Jalen Johnson Has Clear Area to Improve as Hawks' Franchise Player

Jalen Johnson is the Atlanta Hawks' franchise player, but he needs to improve his efficiency in isolation.

In some ways, this is typical for a point forward like Johnson. It's a problem many players with point guard skill sets, surplus size, and a poor jump shot share.

Johnson does plenty of his damage in transition. That's fine — the Hawks want to play fast anyway — but he needs to be a greater threat in the half-court.

That starts by improving his ability to score in isolation.

During the 2025-26 regular season, Johnson scored just 0.78 points per possession (PPP) in isolation. That landed him in the 25.8th percentile league-wide.

There's no sugarcoating this: That's bad. Awful, really.

It needs to be better.

Nobody will be mistaking Johnson for prime (or even post-prime) Kevin Durant in 2026-27. That's not the goal here.

But it would be nice if he could find himself above the 50th percentile in isolation PPP.

For some, isolation is the definitive marker of a superstar player. Those people overstate the case. Johnson's outstanding passing vision is useful in the half-court when he can't get the Hawks going in transition. Still, isolation scoring is a major component of the NBA game.

And Johnson isn't the only player leaving something to be desired there.

Would you believe it if I told you Onyeka Okongwu was the Hawks' best isolation scorer in 2025-26?

It's (partially) true. Okongwu's isolation volume was extremely low, but his 1.0 PPP still landed in the 74.8th percentile.

The more substantial takeaway from the data is that the Hawks just didn't isolate very often. That's perfectly acceptable. Quin Snyder is known for his motion offense, and it's good if his Hawks are trained to share the rock. Still, they need to be able to grind out isolation possessions. In the postseason, that becomes more important.

Perhaps that will never be Johnson's game. The Hawks have frequently been linked to star scorers, and maybe that's what they need. That said, until they acquire Johnson's co-star, that responsibility has to fall at least partly on his shoulders.

He doesn't have to do it alone. Nickeil Alexander-Walker could improve in this area, as could CJ McCollum. That said, so long as Johnson is the team's presumptive franchise player, this is an area he needs to improve in.

If he can't, the franchise can only go so far.