Okay, I feel like the JJ hype is awesome, and that we have a great looking player going forward this year and in the future. I would like to set the record straight on a few comments that have been taking jabs at Nate for “Being a development terrorist” and comments echoing this statement.

A brief history:

Johnson is the first success story that I believe the Hawks organization can point to their G-League affiliate as a viable alternative to the historic path to playing in the NBA.

First, Johnson was expected to be a top 10 pick out of Duke in his draft year. He later dropped due to attitude issues he exhibited in college. He was a 5 star recruit with all of the skills that projected to be a regular in the NBA. A lackluster year at Duke reduces his stock to the point he falls into the Hawks lap at 20

Johnson’s first season in the NBA was coming off the heels of the season where the Bucks took home the title after beating the Hawks in 6. This season was unique in the way the Hawks ran it back and planned on using the same rotation as the year prior, leaving Johnson fighting for injury minutes available to the rookie behind: Collins, Hunter, Gallo, Capella, OO. The forwards that year barely had enough minutes amongst them, yet alone for a rookie to develop.

In 2021-22 Johnson would play in 22 games as an injury replacement or end of the bench player in garbage time. He averaged 5 minutes and 2.5 points in that season. HOWEVER he was also able to average 35 while playing 8/50 games in the G-League. He was getting starter/star minutes in practices to develops skill sets beyond that of a minor roleplayer/sparkplug that most players historically are relegated to for most, if not all, of their career when picked outside the lottery in their rookie season. It is to be noted at the time JJ expressed frustration at “frequently going back and forth” which was exasperated by the COVID issues that plagued the league that year.

In the 2022-23 season Jalen graduated from the G-League into a full time NBA rotation player, averaging 15 minutes in 70 games. Notably he averaged more minutes in the back half of the season once Quinn took over, but that change also dramatically adjusted AJ Griffin’s time within the rotation.

The book is being written on 23-24, Johnson is playing full starter minutes in his 3rd year. I would say that we as a fan base should open to players like Bufkin and AJ to spend time in the G League to be the star on a professional team, while still being close to home. Those minutes developing a wider array of skill sets have shown to be potentially game changing for the Hawks in a way being taxi’d around America to sit on a bench and maybe come in for 5 minutes, doesn’t provide. I believe the development track of JJ can be partially attributed to ownership investing in a local G-League team that maintains continuity between the main club and the feeder team.

Go Hawks