With summer league play over (job well done Shelden and Acie,
nabbing All-RMR
honors - and Al Horford might have if he hadn't hurt his ankle), and
nothing else really going on until the start of training camp in October, I
thought this would be a good time to take a look at the Hawks roster and check
out everyone's status on the team. It should be a good way to kill some time
over the next few weeks and help bridge the gap until the season starts!
Today we continue the series
with All-Star SG
Joe Johnson. How do you
think these players will do?
Leave your answers in the
comments!
Joe
Johnson
2007 Stats: 25.0 ppg, 4.2 rpg, 4.4 apg, 47% FG, 75% FT
2007 Highlights: Pretty tough to pick out Joe's best games in any
year, given his consistently excellent play. There was the Hawks-record
seven-straight games with 25+ points to start a season, that was pretty nice.
There was also a stretch of five straight games with 30+ points from November 28
- December 5. But my choice for his best game is the 39 points he dropped on
Orlando in a
93-90 road win
on January 26, followed closely by a 37-point performance in another road
victory for the Hawks, the
101-99 OT
thriller at New Jersey on Feb. 4. Of course, it's also hard to forget
the 12 points he scored as a participant in the
2007 NBA
All-Star game, the first appearance of his career (but hopefully not the
last).
What he needs to work on this summer: Joe's game is pretty much above
reproach at this point. He does everything well - defends his man, shoots for a
high percentage, and is able to score in a variety of ways. If there is one
thing I'd like to see Joe do more, it's get to the foul line and make more free
throws once he gets there. For a guy who is as good a shooter as JJ is, he only
shot 75% from the line in 2006-07. Joe only averaged 5.5 FTs per game, whereas a
player like Dwyane Wade, got to the line 10+ time a game, and you can see where
Joe could improve his scoring average by 2-3 points a game if he drew a few more
whistles.
Otherwise, Joe just needs to continue to develop his arsenal. All the great
players continue to adapt their game, adding new wrinkles every year to keep
their opponents off-balance. It will be interesting to see what, if anything, JJ
added in his spare time this offseason.
Outlook for 2007-08: Clearly, Joe is the most important piece to the
puzzle for the Hawks. Last season he suffered through a rash of injuries
for the first time in his career, perhaps due to his Team USA duties throughout
the previous off-season. This summer he was able to take it easy, which
hopefully will keep him healthier. Teams know that stopping Joe is the key to
stopping Atlanta, so he will once again have to deal with a steady diet of
double- and sometimes triple-teams.
Joe's teammates developed some confidence in his absence towards the end of
last season, especially Josh Smith. Hopefully, their play also instilled some
confidence in JJ as well, who at times went it alone late in games to try to win
games for the Hawks. That's a lot of pressure for one player to deal with, and
not a great recipe for success if other teams know exactly what you are going to
do when you need buckets. If the other Hawks can continue to produce at a high
enough level to take some of the heat off, Joe can become even more dangerous to
opponents and the team could really take a step forward this year.
We are only a few weeks away from finding out!
