point line. While these numbers are not great, Johnson had two games in a row where he scored more than 10 points. One of these games he also had seven rebounds. Unfortunately his luck did not hold and he missed the next three games through injury.

The Atlanta Hawks developed Jalen Johnson in the G League this season.

Johnson did not start the season overly well. He was inefficient from the floor which cost the College Park Skyhawks a couple of games. However, as the season went on, Johnson became critical to the Skyhawks success.

Fortunately for the Skyhawks Cat Barber stepped up after the Hawks Covid-19 crisis and led the team because Johnson had his own injury issues. He was also in and out of the squad thanks to John Collins being injured as well when he was there.

However, when he was with the Skyhawks Johnson averaged 21.1 points, 11.0 rebounds, 4.3 assists, 1.5 blocks, and 0.9 steals in just 32.5 minutes per game. He would be relatively inefficient going at 47.0 percent from the floor, 30.4 percent from behind the 3-point line, and an atrocious 57.1 percent from the free throw line.

The thing is, it is easy to look at numbers and judge a player which would be unfair in Johnson’s case. The Skyhawks played through Johnson and just by him being on the court other players were more open than they normally would have been. The game-winner that he hit against the Long Island Nets was an extremely encouraging sign in his development.

So the question is, how do you judge a rookie season where the player only played just over a quarter of the games with the vasity squad? Well, you judge it on development and Johnson was able to develop his game in the G League.

Season grade: B-