Keldon Johnson ends rookie season on strong note with Spurs

The NBA is officially back and the playoffs are about to commence. It’s been over two weeks since the league returned in the Orlando bubble, and cross your fingers but so far so good.

That said, there has already been a few standout players — one of which is the Spurs’ Keldon Johnson. Johnson was the Spurs first-round pick and third Wildcat selected in the first round of the 2019 NBA Draft.

Johnson, up until this restart, hadn’t seen too much success at the sport’s highest level. That changed in Orlando.

While averaging a mere 5.3 points per game before the restart, Johnson showed star-level potential throughout the Spurs eight games in Orlando and their three matchups leading up to the actual July 30 kick off.

Not posting superstar numbers, he’s been solid enough to catch the eye of his legendary coach.

“They still have mustangs out West? He’s [Johnson] one of those kind of guys. He’s kind of wild and very energetic, very aggressive, takes no prisoners, sticks his nose in, likes contact. All-in-all, he’s a very competitive individual,” Pop said to reporters after the team’s warm-up games.

Johnson ended the season with two back-to-back 24-point performances. He averaged 14.1 points on 64% shooting in the bubble. He also averaged 1.4 threes on 65% (!!) from downtown.

That type of efficiency, although over just eight games, is wildly impressive. His percentages from deep, of players that attempted at least two triples, ranked No. 1. He was that good.

Needless to say, Johnson is becoming more comfortable with the speed of the NBA, and that’ll certainly bode well for his performances to end the season and into next.

A Sea of Blue comes loaded with the best Kentucky Wildcats links, news, analysis, and some other fun stuff, so be sure to ‘like’ our Facebook page and follow us on Twitter.