How Jalen Johnson has supplanted Trae Young as Hawks' franchise player

Two players in the NBA are currently averaging at least 20 points, 9 rebounds, 7 rebounds and 1.5 steals per game. One is Nikola Jokić, the best player in the world. The other is Jalen Johnson, the best player on the Atlanta Hawks -- yes, it's official. Johnson is looking like an early lock for his first All-Star selection. 

Who knows how the actual All-Star rosters are going to take shape under the new format, but know this: Johnson is an All-Star whether he ends up with the official designation or not. On Sunday in a victory vs. Charlotte, he made Hawks history. 

Johnson is a legit freak athlete whose skills are coming into full bloom. With his size and speed and ability to leap buildings in a single bound, it would be easy for him to get into troubling trying to create openings that aren't there. His knack for playing fast without being in a rush is superstar stuff. 

"That's something that has always stuck out to me [about Johnson]," a league scout told CBS Sports. "He covers ground so easily; his head is always up. He's never out of control. You talk about guys who just look comfortable out there. He's processing a bunch of high-level stuff, mostly on the fly. ... I haven't watched a ton of their stuff this year, but I guarantee [the Hawks are] thrilled with what he's doing."

Look how composed Johnson is on this transition possession, surveying the chess board as he trails the play so that by the time he catches he can calmly shot fake, get the defender to bite and steam downhill without a hint of hurry in his step. 

When the game is moving this slowly for a player with this kind of speed, look out. Johnson is the central figure in an Atlanta attack that is, at its best, all gas, pressuring opponents into 16.8 turnovers per game (No. 5 league-wide) and running it down their throat on the other end (22.3 points off turnovers per game, No. 3 league-wide). 

That's the macro. But there are micro plays happening all over that speak to Johnson's evolution as a star. Take the shot fake in the clip above, for instance. Defenders have to bite on that now because Johnson is shooting 41.5% from 3, up from 31% last year. And even that number is being dragged down by Johnson's 1-for-11 start from 3 through his first five games. Over his last 11 he's at 50% (21 for 42). 

"I don't know if he'll stay up above 40 [percent], but I don't think that's a fluke or anything," the same scout said of Johnson's shooting. "You could see these last few years his confidence [as a shooter] was growing. Again, I would use the word comfortable. ... I think he probably still prefers to drive it, but now he can beat you both ways."

Indeed, Johnson's 130.2 points per 100 shots, per CTG, rank 13th among all players with at least a 25% usage rate. It's basically identical to Giannis Antetokounmpo's 130.6 and higher than the likes of Luka Dončić, Kevin Durant, Jalen Brunson, Devin Booker and Victor Wembanyama, to name a few. 

So now you've got a weaponized shooter and high-flying/freight-train finisher (only six players have totaled more than Johnson's 208 paint points, his 62 fast-break points rank 12th league-wide and his 26 dunks are 17th) who is now equally capable of leading breaks as a de facto point guard. 

At 6-foot-8, Johnson is a terror as both finisher and facilitator in the open floor, but even for a team that runs as much as Atlanta, more than 80% of possessions are taking place in the half court. If Johnson is going to be a true No. 1, he has to be able to make plays in a crowd, and he's proving more capable of doing so seemingly every night. 

He can do it as the initiator:

He can do it as the roller:

Johnson's 30.9 assist rate, per CTG, is a serious number. Among forwards, only Giannis is posting a bigger number. It sounds blasphemous to put Johnson in the same category as Giannis and he's certainly not, but there are similarities. You could call Johnson a poor man's Giannis in the most complimentary way possible and you wouldn't be wrong. It's a bit like calling Alperen Sengun a poor man's Jokić. 

Speaking of Sengun, he is one of the league's best passing big men. The Rockets run consistent offense through him, and he's never posted a 30.9 assist rate. Neither has Domantas Sabonis and Bam Adebayo, two prototypical high-post hubs. It's too much to say Johnson is at prime Draymond Green levels in terms of his ability to dice up defenses as a one-step-ahead passer, but he's not far off. 

Jalen Johnson

ATL • SF • #1

PPG22.4

APG7

SPG1.69

3P/G1.375

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This ability to orchestrate offense from a variety of positions is a major change for a Hawks team used to Trae Young operating in a manner as predictable as it is effective. With Young, as great as he is with the ball, you know what's coming. He's going to have the ball at the top. He's going to run pick and roll. He captained the Hawks to a 117.4 offensive rating last season when he was on the floor, almost the same exact rating Atlanta has posted this season with Johnson on and Young off, per CTG. 

So the offense is more or less staying the same as it's been with Young at his highest power, but here's the rub: With Young on the floor last season, the Hawks posted a 116.8 defensive rating. This season, Atlanta is posting a 111.7 D-rating with Johnson on the court and Young off, which would be a top-five mark. 

In fact, since Young went down with a sprained MCL on Oct. 29, the Hawks have ranked as the seventh best defense in the league. They have consistently been a bottom-10 to bottom-five defense with Young over the past three years. And again, the offense isn't falling off. The 118.4 rating since the Young injury is nearly identical to the marks Atlanta has boasted with Young on the court at any point over the last three seasons. 

That's not just because of Johnson. The Hawks have added a number of good players, but the key is that they're all in the mold of Johnson -- two-way guys with versatile size who play defense and don't dominate the offense as a one-trick pick-and-roll pony. 

Look around the league. The best teams function as a model of their best player. The Hawks are Johnson's team. They miss Young's ball handling and overall creation without a doubt, and there's a reasonable world in which Young thrives upon his return with all this defense and him and Johnson operating at this level. But the Hawks cannot just turn back into Young's team. We've seen where that bus takes you. The play-in. And the Hawks were seemingly headed right back in that direction before Young got hurt. They were 1-3 before the injury and they're 10-4 since (counting the Brooklyn win in which Young only played seven minutes). 

It will be interesting how this goes when Young comes back. By default, will he start to control everything again? Will the defense go back in the tank? And if it does, will the Hawks look to trade him? Is anyone even that interested in trading for him? He's up for a new contract this summer, but the Hawks haven't given any indication that they're going to make him a max offer. And they shouldn't. He's no longer their best player. That distinction now belongs to Johnson.