Our 2021-22 Atlanta Hawks player review series concludes with a look at the rookie season of forward Jalen Johnson.
When the Atlanta Hawks selected Jalen Johnson out of Duke with the No. 20 pick in the 2021 NBA Draft, it was a ‘best player available’ move with little if any foresight to his role with the team in 2021-22. With John Collins and Danilo Gallinari already in the fold at power forward, Johnson’s path to playing time on a team with deep postseason aspirations was murky from the moment he was drafted.