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To know San Antonio Spurs forward Keldon Johnson is to know what he's going to say when he addresses the media. Every situation is met with the same attitude. Whether he's mentioned as part of a possible trade, or his offensive touches dwindle, or his role changes, the longest tenured Spur publicly displays the same mindset.
“This year, I faced it head-on.”
Johnson said that in answering a question from ClutchPoints about whether his consistency could be attributed to this having been his first full season as a sixth man. In truth, Johnson could have been talking about any of a number of challenges he's faced.
“It was a big change for me last year. That's no secret,” the former Kentucky Wildcat shared about his relatively new role.
When the Spurs traded for De'Aaron Fox in February, Johnson's name surfaced regarding potential inclusion. When the team was interested in dealing for Lauri Markkanen last summer, his name hit that rumor mill. Any time the Silver and Black are said to be a player in a potential exchange, Keldon Johnson's name finds its way into the fold.
Keldon Johnson breaks down being ‘underappreciated'
At 12.7 points and five rebounds per game off the bench, Johnson may have been the most consistent Spur this season. Factor everything in, and ClutchPoints asked the former Kentucky Wildcat if he felt taken for granted and, perhaps, underappreciated.
“Nah.”
“I feel like sometimes your teammates play better,” Johnson then elaborated. “You've got to be happy for that. Sometimes it may be night. I may score 20. Sometimes Julian may score 20. The part of being a good teammate is that you've got to be happy when you see a teammate having success. There were some nights like that this year. I was happy for my teammates. It's a little different. There's nothing wrong with it being different, you've just got to roll with the punches and adjust.”
Three seasons ago, the Chesterfield, Virginia native led San Antonio in scoring at 22 points per game. The team drafted Victor Wembanyama that ensuing summer while 2020 lottery pick Devin Vassell continued his ascent. During the 2023-2024 campaign, Gregg Popovich moved Johnson out of the starting lineup in an attempt to boost scoring from the second unit. It's a role he continued this season.
“I guess in a way, yeah, for sure,” the 29th pick of the 2019 first round responded to ClutchPoints about whether coming off the bench for a full season aided his production.
“You try to build consistency and having the same role all season. I was just building on that and really growing my game on and off the court.”
Johnson's contract becomes even more team-friendly this summer. After making $20 million and $19 million the last two seasons, he'll make $17 million in each of the next two.
“I just tried to be as consistent as possible, not only performance-wise, but teammate-wise, being with my teammates and making sure that I'm being a teammate that everybody wants to play with.”
Chatter is seemingly often trying to surround Johnson with new teammates. The 25-year-old veteran appears to handle that talk just like he does everything else.
