SB Nation • 9 min read

25 in 25: No. 10 Jalen Johnson

This is a series that looks at the best Atlanta Hawks of the past 25 seasons dating back to the 2000-01 season. Ranked players 16 to 11 can be found here.

The hope is that when I do the 30 in 30 list of

the best Hawks five years from now, Johnson has by then risen to the top tier. But as is, he enters his fifth year with the Hawks looking to make an All-Star jump this upcoming season.

Johnson was a supremely talented but mercurial draft prospect back in 2021 after he left Duke in the middle of the basketball season to prep for the draft on his own. As a former five-star prospect out of high school, the talent was never the question.

So even when the Hawks tapped him at 20th overall in the 2021 NBA Draft, there were a lot of questions about just how far away was Johnson from contributing to the team. Well, his entire rookie season was essentially a redshirt campaign with him logging about as many games in with the College Park Skyhawks (21) as he did with the Hawks (22). And that oversells his NBA action that season as the minutes total wasn’t even close (760 and 124 respectively).

But him being able to go out and show his stuff in the G League was clearly invaluable to his development, and after one season as a reserve forward in 2022-23, he grabbed ahold of the starting power forward spot after the departure of John Collins in the 2023-24 season.

Using his freakish 6’9” 220-pound frame and quick twitch athleticism, he broke onto the scene that season with his ability to get up and down the court and play above the rim. In his first season as the starter, he averaged 16.0 points, 8.7 rebounds, 3.6 assists, 1.2 steals and 0.8 blocks a contest — and he was on the way to serious Most Improved Player consideration until his season was cut short of the 65-game requirement.

Johnson struggled with wrist and ankle injuries throughout the season, and as a result he was limited to 56 games — including missing the play-in game against the Chicago Bulls. But it was clear he had tapped into something that could make him a foundational piece of the franchise going forward.

For this reason, I believe it made the decision makers less wary of sending Dejounte Murray out on trade with the hopes that Trae Young and Jalen Johnson could be the new cornerstones of the organization. A five-year, $150 million contract extension handed out to him that offseason was further proof of the franchise’s confidence in him to lead the way.

And so, with Murray now in New Orleans, Johnson stepped into a role as a secondary option. And boy did he deliver in that role, nearly averaging 20/10/5 in half a season’s work. And his impact on the team on both ends of the court was basically irreplaceable.

With him arguably on an All-Star trajectory with those numbers by late January, Johnson again suffered some unfortunate injury luck. A torn labrum in his left shoulder ended his season prematurely — something that completely altered the team’s plans at the trade deadline and beyond.

Now, as he enters his fifth season in the NBA, the sky is the limit as long as he’s able to suit up for 65+ games for Atlanta — and especially for any postseason games in which they may find themselves in 2026. Johnson is among the most talented players to wear a Hawks jersey in the last 25 years, and while his production thus far can be debated, I think he’s been a top ten Hawks player over the last 25 seasons through his first four years because of his massive two-way impact.

He’s been able to protect the rim like a rangy big while also being able to switch out on perimeter-oriented wings and forwards depending on the matchup. His across-the-board production on offense, including racking up big assist numbers with his craftiness and willingness to pass, is rare for someone his size and ability.

To me, Johnson has been the second-best player on the team the past two seasons on teams that, had they been healthy, would have been playoff teams in the East. So, he earns the number 10 spot on the list of the 25 best Hawks of the past 25 seasons. And the best-case scenario is that this low of a ranking looks foolish five years from now.

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10. Jalen Johnson

11. Jason Terry

12. Bogdan Bogdanović