The Atlanta Hawks X-Factor…

The Atlanta Hawks X-Factor…

In the 2021 NBA draft with the 20th overall pick, the Atlanta Hawks selected a forward out of Duke. And after his sophomore year, he took a serious jump from five points per game to 16 points per game. This past season, he was playing at the highest level of his career, and he was the favorite to win the most improved player award, but his season was cut short by a torn labroom. And now, he could easily be the most important piece of the puzzle for the Atlanta Hawks. And his name is Jaylen Johnson. Welcome to Basketball Intuition. I’m your host, Ethan Simon. Today, we’re going to be talking about Jaylen Johnson and the Atlanta Hawks. But before we dive into Jaylen Johnson’s game, I kind of want to talk about the Atlanta Hawks offseason a little bit. So, let’s get to that. One of my favorite parts about the NBA offseason is watching where these front offic’s heads are. And this offseason so far, I think the Atlanta Hawks have done an incredible job with their asset management. And the two big moves that the Hawks made this offseason, they were set up in trades from last year. So, you trade DeAndre Hunter for George Niang, you trade Bdon Bdonovich for Terrence Man. You take the two of them, turn that into Christops Porzingis, and then you get freed up a little bit of extra money, which gives you enough to go out and get your boy to kill Alexander Walker. Last season, Terence Mann was making $11 million and now they’re giving 15 million a year to Nquil Alexander Walker. That’s a huge upgrade. That is incredible asset management. They have done a very good job this off seasonason. And last year, your offense and defense statistically was middle of the pack and you added strength to both of those sides without giving up much in return at all. You didn’t give up defense for offense or offense for defense. You just got both of them. And if there was a time for the Hawks to do something like this, right now is the time. The Eastern Conference is wide open. This could be a year where they legitimately sneak in and make a real deep playoff run because the Eastern Conference is so banged up right now. So after the moves that you make, you look at this eightman rotation of Trey Young, Dyson Daniels, Nquil Alexander Walker, Jaylen Johnson, Zachary Reach, Christophs Porzingis, Aneka Kongu, and Luke Canard. That’s a nineman rotation, but still that’s very, very good. You have defense, playmaking, shooting, inside scoring ability. You could use a little bit more of that, but that’s why you got Jaylen Johnson. You have a star. You have a really good back court. You have a very, very solid front court. And overall, I’m just very impressed with what the Hawks were able to do this offseason. So, now let’s take this opportunity to get over to Jaylen Johnson. So, let’s talk about Jaylen Johnson. We’re going to start with his build and his frame, and we’re just going to dive in from there. All right, so Jaylen Johnson is around 6’8 with a 6’11 wingspan. I swear he looks taller than that. He’s somewhere around 220 lbs. He has a 35 in vertical. This guy is a very good athlete, and he had the longest and widest hands in his whole draft class. Usually I like to start with the shooting or the pick and roll game or something like that, but I want to start with the playmaking because this is the most underrated part about Jaylen Johnson’s game. Now he is not a lead ball dominant type playmaker. He is more of a team playmaker and he is elite in that role. He is a real passing threat. He can make skip passes, touch passes, lob passes. He’s got good vision. He’s got good timing. And I was overall just really, really impressed with his passing ability. Probably my favorite thing out of all the things I just mentioned would be those lobbs. A big man throwing it up to another big man. Like I just love that. And the next part about the playmaking that I want to talk about is how versatile he is in the pick and roll as a screener in a roller. This is what I mean mainly is the versatile part. He can pick and roll. He can pick and pop. He can pass out of a pick and roll situation. He can dunk out of it. He can shoot out of it. He can pull up in the mid-range. He can make a touch pass. All these other passes that I mentioned, good skip passes, lobs, whatever you want, he can do it. And even with another big man, he can play as the ball handler because he has good vision and timing. And my favorite part about him as a roller is he has incredible timing. And with him being as well-rounded as he is, every month he’s going to be able to give you a game where he’s on triple double watch. He’s gonna get rebounds. He’s going to put points on the board, and he’s gonna pass the ball. Something I thought was kind of crazy is he is in the 90th percentile in usage to assist percentage. That is elite. Two more small things. I thought he was very unselfish, and I thought he also handled pressure