Is Another Leap Coming For Jalen Johnson This Season?

While he has continued to get better each season, is it possible for another leap?

Continued improvement

If Johnson can stay healthy, this could be the year that he makes the All-Star team and possibly All-NBA. He was averaging 18.9 PPG, 10.0 RPG, and 5.0 APG while shooting 50% from the field and 31% from three last season before going down with a season-ending shoulder injury. Johnson still has improvements to make and has to stay healthy, but the upside for him is through the roof.

Bleacher Report's Grant Hughes picked Johnson as the player on the Hawks who was most likely to take a leap:

"All Jalen Johnson has to do is prove last year's numbers—18.9 points, 10.0 rebounds, 5.0 assists in 35.7 minutes per game—are real. Stats like those are terrific, particularly for a 23-year-old with an ideal big-wing frame. But it's hard to trust them when they only come over a 36-game sample.

Johnson got off to a white-hot start, missed a handful of games in early January and suffered a torn labrum on January 23. The injury required surgery, putting a period on what could have been a breakout season.

The Hawks are defined by Trae Young and a collection of early-to-mid-20s support pieces. The list includes Dyson Daniels, Zaccharie Risacher, Onyeka Okongwu and even new addition Nickeil Alexander-Walker.

Johnson is the one with the most potential. If he can continue his stat-stuffing ways while getting his three-point percentage back to the 35.5 percent he shot in 2023-24, he could emerge as an All-Star—especially if his production has Atlanta in the East's top four when voting concludes."

Hawks best player?

Our own Rohan Raman laid out the case for Jalen Johnson to become the Hawks best player in an article:

"If Johnson is an elite defender and rebounder (10+ rebounds per game) while being a great passer (6+ assists per game) and good scorer (20+ points per game), he'd have an argument for being the best player on the 2025-26 Hawks due to all-around impact. Trae might still have him beat due to his offensive gravity, but respectfully, there isn't a world where he's more than a neutral presence on defense. The potential for Johnson to be additive on defense is critical for both his future and the Hawks' ceiling next season.

The numbers bear out that Johnson already took a leap from the 2023-24 season to make himself into a solid defender. His secondary rim protection was better - he improved in rim points saved per 100 possessions, averaging 1.1 points saved (85th percentile) up from 0.4 (76th percentile) and opponents shot 7% worse at the rim due to his presence (82nd percentile). He also upped his steal numbers to 2 per game (82nd percentile) from 1.7 (72nd percentile). However, the biggest growth in his defense was in his efficacy on contesting shots as a perimeter defender last year. Despite his length and athleticism, Johnson actually hasn't been all that effective on closeouts for most of his career. Opponents barely shot worse when Johnson closed out on them - he finished in the 63rd percentile for FG% differential while closing out. That drastically changed in 2024-25. Opposing players shot 3.8% worse from the field when Johnson closed out on them, good for the 91st percentile among all forwards.

Suffice to say, it's ridiculous that Jalen Johnson would barely be considered a top-100 player in the NBA by any metric. He needs to stay healthy and he hasn't reached his potential yet, but there's a slim chance the Hawks have already found a worthy successor to Trae Young's mantle if Young leaves Atlanta next offseason."

If Johnson stays healthy, he could begin to make a case as an All-NBA player and perhaps the best player on the Hawks.

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