Why you need to know about burgeoning Hawks star Jalen Johnson

In the NBA, name recognition remains an active element in how a player is viewed and evaluated, from peers, fans and pundits.

Players with notable draft stock, such as former top selections, or players who used to be All-Stars will enjoy the fruits of that past by being placed — for the most part — ahead of players without those same accolades.

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Jalen Johnson of the Atlanta Hawks remains one of those players who gets overlooked because of peers who have more accolades or had more hype coming into the league. But that could be changing now for the 20th selection of the 2021 NBA Draft out of Duke.

Breaking out and comparing favorably to bigger names

The 6-foot-9 power forward, who just earned Eastern Conference Player of the Week honors is about as good as they come, yet he rarely features in the national discourse around the league.

Johnson is averaging 22 points, 9.5 rebounds, 6.5 assists and 1.8 steals, and shooting 57.4% from the floor while playing quality defense. Yet he is rarely mentioned in the same breath as Orlando’s higher-profile Paolo Banchero, despite the fact that it’s become exceedingly difficult to find a real argument for ranking Banchero above Johnson.

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This isn’t meant as a jab on Banchero, who is a formidable player shooting 46.1% from the floor and 25% from 3-point range, but rather to illustrate the level Johnson has reached and why we need to talk about him.

With star point guard Trae Young out of action, Johnson has been thrown into the primary creation role in Atlanta, and so far, he’s led the Hawks to a 7-3 record, dishing out 7.6 assists per game in the process while offering head coach Quin Snyder full buy-in.

Johnson is converting over 80% of his shots within 3 feet of the basket, and he’s upped his 3-point conversion rate to 38.1% on the season, which used to be his biggest weakness. To some extent, it still is, but he’s at least making progress in that area and is fast approaching a territory where he can be viewed as reliable from that distance.

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Taking the numbers aside for a minute and his visual play speaks volumes. The 23-year-old is far more determined in practically every action, even when he slows the game down for himself.

The ball-handling is more crisp, and his passes come more naturally now. He changes speeds to manipulate the defense far more effectively, and most importantly: He’s recognizing when he can utilize his height and strength more.

Johnson’s more calculated approach to basketball, combined with an organic sense of internal player development, has created one of the league’s best two-way forwards — and flat out one of the top players in the Eastern Conference.

What does the future hold for Johnson in Atlanta?

Can Johnson carry the Hawks in this role without Young? That remains to be seen. While the early results have been good, the sample size is small, and we’re simply short of the necessary data to make that call.

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What can be concluded already is that Johnson has stepped up and filled a fairly large creation gap left by Young. Johnson is the focal point of the offense and has embraced the responsibility of setting up others and getting them shots within the right circumstances.

Given his age, skill set and production, it’s outright odd how the larger discourse isn’t focused on the inevitability of Johnson further improving.

Unlike players within a similar age group — and even those with more recognizable names — Johnson has routinely improved while others have either stagnated or just not matched his rate of development.

Now might be time to realize we’re all looking at a player who could make some real noise in this league, especially if the Hawks can build a sustainable product around him, one that should feature plenty of outside shooting to optimize Johnson’s shot creation.

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Should Young come back, the Hawks need to do everything in their power to avoid a return to the heliocentric days of when Young would dominate an offense without it necessarily being worth the squeeze.

That’s not to argue that Young isn’t a star in his own right, but the carte blanche approach just hasn’t fielded the necessary results, and now the organization has stumbled upon a player who can do many of the same things as Young while offering legit size and being gifted defensively.

Atlanta needs to develop an offense where more players get a chance to establish themselves, but with Johnson as the primary fall-back option. If Young buys into that approach and works in conjunction with Johnson, as opposed to the duo taking turns, the Hawks could elevate themselves drastically, especially if they stay healthy for the rest of the season.

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Going back to Johnson, though, it remains odd how he flies this much under the radar.

His raw stat line alone should raise eyebrows, but his actual impact and fingerprints on a game should raise a question: How high up in the pool of NBA players should he rank?

Odds are good that most answers will come in way too low.