pretty well, like if he’s getting blitzed or double teamed. And now, this isn’t exactly a part of playmaking, but it kind of plays into it a little bit. In the transition, Jaylen Johnson is exactly what you want. He’s athletic and he can cover ground very quickly. He gives a lot of effort. He can pass, make good reads. He’s a smart finisher, whether it’s dunks, floaters, or layups. But if you’re in the open court with Jaylen Johnson, you’re feeling pretty good. And the Hawks in general, you have guys that can run and that are good in the transition. You got Dyson Daniels, you got Trey Young, you got Jaylen Johnson. If you’re running with these guys, one of them is going to find you. And all the things that I just mentioned, that is exactly why I think this is the most underrated part about Jaylen Johnson’s game and makes him much more valuable. Obviously, if he couldn’t pass as well, he would still be really good and he’d be very valuable, but him being able to pass the ball just puts him in that next tier. Now, from here, let’s go over to the finishing because this is the most fun part about Jaylen Johnson’s game. The biggest thing that I just loved is that he knows how big he is. You know, there are some guys that are bigger and that can shoot the ball in the mid-range and stuff like that, and when they get a smaller defender on them, they don’t go to punish them immediately because they have more length and more size, but Jaylen Johnson does that. That heat game in late December is the perfect example of what I’m talking about. Every single time Tyler Herro got switched onto him, he was posting him up immediately. He knew exactly what time it was. And if he’s posting up a smaller guy and they bring a double team, just like we talked about, Jaylen Johnson can pass the ball. So, it just opens up more and more opportunities for the offense. And my favorite part about his actual finishing ability is the floaters. You don’t see a lot of 68 69 guys putting up floaters like he does. He can put up the floaters over smaller defenders and they won’t even have a chance to contest it. He can also put them up over bigger defenders using his length to get the ball above the bigs. And he makes it look so easy. Like out of all the players that I’ve covered, his floater game might be one of the best. An aggressive Jaylen Johnson getting downhill is a very scary thing because he wants to dunk absolutely everything. And he’s also a really fun dunker. Like if you’re under that rim, he wants to dunk on you. If you’re not under that rim, he’s still going to dunk it. And really, that’s just the main thing with Jaylen Johnson. Like, he has guys that are going to get him the ball in situations where he can score. It’s just is he going to be aggressive? And from what we’ve seen the last 2, three years is yes, he is going to be aggressive. So, if we continue to get this version of Jaylen Johnson where he’s being aggressive getting downhill, then it really just adds that extra level to the Hawks offense. And another thing that plays into him being aggressive and getting downhill is the way that he attacks closeouts. He attacks close outs so so very well. And another small thing I want to mention that’s very important to me is he has great timing on the baselines. He works very well there just in general as an offensive player. He has very good timing. Just a great basketball IQ. I just think Jaylen Johnson is just so good. And one thing that we know that I like to talk about a lot is aggressive finishers get to the free throw line. Jaylen Johnson has gotten to the free throw line more and more every single season. If we start with his 2022 23 season, he was getting there one time a game. That’s when he was only averaging five points. The next season he was getting there two and a half times a game. And then this past season he was getting there three and a half times a game. And something else is he has gotten more efficient every single year. That first year that I mentioned 63%, the next year 73% and this past season 75%. So obviously you would like to see him continue growing that and getting to the free throw line more and more and more. But he already is showing the ability to get to the free throw line and he’s aggressive enough to keep getting there. If you’re still here and enjoying the video, make sure to hit that like button. It helps out a lot more than you realize. Let’s go to the shooting from here. I’m going to be pretty quick with this. I’m going to give you some percentages and we’re going to call it a day. He shot 36% in the mid-range last season. I was very impressed by his mid-range game. It looked really good. Nice little turnarounds and shooting threes from last season. He shot 32% from the corners. And he also shot 32% above the break on much more attempts. And again, I really like his mid-range game. Looks good. He can put his back to the basket, pull up situationally. He can fade it away situationally. He