San Antonio Spurs: Keldon Johnson is continuing his bubble breakout

Keldon Johnson has continued his tremendous form from during the NBA bubble. The San Antonio Spurs are benefitting from his play this season

Keldon Johnson broke out in the NBA bubble restart for the San Antonio Spurs. In the eight games played, he averaged 14.1 points, 5.0 rebounds, 1.1 assists, and 1.1 in 26.1 minutes per game. He even had his first career start.

What was most impressive was his efficiency. His shooting splits were phenomenal even though it was a small sample size. Johnson went .638/.647/.824 in the bubble and this shooting was on 7.3 shot attempts from the field, 2.1 shot attempts from deep, and 4.3 shot attempts from the line.

The offseason came way too quickly for Johnson. When the season restarted, Aldridge was going to be back in the lineup. The Spurs also committed to Derrick White to the tune of four years and $73 million dollars so the cards were stacked against Johnson for shot attempts and playing time.

Keldon Johnson has been playing out of his skin for the San Antonio Spurs

Fortunately for Johnson, playing time has opened up this season. Bryn Forbes, who started last season for the Spurs has gone to the Milwaukee Bucks and with White being sidelined with injury, Johnson has stayed in the starting lineup.

What he has also done is he has seized the opportunity with both hands and it is up to the other players to win the spot back off him. In the six games played so far this season, Johnson is averaging 16.2 points, 7.5 rebounds, 2.3 assists, 1.5 steals, and 0.7 blocks in 29.6 minutes per game.

He is also still shooting at an amazing clip with his shooting splits being .500/.430/.860 which has him perilously close to the 50/40/90 club. Obviously, as teams learn more about him, Johnson’s numbers will most probably regress to a more normal level.

He is doing this on solid shot attempts though. He is averaging 11.7 attempts from the field including 3.5 attempts from deep. He is also averaging 3.5 attempts from the line which is not surprising considering how aggressively he is attacking the hoop.

Johnson is deceptively strong and has obviously been given the green light to go hard in the paint. He is taking 49.3 percent of his shots from inside three feet and only five of his 71 shots have been dunks showing that he is finishing close to the rim with pressure.

However, he displayed in the Spurs’ six-point loss to the Los Angeles Lakers that he will play whatever role the team needs him to. He took 11 shots from the field, nine of them were from beyond the arc. He made five from deep and his only two attempts from inside the arc. It was a game that showed great maturity.

Johnson’s off-ball movement is a sight to behold. He seems to know when to attack the paint and when to stay at home as a floor spacer. He has been assisted on all of his nine 3-point attempts and 65.4 percent of all 2-point field goal attempts.

The Spurs released news that White has suffered another toe injury in his return game, a separate injury that kept him out of the season start. This means that Johnson has time to continue to push his claim as a starter and there is nothing that suggests he will not be able to do this.