With Trae Young out of the picture, burgeoning star Jalen Johnson is now the Hawks’ franchise

In the NBA, name recognition remains an active element in how a player is viewed and evaluated, from peers, fans and pundits.

Players with notable draft stock, such as former top selections, or players who used to be All-Stars will enjoy the fruits of that past by being placed — for the most part — ahead of players without those same accolades.

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Jalen Johnson of the Atlanta Hawks remains one of those players who gets overlooked because of peers who have more accolades or had more hype coming into the league. But that could be changing now for the 20th selection of the 2021 NBA Draft out of Duke with the Hawks moving on from Trae Young.

Breaking out and comparing favorably to bigger names

The 6-foot-9 power forward, who appears likely to make his first All-Star team, is about as good as they come, yet he rarely features in the national discourse around the league.

Johnson is averaging 23.5 points, 10.3 rebounds, 8.3 assists and 1.3 steals, and shooting 52% from the floor while playing quality defense. Yet he is rarely mentioned in the same breath as Orlando’s higher-profile Paolo Banchero, despite the fact that it’s become exceedingly difficult to find a real argument for ranking Banchero above Johnson.

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This isn’t meant as a jab on Banchero, who is a formidable player shooting 45.9% from the floor and 26.5% from 3-point range, but rather to illustrate the level Johnson has reached and why we need to talk about him.

With Young out of action earlier this season, Johnson was thrown into the primary creation role in Atlanta with head coach Quin Snyder showing full buy-in. The Hawks went a respectable 13-9 during that stretch without Young. But when the star guard returned in mid-December, they lost their next five games.

Johnson is converting over 70% of his shots within 5 feet of the basket, and he’s upped his 3-point conversion rate to 35.5% on the season, which used to be his biggest weakness. To some extent, it still is, but he’s at least making progress in that area and is fast approaching a territory where he can be viewed as reliable from that distance.

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Taking the numbers aside for a minute and his visual play speaks volumes. The 24-year-old is far more determined in practically every action, even when he slows the game down for himself.

The ball-handling is more crisp, and his passes come more naturally now. He changes speeds to manipulate the defense far more effectively, and most importantly: He’s recognizing when he can utilize his height and strength more.

Johnson’s more calculated approach to basketball, combined with an organic sense of internal player development, has created one of the league’s best two-way forwards — and flat out one of the top players in the Eastern Conference.

What does the future hold for Johnson in Atlanta?

Can Johnson continue to carry the Hawks in this role as the face of the franchise? That remains to be seen.

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What can be concluded already is that Johnson can step up and fill a fairly large creation gap left by Young. Johnson is the focal point of the offense and has embraced the responsibility of setting up others and getting them shots within the right circumstances.

Given his age, skill set and production, it’s outright odd how the larger discourse isn’t focused on the inevitability of Johnson further improving.

Unlike players within a similar age group — and even those with more recognizable names — Johnson has routinely improved while others have either stagnated or just not matched his rate of development.

Now might be time to realize we’re all looking at a player who could make some real noise in this league, especially if the Hawks can build a sustainable product around him, one that should feature plenty of outside shooting to optimize Johnson’s shot creation.

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The carte blanche approach with Young didn’t field the necessary results in Atlanta, and now the organization has stumbled upon a player who can do many of the same things as Young while offering legit size and being gifted defensively.

It remains odd how Johnson flies this much under the radar. His raw stat line alone should raise eyebrows, but his actual impact and fingerprints on a game should raise a question: How high up in the pool of NBA players should he rank?

Odds are good that most answers will come in way too low.