can just take you straight to the basket. I just really like his back to the basket game. One thing about him that we know is he’s not going to be out here creating opportunities for himself on the three-point line. He is a spot-up shooter and that is okay. He’s your 34 man that’s mainly a slasher. I thought his jump shot looked pretty good. He’s got a nice catch and shoot motion. I just think as a shooter, you know, very very solid. Nothing spectacular or generational or anything like that, but as I mentioned, he’s mainly a slasher. So, as long as he’s feeling confident and he’s knocking down those threes every now and again, you’re feeling good about it. He wasn’t as efficient this season than he was the last season. He shot 31% from three on four attempts this past season, but before that, he was shooting 35 1.5% on three and a half attempts from three. But he played like 16 less games, so it’s all good. Now, let us talk about the defense. Jaylen Johnson is a very switchable defender. He can hold his own against bigs, forwards, and guards. Sometimes they will get past him if they’re too quick. But overall, he is a very switchable and versatile defender. We’re talking about a guy that’s getting blocks and steals every game. He was getting two and a half stocks per game. 1.6 of those are steals. One of those are blocks. I thought the shot blocking was really great. He uses his length very well. He doesn’t foul too much. Last season, he averaged 1.9 fouls a game. Before that, he averaged two and a half fouls a game. So, he was able to cut down on those a good bit. So, we like to see that. but he is a vertical threat and also he is very good in the passing lanes. He uses his length very very well. Good basketball IQ so he’s able to get in on plays. And now quickly let’s talk about this rebounding. This plays into what I was talking about at the very beginning with the playmaking. How he can be in a triple double watch any you know any game in a month. He is a S tier rebounder. He is in the hundth percentile in defensive rebound. He averaged 8.3 defensive rebounds last year for a total of 10 rebounds. 1.7 offensive. He crashes the glass. He’s got great length and timing. This is just another thing that just keeps coming up. He just has really good timing. Very smart basketball player. He was good on the help side. He was good as an on ball defender. He was solid as a offball defender. He doesn’t have any crazy weaknesses that you can just exploit on the defensive side unless you put a really small quick guard on him. Then he could probably get past him. But other than that, you know, really good defender. And then if we go back to everything and we look at it, I mean, he can finish on the inside. He’s a very, very good slasher. He can shoot the ball. Obviously, you like to see him get up a little bit more volume and get the percentage up a little bit, but for right now, it’s good. you added shooting this past season with Nikquil Alexander Walker and Christophs Porzingis and maybe we could see him running the three more this season. If you look at his percentages on cleaning the glass like almost every minute that he played was as a fourman. So this could be the season where we get to see him at the three with Christophs on Yaka Kongu. And a couple more things I want to mention is him and Trey Young’s two-man game is is just so elite. They could both pass the ball. Trey Young’s timing is great. He’s a great passer. Incredible vision. Jaylen Johnson Jaylen Johnson as a roller. His timing is great. Jaylen wants those lobs. Trey wants to throw him those. And it was funny. I looked at his stats and Trey Young assisted him 96 times last season. And the closest person to him was Dyson Daniels at 18. Trey Young just be force-feeding him. I love it. And the very last thing is he doesn’t need the ball to be effective. He’s a very good offball player. He can spot up. He can make cuts to the basket being a distraction. It’s not like he’s just sitting there breaking you down every play with the handles or anything like that. He’s a very good offball player that can also handle the ball and also get downhill by himself. So, I just overall I was just very impressed with Jaylen Johnson’s game. Obviously, I’ve watched Jaylen Johnson play plenty of times, but I really dove into his game these last couple days watching, you know, however many games I watched. In every game, there was something else, another note that I have that I was just really impressed by. And this plays into the title in my main point in this whole video. He is going to be the Hawks Xactor this season. If Jaylen Johnson just doesn’t play, then I wouldn’t look at the Hawks to be this team that could really contend this season. But if Jaylen Johnson is playing, then I’m looking at the Hawks like, whoa, they could really be a top three seed. And I would honestly be surprised if they weren’t a top three seed. But as much as that is riding on Jaylen