Will the Atlanta Hawks win a championship in the Jalen Johnson era?
In a Bleacher Report story called "1 Major Question for Every Team After 2026 NBA Offseason," NBA analyst Greg Swartz posed this question for the Atlanta Hawks: Can Jalen Johnson be the best player on a championship team?
Johnson is the new franchise player in Atlanta in the post-Trae Young era.
"Moving forward, the Hawks will need to decide if Johnson can be the centerpiece of a championship team or if they'll need to consolidate some of their good guards/wings to go all-in for another star," Swartz wrote.
Johnson had a terrific 2025-26 season for the Hawks. He averaged 22.5 points, 10.3 rebounds and 7.9 assists per game while shooting 48.9% from the field, 35.2% from beyond the arc and 78.8% from the free-throw line. The Duke product recorded 49 double-doubles and 13 triple-doubles in 72 games.
The 24-year-old Johnson made his first All-Star and All-NBA team last season. The swingman made the All-NBA Third Team.
As long as he continues to improve each summer, the sky is the limit for Johnson, who averaged 19.5 points, 7.7 rebounds and 5.2 assists per game in the 2026 playoffs. The Hawks lost to the New York Knicks in the first round in six games.
The Hawks had a busy offseason. They signed CJ McCollum to an extension, re-signed Jock Landale, acquired Devin Carter from the Sacramento Kings, Aaron Wiggins and Lu Dort from the Oklahoma City Thunder and Ryan Nembhard from the Dallas Mavericks, declined Jonathan Kuminga's team option and drafted Kingston Flemings, Zuby Ejiofor and Henri Veesaar in the 2026 draft.
Atlanta's core moving forward is Dort, Wiggins, McCollum, Johnson, Dyson Daniels, Nickeil Alexander-Walker and Onyeka Okongwu. On paper, that looks really good.
"I don’t compare ourselves to others," McCollum told HoopsHype about the Hawks' future. "Right now, it’s about focusing on getting better individually and collectively. We can’t control how other teams look. You can control your approach to the game. Teams will get better and evolve.
"For us, it’s about focusing on improving our intangibles, understanding our schemes, and what Quin wants from us. Then, building on the momentum and experience that we had playing in the playoffs in a big environment on the road and in our home games. We played against a team that won the NBA Finals. All those things help you as you go into a new season."
It will be fascinating to see if the Hawks win a championship in the Johnson era. Johnson enters next season with career averages of 14.2 points and 7.4 rebounds per game.
