The Atlanta Hawks are reportedly very high on Jalen Johnson. In fact, the team’s in-house belief is that Johnson has MVP potential.
Hawks Rebuilding Around Johnson
The Hawks have won nine straight games. They have the chance to extend that streak to double digits. The team made the decision to part ways with Trae Young and continued wheeling and dealing all the way up to the trade deadline.
The Hawks are soaring high with the sixth best net rating (+7.4) since the trade deadline on February 5th. A big part of that has been their sixth best defense in the league in that timespan, logging a defensive rating of 109.2.
Locker Room Vibe Shift
Dyson Daniel said, “everyone’s speaking up [and] the locker room’s gelling. Everyone’s speaking in the group chat. It feels like a whole different vibe.”
Jalen Johnson echoed those remarks in part with “[d]uring timeouts it was pretty quiet. A lot of times earlier in the season, we’d just fold,” Johnson detailed along with referencing a 23-point collapse at home against the Denver Nuggets on December 5th this season. “But our communication [now] allows us to stay together in those moments. Everybody’s coming to the timeout and speaking their mind.”
“This is the closest-knit team I’ve been on with Atlanta,” Johnson said.
Additionally, newcomer CJ McCollum has pushed a new mantra for this team: ‘[i]f you’ve got something on your mind … say it.’
Trade Rumours
Atlanta would have been a natural trade partner for Milwaukee given the control that the Hawks have over the Bucks’ top selections in the next two drafts, but league sources say that Atlanta has always viewed the notion of trading the 24-year-old Johnson for Antetokounmpo to be a complete non-starter.
The Hawks were not interested in trading Johnson for Antetokounmpo. Atlanta was very much covering their ears in December when Johnson’s agent, Rich Paul, on his Game Over podcast with Max Kellerman, suggested that the Bucks target Milwaukee native Johnson as the headline return in a deal for The Greek Freak.
“That was probably the first time in my career [hearing] the rumors and stuff like that,” Johnson told The Stein Line. “But I got reassurance from everyone around here that that’s not the plan. Obviously it means a lot …”
Hawks’ Confidence in Johnson
- The Hawks have won nine straight games.
- The Hawks have the sixth-best net rating since the trade deadline.
- The team believes Johnson has MVP potential.
The team seems to think highly of the franchise cornerstone.