{"id":116274,"date":"2025-08-03T18:45:10","date_gmt":"2025-08-03T18:45:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/116274\/"},"modified":"2025-08-03T18:45:10","modified_gmt":"2025-08-03T18:45:10","slug":"the-only-thing-holding-jalen-johnson-back-from-being-an-all-star","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/116274\/","title":{"rendered":"The only thing holding Jalen Johnson back from being an All-Star"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jalen Johnson was the steal of the 2021 NBA Draft, making remarkable improvement each year. The All-Star caliber forward has just one flaw that has plagued his short career: his injury record. Johnson has averaged just 46 games played a season, suffering major injuries in three of his four seasons as a pro. Despite this, Johnson has broken through as a true star in the NBA <\/a>who just needs the chance to prove it over a full season.<\/p>\n

Johnson’s high-flying athleticism makes him one of the most exciting players in the league when healthy. Unlike most athletic slashers with a concerning history of injuries, Johnson’s injuries have primarily been to his upper body. <\/p>\n

This is good news to Atlanta Hawks fans, as it suggests that the injuries will not develop into recurring injuries and that they will not sap Johnson’s athleticism. Still, Johnson is entering a 5-year, $150 million extension this season, and his injury record is starting to grow beyond just a small sample size. <\/p>\n

Jalen Johnson’s asecnt can only be stopped by injuries<\/p>\n

If the Hawks have Johnson available, they will be an unstoppable force in the league. With a top 4 starting lineup and the best bench in the East, Atlanta is primed to make a deep playoff run. He fits the new-look Hawks team perfectly with the additions of shooting and defense across the board.<\/p>\n

Johnson is the player who benefits the most<\/a> from the addition of Kristaps Porzingis, who brings a skillset Johnson has yet to play alongside as a true stretch five. Porzingis’s combination of knockdown shooting ability and effectiveness as a post-up player forces opposing centers to leave the paint.<\/p>\n

This means when Johnson gets to the rim, he will no longer have a towering center helping on defense. His elite athleticism and finishing ability allow the Duke product to exploit this, and he is primed to have yet another breakout season.<\/p>\n

The buffed second unit in Atlanta will also allow Johnson to flourish. The Hawks have had a very weak second unit over his career, allowing teams to overcommit on Johnson when Trae Young rests. This is no longer the case, as Atlanta’s bench added one of the best shooters in the league in Luke Kennard and other spacing options like Nickeil Alexander-Walker and Caleb Houstan. <\/p>\n

Johnson was already an All-Star caliber player, and Atlanta made a series of perfect moves to allow him to take yet another step. The only thing that can stop Johnson’s ascent to the top of the league is another heartbreaking injury.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jalen Johnson was the steal of the 2021 NBA Draft, making remarkable improvement each year. The All-Star caliber…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":116275,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[1260,62,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-116274","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nba","8":"tag-nba","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-united-states","11":"tag-unitedstates","12":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116274","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=116274"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116274\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/116275"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=116274"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=116274"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=116274"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}