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Jalen Johnson (Josh Smith)


sillent

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Jalen Johnson may be the closest player we've had since Josh Smith.

A stat stuffer in all five categories Pts, Reb,Blks, Stls and Assist. 

I know he will make mistakes early on but it should be fun to see him in the summer league. Especially with a Chris Paul/Trae like player in Sharife Cooper. 

We could see the Josh Smoove/Chris Paul like tandem some of us wished we saw a long time ago. Who knows Mays may be the Joe Johnson lite skip the iso lol...

Summer league is summer league but if Jalen Johnson develops properly he could be the most complete player we've had since Josh Smith. Hopefully he uses a better IQ than Josh choose to and develops a better shot/consistent defense.

If he does this kid could be the star Josh was supposed to be and can truly play the 1-5 depending on matchups and circumstances on both ends of the floor.

We truly got 2 steals and I definitely know one has the heart. If Jalen Johnson has the heart and puts in the work to get better we could be looking at another super star to go along with Trae.

Crazy because Cam, Dre and OO have the potential to be there as well because of the impact they make on both ends of the floor. We've only had glimpses of Cam and Dre to a longer extent. We haven't seen nothing from Onyeka yet. Wait until he's 3 & D. Not to slight JC either no one in the league has his comparables 3pt%/lob threat and he's still getting better in other areas with alot more yrs to improve.

John gave us flashes of J Smoove atleast on one end of the floor but Jalen Johnson  should be a scary good reminder. John and Jalen together especially with a Trae and Cooper combo should definitely bring the highlight factory all the way back to Atlanta!!

 

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  • 1 month later...

Josh was my favorite player.

Cam is my favorite player now. Obviously I am a huge fan of defense/2 way players.

Jalen Johnson just might be the offensive version of Josh Smith. Unlike Smoove we may scratch our head at times with Jalen on the defensive end.

Once Jalen develops his offense though he may become the offensive player we wish Smoove was.

I'm still waiting on the player that gets  double digits in every stat. I don't even know what to call it (quince double) Pts, Rebs, Blks, Ast & Stls.

Even still Jalen Johnson may have a great opportunity to reach that one of these days. Maybe he atleast does it in the G League.

Either way can't wait for the season to start & all the promise that comes along with it!!

 

 

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Josh Smith is who he reminds me of as well. Jalen will get the player development Josh didn't get so I'm confident he'll do well here. He has too much talent not to. I was honestly impressed with what I saw during Summer League. 

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We don't have to.  But we might.

Facing pre season, the Hawks will decide whether Jalen Johnson stays with the Hawks or starts the season with the SkyHawks.  He really needs the playing time.  Atlanta has plenty of players well and available to begin the season.  Will he stay up?  Will he be sent down?

To me, he should go down.  But the decision is not up to me or any of the Squawk family.  Isn't this a wonderful problem to have!

:smug:

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The nice thing with Jalen is that he's coming into a winning culture and organization.  Josh came into a cluster and was never really coached the way he needed to be nor did he have the vets around him to deter his worst habits.  Jalen has to prove himself to the established core on the team, and I think, that is a good thing.  I have high hopes for the guy, but we'll see how he develops. 

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3 hours ago, AHF said:

I don't know if Jalen has all the physical tools that Josh Smith did - will have to watch more of him to truly assess.  But what I do love in this comparison is that Josh had Grand Canyon sized holes in his game that with his stubborn nature were ultimately were his undoing as a player.  I don't see any real holes in Jalen's game.  Not that he is amazing at everything at this point but I don't see the glaring weaknesses that would make the parallel to Josh Smith really complete.  Because as great as Josh was at so many things, his jumper and insistence on emphasizing jump shooting overshadows every one of his gifts.

It is so early in Jalen's career that I'm not really putting expectations on him at this point.  He is a very exciting upside talent that could be a huge value pick for the Hawks.  I'm just eager to see him come along.

Josh was also a mediocre-at-best on-ball defender. Had trouble moving his feet on the perimeter and bit on too many pump fakes in the post. It's the reason why he was never taken all that seriously for all-defensive teams despite being perennially among the leaders in blocks and getting lots of steals for a forward too. Jalen doesn't have Josh's instinctive nose for the ball on help D, but he has the potential to be a much better on-ball defender if he has the work ethic, perseverance, and discipline. We'll see if he does.

Edited by niremetal
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Had this conversation before, but Jalen could be the biggest star of all the young guys outside of Trae.  If he didn't have sacred cows playing in front of him the entire board would be projecting him to be the future of the team.  

I am on the Jalen Johnson hype train until I see a reason to get off.  

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1 hour ago, Final_quest said:

Had this conversation before, but Jalen could be the biggest star of all the young guys outside of Trae.  If he didn't have sacred cows playing in front of him the entire board would be projecting him to be the future of the team.  

I am on the Jalen Johnson hype train until I see a reason to get off.  

I just have to point out that NBA GMs thoroughly disagreed with this assessment.  By using the loaded term "sacred cows" you make it seem like either the posters are blindly giving love to the returning players or the team management is unjustly going to give minutes to our existing forwards over Jalen who would otherwise by "the future" if people would only treat him fairly.  If other GMs shared that assessment, he would have been picked in the lottery for sure.  This draft was deep but not "we are going to pass on someone clearly better than Hunter, Cam, Huerter, Bogi, Gallo, OO and JC" deep.

21 minutes ago, JayBirdHawk said:

I will wait to see him play against NBA competition before proclaiming what he is or isn't - what I will say I am excited about what I saw in Summer League.

This.  (And frankly I'm not going to proclaim what he is or isn't after a handful of games against NBA competition either.  We've seen that with Trae, MCW, and many other players.)

