Jalen Johnson is 1 of 5 players averaging at least 18 ppg, 10 rpg and 5 apg this season.
The Atlanta Hawks will be without one of their standout players for the rest of the season.
Forward Jalen Johnson will have surgery on a left shoulder injury he suffered in last Thursday’s 122-119 loss to the Toronto Raptors, the team announced today. Johnson was injured when he fouled Scottie Barnes in the second quarter. He left the court immediately and did not return to that game and was battling right shoulder inflammation entering the game vs. Toronto.
Johnson, in his fourth NBA season, was enjoying a career-best campaign with career highs in scoring (18.9 ppg), rebounding (10 rpg) and assists (5 apg) while also contributing 1.6 steals per game and shooting 50% overall and 31.2% on 3-pointers.
He is one of five players this season averaging at least 18 ppg, 10 rpg and 5 apg (Giannis Antetokounmpo, Nikola Jokić, Domantas Sabonis and Alperen Sengun are the others). To date, Atlanta has been outscored by 8.5 points per 100 possessions in Johnson’s 987 minutes off the court.
Before the 2024-25 season, the Hawks rewarded Johnson with a five-year, $150 million extension.
The 20th pick in the 2021 Draft out of Duke, Johnson broke out last season with career highs across the board, including points (16.0 per game), rebounds (8.7), assists (3.6), steals (1.2) and blocks (0.8).
Despite missing 14 games with a wrist injury in December of 2023, Johnson started 52 games after making only a combined six starts in his first two seasons. He almost tripled his scoring average from 5.6 points in his second season.
The Hawks (22-25) did not have Johnson in the lineup for Tuesday’s 100-96 home loss to the Houston Rockets and are No. 9 in the Eastern Conference.
Johnson, star point guard Trae Young, defensive-minded swingman (and NBA steals leader) Dyson Daniels and rookie wing Zaccharie Risacher are Atlanta’s core players. For the rest of this season, however, the Hawks must soldier on without one of those four names.
The loss of Johnson places more pressure on rookie forward Risacher, the No. 1 overall pick in last year’s NBA draft, to play a bigger role. Risacher is seventh on the team with his average of 10.5 points per game.
Risacher has been selected to play in the Rising Stars event in San Francisco on Feb. 14 as part of the three-day NBA All-Star lineup.
Information from The Associated Press and NBA.com’s John Schuhmann was used in this report.
