NBA Expert Makes The Hall of Fame Case For Former Hawks All-Star

Johnson has a better Hall of Fame case than you might think and Bleacher Report's Dan Favale made it:

Top Accolades: 7x All-Star, 1x All-NBA

Key Stats: 16.0 PPG, 4.0 RPG, 3.9 APG, 0.8 SPG, 0.2 BLK

Total Seasons: 18

After Larry Foust's eight All-Star selections, Joe Johnson's seven lead the list of eligible players outside the Hall of Fame. With only one All-NBA selection on his CV, he never quite hovered around megastar territory. But Iso Joe could get buckets.

Over the course of an 11-year span, Johnson averaged more than 19 points per game and banged in 37.5 percent of his threes. This stretch included five consecutive seasons of eclipsing 20 points, as well as earning back-of-the-ballot MVP consideration. Johnson still ranks inside the top 50 of total career points.

Known predominantly for scoring, he doesn't receive enough credit for the positional malleability he displayed later in his career. His salad days also featured more dime-dropping than you'd expect. He had four seasons in which he dished out more than four per game.

More impressively, he's one of just 20 players to cross both the 20,000-point and 5,000-assist threshold. Out of that group, he's the sole player not to make the Hall of Fame or be considered a first-ballot lock."

Not the only Hawks getting HOF recognition

While Al Horford and Trae Young are two of the greatest Hawks of all time, how are their Hall of Fame chances? ESPN's Zach Kram broke down players into different categories and put Horford into "veterans on the bubble" and Young into "circle back in a few years":

"Like Love, Horford is a five-time All-Star and NBA champion. Unlike Love, Horford's peak was lower, but he's still chugging along as a championship-level contributor into his late 30s. The Basketball Hall of Fame's consideration of all levels of basketball could benefit Horford a great deal, thanks to his back-to-back collegiate titles at Florida. In the one-and-done era, few players will receive a notable NCAA boost to their Hall of Fame cases -- Horford might be the exception."

Young is one of the best offensive engines in the NBA and is going to be putting up Hall-of-Fame-worthy stats as long as he is healthy. The best days in terms of stats are behind Horford, but he is still a winning basketball player.

Horford was arguably the best player in one of the most consistent eras in Hawks history. During all nine seasons that Horford played with the Hawks, Atlanta made the playoffs in every season and in the 2014-2015 season, Horford helped get the Hawks to 60 wins and their first ever Eastern Conference Finals Appearance. He was a four-time All-Star with the Hawks, and he made the All-NBA Third team in the 2010-2011 season.

Johnson, Young, and Horford all have valid Hall of Fame cases and they will be worth watching.

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