Keon Johnson’s role in Win vs. Memphis Grizzlies

Keon Johnson played 16 minutes in the Brooklyn Nets’ win against the Memphis Grizzlies and finished with four points, seven rebounds, one steal and a +2 in plus/minus.

This was an outlier for him in terms of minutes. In reality, according to StatMuseJohnson had played just 15 or more minutes in six NBA games (out of 34 available) since early last year before Wednesday night.

Entering his first season as Nets head coach, Jordi Fernández has proven to be flexible and pragmatic with his rotations. This means that playing Johnson wasn’t just an arbitrary decision to fill minutes while other players were missing.

How did he perform in this unique opportunity?

Johnson checks in for the Nets with 6:28 left in the first quarter in a lineup alongside Ben Simmons, Cam Thomas, Cam Johnson and Dorian Finney-Smith. His first moment of clarity is almost instantaneous.

After Cam Johnson misses a floater, Johnson picks up Jake LaRavia and cuts him off in transition. He forces the Grizzlies wing into an errant pass that almost turns into a turnover. He then stays in the game and hinders Santi Aldama’s shot without burdening the Spanish attacker. Throughout, Johnson remains engaged and disruptive while pursuing multiple endeavors.

In fact, the first interesting look at the offense comes when Johnson doesn’t even touch the ball. Memphis guards Simmons with Jay Huff at center. Johnson, who is being defended by LaRavia, comes forward and sets up a slip screen.

Huff isn’t used to defending such situations, and neither is LaRavia. There is talk of a defensive slump at Memphis, but the Nets cannot take advantage of it. It’s creative use of both guards, neither of whom are strong shooters but can play athletically while reading a defense downhill.

Johnson’s activity level during his 16 minutes on the floor was evident. In this clip, Johnson screens again – this time for Dennis Schröder – and helps generate a three.

He stays active around the glass and gets an easy bucket to clean up a loose offensive rebound. These guard-guard screening plays could be something the Nets can utilize more.

Johnson played a solid defensive game. It was also clear that the Nets wanted him to tap into his aforementioned energy on this side of the ball.

Throughout the game against Memphis, the Brooklyn guard occupied the entire court and guarded with real intensity. Johnson takes LaRavia to court and quickly enlists him to help Noah Clowney. Johnson then pushes into transition, which his head coach Fernández certainly appreciated, and generates a potential corner three.

In the second clip, LaRavia again feels the brunt of Johnson’s defense. Johnson stays ahead of him quite easily, forcing him into an errant pass that results in a Ziaire Williams steal and breakaway dunk.

The Nets also used Johnson on Ja Morant, although those reps also went to Williams. In one of their first matches – the first clip in the video above – Johnson puts up a good fight but is called for the foul.

Johnson learns from this in the procedural fragment. He doesn’t make a mistake when Morant attempts the low collection, but instead accompanies the all-star guard and stays vertical when challenging cleanly at the rim.

The third clip is a score for Morant, one of the best guards in the league, before Johnson is thrown out for a questionable second tech. However, the effort is commendable and the idea is clear: Johnson was one of the few Nets players Jordi Fernández trusted to keep up with Morant in terms of foot speed and athleticism.

This clip illustrates that, even if the end result is unfortunate, considering it’s a Grizzlies bucket.

Johnson takes Morant first at 30 yards, full field. Later he denies him the ball in half court and does everything he can to make this happen. Johnson is almost instrumental and successful in blowing up Memphis possession, but the Grizzlies are ultimately saved.

Now that we’ve revisited Johnson’s 16 minutes against Memphis, it’s much clearer why Fernández trusted the former Tennessee player to play more minutes than usual. Johnson worked hard first and foremost, but he also made quick decisions, understood his role on offense, crashed the boards when he could and did his best to be as disruptive as possible defensively.

Johnson can build on this by continuing to play simply on both ends. His role is simple: make the people around him better. If Johnson can add extra possessions for his team by running on the glass, or create open looks by setting up a bruiser, he should make the most of these small margins.

Going forward, however, his three-pointers should fall at a higher clip. Johnson missed both of his attempted triples against the Grizzlies.

This season with the Nets, he is 0-for-7 from Downtown. Johnson has made 59 of his 170 total attempted threes in his NBA career for an unsteady 34.7% mark. A total of 41 G League games with the Long Island Nets last season, according to RealGMhe converted 68 of his 186 attempts from deep (36.6 3P%).

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