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2 hours ago, Final_quest said:

Had this conversation before, but Jalen could be the biggest star of all the young guys outside of Trae.  If he didn't have sacred cows playing in front of him the entire board would be projecting him to be the future of the team.  

I am on the Jalen Johnson hype train until I see a reason to get off.  

Please elaborate on these sacred cows playing in front of him.

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1 hour ago, AHF said:

I just have to point out that NBA GMs thoroughly disagreed with this assessment.  By using the loaded term "sacred cows" you make it seem like either the posters are blindly giving love to the returning players or the team management is unjustly going to give minutes to our existing forwards over Jalen who would otherwise by "the future" if people would only treat him fairly.  If other GMs shared that assessment, he would have been picked in the lottery for sure.  This draft was deep but not "we are going to pass on someone clearly better than Hunter, Cam, Huerter, Bogi, Gallo, OO and JC" deep.

This.  (And frankly I'm not going to proclaim what he is or isn't after a handful of games against NBA competition either.  We've seen that with Trae, MCW, and many other players.)

NBA GM's are idiots as a collective group. They do dumb ish all the time. Do you think Anthony Bennett was in the same stratosphere as Giannis? Well he went 1st overall and Giannis went 13th. 

Many of the posters that are high on Jalen are projecting his potential. Of course none of us have seen him in an NBA game yet, but some of us don't need to wait for the same idiots who passed on him to admit they were wrong to see that he is clearly ultra talented and a freak athlete.

And lets all be clear about this when discussing Jalen. He did not fall to #20 because there were question marks about his playing ability. There was no consensus scouting report that said he couldn't do X,Y, or Z well. So that's not a good argument. He was passed up because of question marks about OFF the court stuff. His loyalty to the teams he played with and his overall desire to compete. That's why he fell. 

His talent is undeniable. Even to the idiot GM's. We were in a position to take a flyer on him because of the depth we have. We needed a PG but he was too good to pass up, and if we missed then oh well, we still a squad ready to compete in front of him.

Teams played it safe because they couldn't miss. We could afford to make a splashy pick. Jalen was a slam dunk so far

 

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1 hour ago, RedDawg#8 said:

Teams played it safe because they couldn't miss. We could afford to make a splashy pick. Jalen was a slam dunk so far

 

Really? None of the 17 teams that picked before us were in a position to take a swing? Golden State (with two top-15 picks) couldn't? San Antonio (which took a big swing at Primo) couldn't? Memphis? OKC with its multiple lottery picks? None of them could afford to take a swing on someone who has the talent you think he has?

And for him being "a slam dunk so far"--he has accomplished nothing so far, so that's just a weird statement.

I think Jalen was a great pick precisely because if he turns out to be a bust, it'll be no biggie given where we were picking in the draft and the amount of young talent we already have. But there's no way to know which he is until we see him for an extended stretch against NBA rotation players (assuming he earns that opportunity, which in itself depends on how well he plays in the preseason and in College Park).

Edited by niremetal
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1 hour ago, marco102 said:

Please elaborate on these sacred cows playing in front of him.

Honestly believe that the board would be more excited about Jalen if it didn’t threaten the hierarchy of where they expect other players on the team to be.  In other years he would be thought of as a future starter or all star.  The reaction to him feels off.  
 

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Hurry up and wait.  Hurry for the pre season to start and then we wait.  Does any one remember, I think they said he had real big hands.  Now, if he has a soft touch we just might have something.

:smug:

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I don't want him to be anything like Josh Smith except for weak side blocks and Josh's ability to get steals and just generally be a defensive pest when he had the mind for it. Josh Smith is IMO the greatest disappointment in my watching the Hawks since 1979. A coked out Eddie Johnson in the 80's is a close second.

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C

57 minutes ago, niremetal said:

Really? None of the 17 teams that picked before us were in a position to take a swing? Golden State (with two top-15 picks) couldn't? San Antonio (which took a big swing at Primo) couldn't? Memphis? OKC with its multiple lottery picks? None of them could afford to take a swing on someone who has the talent you think he has?

And for him being "a slam dunk so far"--he has accomplished nothing so far, so that's just a weird statement.

I think Jalen was a great pick precisely because if he turns out to be a bust, it'll be no biggie given where we were picking in the draft and the amount of young talent we already have. But there's no way to know which he is until we see him for an extended stretch against NBA rotation players (assuming he earns that opportunity, which in itself depends on how well he plays in the preseason and in College Park).

We have more uber-talented young players than we have minutes to give right now. GS is in salary cap hell and needs to find good cheap talent they can groom to surround their expensive core. They also just drafted a player who dropped out of school early and are now trying to get rid of him. I can see why they pass on Jalen. Spurs are rebuilding, they need to hit and establish a culture, can't risk guys who aren't willing to buy in to Pop's way. OKC could have for sure, don't know why they didn't. Memphis who knows.

Look. Jalen will have growing pains and take his lumps, nobody is saying he is perfect, but the talent is there. He looks really good for a guy picked 20. He looks as good if not better than JC did during his rookie offseason/summer league. It was quite obvious JC was a steal at 19, and now he is rated as a top 5 pick in his class.

This 2021 class looks very VERY good so far, much better than 2017. So Im not going to predict Jalen jumps over 15 other guys, but his ceiling is sky high and he can easily make a case to have been in the top 10 let alone lottery. You do not find many kids his size that can dribble, pass, shoot and play above the rim. He is a slam dunk because players picked 20 don't flash that kind of ability right out of the gates. They usually all have holes. All Jalen needs is time and experience. The game is there.

 

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This is an important year for Cam and Dre. Jalen is right on their heels. If they have another injury riddled season, it could open the door for Jalen and it might shut on one of those two.  His talent level is on par with theirs. If he doesn’t get the minutes, we will just have to wait and see. 

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