Johnson, yes, he’s going to play. I was just saying that as an example, but like if Chriss is healthy, then they’re 100% going to be a top three seed. Like there’s no way they’re not going to be a top three seed. But Kristoph’s health has been, you know, one of the reasons why he’s bounced around. So if the Hawks can get a healthy Christoph Porzingis just for one year, I’m pretty sure he’s only on a one-year deal. Pretty sure he’s unrestricted next season. So, if he doesn’t play good, then, you know, he’s either just going to walk or you can sign and trade him or if he plays well, you know, you can extend him. Um, and that’s really all I had to talk about for Jaylen Johnson and the Hawks. Um, again, I’m sorry if the lighting sucks because having some technical difficulties. My ring light, it was sparking up when I was trying to turn it on this morning and it was just it was a mess. I literally have a flashlight, an LED light, and like a square other LED light. So, you know, we’re getting it done. And every time I look at that square light, my eyes just like I see boxes everywhere. Couple more things before we wrap this up. As always, I wanted to chat to y’all about this 2K series for a second that we’ve been talking about. I didn’t realize I was literally going to start the first episode and then I realized that 2K26 was coming out in like a month and then I’m just like by the time we get to episode eight or nine, like 2K26 is already going to be out. So, like what am I doing that for? So, in the meantime, if y’all want to see another series on 2K on the second channel, comment down below. Uh maybe a no money spent my team series or something like that we could do for maybe like a month, month and a half and then we’ll start the real my league series and 2K26 comes out the day it comes out. Second channel is Ethan intuition. Make sure to go subscribe link in description. And the very last segment of the day, my favorite segment of the day, the best segment of the day is the comment of the day. If you don’t know what the comment of the day is, my favorite comment from the previous video. It can be about literally anything. I don’t care. It’s my favorite comment. All right. He the man asked for comment of the day and so I’ll just give it to him. The comment of the day is going to be from Kyrie Thompson S3H. He says, “Devin Carter rookie breakdown. Looking forward to top 25 guards under 25 and the Devin Carter breakdown. Can you please put their actual height?” I don’t think Jacobe Walter is 6’5. Same thing with AJ Johnson about 6’4. I actually I do I’m I dive into the heights. Like I check their combine measurements without shoes on and then I do a little bit, you know, a little bit of math here or there. We’ll add a half inch. We’ll, you know, add an inch. We’ll round up a little bit. So, I do my best to get you the actual height. That’s why I said at the beginning of the video, I don’t know if Jaylen Johnson is actually 6’8. I think he’s a little bit bigger than that. But I do think Jacobe Walter is about 6’4 or 6’5. Same thing with AJ Johnson. But the reason I wanted to make this comment of the day is to see if you guys wanted to see either of these two videos. Do you guys want to see a Devin Carter video? If you do, comment down below. I will make that video if we get one or two extra comments on it. And then also, um, a top 25 guards under 25. I haven’t done a video like that in a couple months. So, if that’s something y’all would be interested in, let me know. I don’t know if I could do 25. I could do top 25, you know, players under 25, but I don’t know if I could do top 25 guards under 25. That’s a lot. But maybe I could do like 15 my my top 15 or 20 favorite guards that are under like 23, like just going in all the young guys. But if y’all want to see videos like that, just let me know. I’m open to all suggestions. The past the last video, Cam Whitmore, somebody asked for it a little while ago and then I found a great opportunity and time to do it. So, we made the Cam Whitmore video. So, yeah, man. If you made it to the end of the video, which you did, thank you very much. Go ahead, hit the like, the comment, the sub, the post notifications if that’s what you want. If you don’t want to, you don’t have to. Free will, but I would appreciate if you did. That boy Hansen Yang, just real quick. I’m pretty sure that’s how you say his name. If not, I apologize, but that boy was hooping last night. I love each and every single one of you. I appreciate all your support. Unless your name’s Kyle Kosma, then I don’t love you. And yeah, I appreciate you. I’ll see you on the next one, man. Peace out.

Today we talk about Jalen Johnson and the Atlanta Hawks Off-season!
I break down Jalen’s game from playmaking, finishing, defense, and more as well as the hawks best off season moves!

Shoutout to @KyrieThompson-s3h for comment of the day! Much love friend

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