One of the looming questions heading into the season was how the longest tenured Spur fit into the team in the short and long term. A crowded backcourt and a commitment to play two center lineups were
going to limit the minutes available for some of the forwards, and Keldon Johnson seemed like a serious candidate to see his role reduced.
It’s early, and some injuries have delayed some decisions, but it would be impossible to explain the Spurs’ success so far without crediting Keldon heavily. Someone who was in serious peril of being lost in the shuffle as San Antonio grew has found a perfect role and has become arguably more important than ever.
The numbers are not that impressive. Johnson is averaging the lowest points, assists and three-point attempts since his rookie year. A player who had a season scoring 22 a game to go with three assists and over six outside shots not long ago has gone from offensive engine with a modern shot diet to bench energy guy who does his damage inside. It’s almost been progress by devolution, as he resembles more the battering ram that he was when he entered the league than the more refined and perimeter-oriented version that put big numbers during the rebuilding years.
Johnson always said he’d do anything asked of him to win, but a lot of players who have gotten even the faintest taste of stardom say things like that and then refuse to go back to getting their hands dirty. He’s walking the walk, simplifying what he does on the offensive end to fit what the team needs.
“Keldon is impacting winning more than he ever has, and it’s really cool to see,” Coach Mitch Johnson said after the win against the Nets. “You create your own luck, and he’s getting rewarded for that.”
It’s hard to argue with Gregg Popovich’s successor. The Spurs are outscoring opponents with Keldon on the floor for only the second time since he cracked the rotation and the first since the 2021/2022 season. He’s also getting more of his points on unassisted buckets and has picked up the mantle for Jeremy Sochan as the team’s designated offensive rebounder, logging three a game and getting a third of his total points per game on second-chance opportunities. What he does is not glamorous, but it’s been essential on offense.
Johnson’s complete lack of ego, combined with the right role for someone with his talents, has resulted in a fantastic start in which the good from Keldon has vastly outweighed the bad. It doesn’t mean he’s completely reshaped his game, but simply adjusted to a complementary role. The strong drives and bully ball in the post are still there, but he’s been more opportunistic about picking when to go in attack mode. The outside shot has been falling at an unsustainably high percentage, but to his credit, he’s taking the right kind of threes for him: wide open and on catch-and-shoot opportunities. Everything seems streamlined.
The impact of individual defense from perimeter guys who are not at the point of attack often, nor play passing lanes, is hard to quantify, but Johnson, who in the past looked like a liability, has not been a weak link on a team that has been elite at stopping opponents. The Spurs have been better with him off the floor, and he has mostly guarded role players, but he’s done fine. With so few games played, defensive stats are mostly noise, but opponents have shot a measly 25.7 percent from the field when Keldon has been the closest defender. Johnson will never be an elite defender, but the effort in trying to contest shots has been there, and he’s now more often in the right place to do it.
His impressive play comes at a perfect time. A concern about Johnson was that his importance in the locker room threatened to surpass his impact on the floor severely. He’s been a leader since an early age and is beloved by teammates, but as the Spurs continued to add talent and his development stalled, the fear was that, as much as everyone in the organization valued his positive energy, he could see himself relegated to a bit role. Being the Spurs’ version of late-career Udonis Haslem is not something a player in his prime would find desirable, so an eventual breakup either via trade or once his contract was up felt, if not downright inevitable, then considerably likely.
It’s only been a few games, but Johnson is changing the narrative by showing value in the perfect role for him. It remains to be seen how the return of Jeremy Sochan affects his performance, since Johnson has found success by doing a lot of what Sochan normally does, at least on the offensive end, instead of drifting to the perimeter like he had in recent years. The two reasons for optimism about the fit are that Johnson has shown that adaptability is one of his strengths, and the more interior-focused Spurs might have room for two energy forwards who push the pace, crash the glass, and attack mismatches in the paint even if their perimeter skills are somewhat lacking.
It’s been a joy to watch San Antonio play to start the year, not only because we are witnessing Victor Wembanyama’s ascension to MVP-level superstar but also because everyone else around him seems to have found a way to contribute.
In Johnson’s case, it feels like his skills are getting used in exactly the right ways at the right time. He’s always had the mentality of a winning player and the temperament of a leader. Now, he also has the on-court impact to match his undeniable importance off the floor.
