Hawks miss Jalen Johnson in underrated area amid injury absence

Fourth-year Atlanta Hawks forward Jalen Johnson has missed the last three games and four of the last five with shoulder inflammation.

The Hawks are 1-3 in those games and they are 2-4 without him in the lineup this season. That is not totally surprising. The Hawks were 27-29 when Johnson played and 9-17 without him in 2023-24.

The positive impact Johnson has on the Hawks is often reduced to one side of the floor.

His multi-faceted offense is rightfully a focal point, with Johnson adept on the ball creating for himself and others and off the ball, cutting to the basket or as a screener. He has turned his offensive on-off differential around from last season to this one.

He went from a minus-4.4 differential in 2023-24 to a plus-5.9 mark so far in 2024-25, per Cleaning The Glass. But his defensive uptick has been significant too.

Johnson has gone from minus-4.0 in 2023-24 to minus-6.6 in 2024-25.

The most encouraging part about Johnson’s leaps on both ends of the floor is that he has already surpassed the halfway point to matching his minutes from last season. He finished with 1,888 last season and already has 1,163 this season.

Johnson has been everything the Hawks hoped he would when they drafted him No. 20 overall in 2021 and then signed him to a five-year, $150 million contract this past offseason.

There is a reason the Hawks have a vision for him and rookie No. 1 pick Zaccharie Risacher.

Hawks need two key improvements from Jalen Johnson

As with any player, there are things the Hawks could surely stand to see Johnson improve in some critical areas even with as good as he has been so far. Staying on the court is at the top of the list, and the most difficult to control.

Johnsons was lightly used over his first two seasons. But he dealt with a nagging ankle injury last season. 

This season he has been bothered by a recurrent shoulder injury.

Johnson vowed to address the ankle issue at the end of last season, so it is reasonable to expect a similar approach to this offseason. But the Hawks must find a way to manage it for the rest of this season.

They are not a good perimeter defensive team even with Johnson’s on-off differential ranking in the 98th percentile and Risacher, De’Andre Hunter, and Dyson Daniels on the roster.

Losing Johnson only puts them at a greater disadvantage.

For all the conversation about his eye-popping offensive prowess, Johnson’s defense has become just as essential for a Hawks team that needs him.

He could also stand to improve shooting the three-ball. He has shown the capacity, knocking down 35.5% from deep in 2023-24, and doing even better for stretches of the campaign. But he has connected on 33.1% of those looks this season and is a 32.9% shooter for his career.

Unlocking that part of his game would open up the floor even more for Johnson and the Hawks.