Join UsAfter a successful four-year career at San Diego State, Johnson cemented himself into the list of greatest Aztecs in history. After making it to the National Championship game in his last year, Johnson transferred to a senior-studded Arizona team to have a final run at the title before going pro.
While finishing his college career at 11.5 points per game on 53% shooting, Johnson continued to show his role as a connecting forward at Arizona. A crucial area that NBA decision-makers wanted to see him improve was his shot-making from downtown; despite taking over twice as many attempts, the fifth-year senior converted 38.7% of his attempts. For reference, he shot under 30% in three of his previous four seasons.
The shooting is not the only thing that matters. This scouting report will focus on Johnson’s total NBA role.
Physical Profile
At 6’6.25” in socks, Johnson is built like a bruizer-typed forward at 224 pounds. He has broad shoulders and an incredibly well-filled frame. His upper-body strength made him a mismatch in the post, especially against non-forwards and big men.
While he’s undersized to play as a full-time four, Johnson’s floor spacing and verticality compensate for the lack of size. He has great length, with a wingspan measured at 6’10.25”. In terms of playing in multiple positions, his 42-inch vertical jump makes him physically able to play as a smaller five in shooting-heavy line-ups.
While the term “small-ball five” is being thrown out there too loosely with undersized forwards, Johnson’s physical appeal and athletic testing prove that he can be plugged into multiple positions, depending on how a team’s offensive scheme looks like.
An area where NBA decision-makers have to take notice is his non-fluid hips. He’s heavy-footed with a below-average first step. However, he accelerates well, making it more feasible that he can guard in space. At Arizona, Johnson invested heavily in his conditioning, leading to him playing close to 28 minutes per game, a 30% jump from his average in his last two seasons at San Diego State.
Defense
On an NBA floor, Johnson’s off-ball defense against cutters is the most crucial part of his game. He has to show he can compensate for the lack of foot speed with his decision-making to maintain a team’s defensive rating.
An important nuance is that conference opponents, especially in the latter stages of the season, deferred to more motion-based offenses to take advantage of Arizona’s slow-footed frontcourt. With their big man being under the rim most of the time, this allowed Johnson to play closer to the perimeter.
In terms of his rotations, Johnson’s experience is visible as he does well to rotate on the first play below. However, his strength doesn’t favor him in matchups in the post, where he gets fouls called against him much quicker, whereas in the NBA, more contact is allowed. Despite being in control at 2.1 personal fouls per game, that’s an important context to add.
The heavy feet become more visible in the second play, where Johnson steps out of the paint with his pivot foot, making the acceleration to stay in front of the cutter much more complicated. We see a similar situation occur in the fourth play below, where Johnson meets the full-speed cutter around the mid-post, being too late in his contest at the rim.
An NBA decision-maker will hold plays like these against him, as Johnson can match the intensity in terms of quickness against big men, as shown in the third play while struggling against opponents playing other positions.
His heavy feet also make it tougher for Johnson to guard against close-out attackers. While he’s focusing on gaining advantages by forcing ball handlers for the contact, he shows he’s vulnerable to fakes and jab steps as his non-fluid hips lead to him losing the mobility battle more often than not.
However, an underrated part of his struggles is in his defensive footwork. In the first play below, Johnson puts his pivot foot too far out, making it an uphill battle to match the intensity in terms of speed against the average guard or wing. Instead of closing out with more composure, keeping his pivot foot closer to his other foot to be able to slide his feet quicker, Johnson continues to make it easy for his opponents to beat him off the dribble.
The second play below is an example of how much more comfortable he looks when he’s keeping his feet closer to each other. Nevertheless, the struggles continue as he shows he’s vulnerable to fakes. Despite his heavy feet, the quickness of his second jump was impressive. Flashes as these should make an NBA decision-maker wonder how Johnson would look if he went through an NBA strength and conditioning program, focusing on his upper-leg strength and improving his footwork.
Despite his struggles, Johnson’s second jump, verticality, and excellent ability to absorb contact, an NBA decision-maker will be willing to see what they can change to make his heavy feet more NBA-compatible. With Johnson turning 23 around draft night, he’s still young for a fifth-year senior, making it more likely an NBA franchise would be willing to invest time in his development.
Johnson’s positional versatility comes in his pick-and-roll defense. In a switch-heavy NBA game that focuses on playing at a higher pace, Johnson shows that his case to be on an NBA floor becomes much more appealing. What stood out is that despite his heavy feet, Johnson is a very good screen navigator.
Arizona pushes for the ICE in the first play below, where Johnson uses his technique of slightly bending forward to maintain a cushion when he’s sliding between the screener and ball handler. In that way, he’s compensating for the lack of lateral quickness, where he’s using his strength advantage to force ball handlers to beat him in the physical matchup. An important detail NBA decision-makers focus on is how he looks after the miss. In Johnson’s case, he’s pushing the tempo while sprinting in transition.
He does that in the first two plays, where his San Diego State days come to mind, where he operated as a play-finisher inside the arc in a complementary role. This helped him build up great habits, which effectively helped him to become one of the best pick-and-roll defenders among forwards in college.
As mentioned earlier, an NBA decision-maker must consider to lessen the physical strength to win some speed via an NBA strength and conditioning program. The third play shows why, as he does everything well, from detecting the screen to fighting through it. But against jab steps or hesitation moves while Johnson is in motion, that’s making it much tougher for him to keep opponents in front of him. And that’s okay, as the physical tools and decision-making are the two main factors of potential growth in this aspect. Because if he does become better, showing more foot speed, his pick-and-roll defense will be able to keep him on an NBA floor defensively.
In the fourth play, Johnson gets stuck in the screen. And that’s where the most crucial part of evaluating pick-and-roll defense comes into play: tagging. Johnson tags the screener, helping him to be more physical to get past the screen without fouling. Because if Johnson doesn’t tag and fully engages contact, he’ll be called for a personal foul. Despite opponents figuring out the areas to exploit in Arizona’s defense, the details show that it only helped Johnson’s NBA appeal, as the intangibles in his profile keep impressing.
When it comes to defending spot-up shooters, Johnson’s role becomes much easier to him. With his excellent verticality and long wingspan, he uses long strides in his closeouts against shooters. His lack of foot speed is being compensated by his good feel for the game when it comes to rotations. On a better-spaced NBA floor, that’s much more feasible.
In the first play, Johnson’s quick to react to the relocating shooter, despite having his eyes on the ball handler. A less-experienced player would likely be caught ball-watching with the big man at the elbow being ready to put the stagger screen. His awareness makes it easier for Johnson to defend against shooting from quicker guards and wings on the perimeter.
Another crucial aspect in effective closeouts against spot-up shooters is not to overhelp on defense to have to follow it up by covering more distance to the shooter. Johnson’s experience and length come in handy. His wingspan helps him to afford to stay further away from where he helps defense needs to be. This is visible in the second play below. However, an area of development here is that his reactionary speed on the closeout should have been a tad quicker, especially considering that he has to cover more ground on a better-spaced NBA floor.
In the third play, we see Johnson continue to be comfortable, even when he’s playing as the weakside defender while being trusted to cover more space. When closely looking at his positioning, he does well in keeping his pivot foot exactly between the paint and the perimeter, where he can afford to put one or two steps between the ball handler as help defense, and still be back to close out on the shooter on time.
In the last play below, we see some flashes of Johnson’s hips that could be developed in the next few years. When he’s in motion, he shows he moves more quickly than having to operate from a standstill. An area NBA decision-makers will see improvement when he’s going through an NBA strength and conditioning program.