Jalen Johnson won Eastern Conference Player of the Week for Week 16, marking the second time the Atlanta Hawks’ franchise player has won the award this season. He joins elite company, as only Jaylen Brown, Jalen Brunson, and Tyrese Maxey have earned the EC POTW honors twice times this season. Perhaps being named Ja(y)len is a cheat code to winning the award.
While Johnson is not an MVP candidate this season, it’s not a far cry to say he could enter these conversations soon, particularly as his supporting cast (theoretically) improves with time. The only player with more POTW awards than Johnson was Shai Gilgeous-Alexander with three – who was also last year’s MVP.
What makes Johnson such an interesting mention in this elite cast is that his scoring is the worst of his abilities in the “big three” stats: points, rebounds, and assists. Johnson leads all forwards in defensive rebounding percentage per Cleaning the Glass, and he leads all power forwards in potential assists per 75 possessions according to Databallr.
Of course, Johnson is still a blossoming scoring threat, averaging 23.6 points per game on positive efficiency. But for the NBA to recognize him for POTW twice, something only the elite scoring threats of the league can claim, is quite telling. If he can marginally improve as a scorer – or if Atlanta can support him with better offensive talent that, in turn, improves his output – Johnson will be considered among the best in the league.
Johnson is a one-of-a-kind player who the Hawks are lucky to have
Hawks fans haven’t exactly been the most positive this season, and for good reason. After being widely projected to finish in the top four of the East, Atlanta has fallen all the way down to the Play-In yet again. Like a toxic friend, the Hawks promised to change yet remained the exact same.
Only this time, there is reason to believe future change might be real. The Hawks have a draft surplus for the first time since the Dejounte Murray trade, and they have the opportunity to create a tremendous amount of cap space quite easily (by allowing McCollum, Kuminga, and Hield to walk).
If the Hawks can find another steal in the free agent market, like they did last year with Nickeil Alexander-Walker, they’ll suddenly have a potent five-man core and the draft capital to splurge for the perfect complementary piece. Add in a top-10 pick from the New Orleans Pelicans in this year’s draft, and Atlanta could flip their fortune from Play-In lock to Eastern Conference powerhouse.
And with a little bit of offensive help, the sky is the limit for Jalen Johnson.