Former Duke basketball forward Jalen Johnson was off to a blazing start in his third Hawks campaign.
Jalen Johnson, a former five-star recruit who left the 2020-21 Duke basketball team midseason to work on his game back home in Wisconsin, has looked like a top NBA Most Improved Player candidate this year for the Atlanta Hawks.
Through Johnson’s 15 games thus far, the 21-year-old forward has almost tripled his scoring average from last go-round. He’s putting up 14.1 points, 7.3 rebounds, 2.4 assists, 1.1 steals, and 1.0 blocks per outing while shooting 59.4 percent from the field and 42.5 percent beyond the arc.
But during Atlanta’s 136-108 road win over the Washington Wizards on Saturday, Jalen Johnson, who went No. 20 overall to the Hawks at the 2021 NBA Draft, sustained a wrist injury that will keep him out of commission for the next four to six weeks, according to a report on Sunday from The Athletic’s Shams Charania. Unfortunate.
The Hawks, whose head coach is 57-year-old Duke basketball alum Quin Snyder, now in his second year at the helm in Atlanta, boast an 8-8 record this season.
Their other Blue Devil, 2021-22 one-and-done forward AJ Griffin, sees limited minutes off the bench, averaging only 3.3 points, 0.6 assists, and 8.1 minutes per game across nine appearances.
On Sunday evening, they fell on the road to the Eastern Conference-leading Boston Celtics and former Blue Devil sensation Jayson Tatum. They return to action when they visit the Cleveland Cavaliers on Tuesday at 7:30 p.m. ET.
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