Jalen Johnson turned a breakout season into the biggest step of his young career, finishing 2025-2026 with career highs of 22.5 points, 10.3 rebounds and 7.9 assists a game while earning his first All-Star selection and first Third Team All-NBA nod. He missed only 10 games, tied for the second most triple-doubles in the league and pushed the Hawks into a new offensive shape that ran through him.
That rise matters now because Johnson is no longer just a promising forward with upside. He became the focal point of the offense when Trae Young was absent, and he handled more of the ball-handling and facilitating than before. In that role, he also sharpened his outside shot, lifting his three-point percentage over what he had shown the year before and giving the Hawks a more versatile creator who could score, rebound and initiate possessions in the same night.
The numbers also carry a harder edge. Johnson had been building toward this level before a torn labrum ended his 2024-25 season after 36 games, all starts, and he arrived this year looking like the same player but stronger. He was the team's best player and leading scorer in the postseason series against the New York Knicks, yet his efficiency slipped when it mattered most. He shot 29% from three-point range in that series, a sharp drop from the regular season and a reminder that the leap from regular-season star to playoff force is still unfinished.
Johnson said he spent the first month and a half to two months after the season watching film from that Knicks series, studying how he could learn from it and grow because, as he put it, he wants to win championships. That is the real next step for him now: keep the production that made him an All-Star, but turn the playoff tape into something more useful than a cautionary note. The Hawks are also expected to spread some of his load, with Kingston Flemings able to take over part of the ball-handling and facilitation and Luguentz Dort easing some of the defensive burden, but how much that changes Johnson's game remains the open question heading into next season.
