De'Aaron Fox and Stephon Castle are the first San Antonio Spurs credited for the team's play of late, including their success in the NBA Cup. After Dylan Harper and, perhaps, Luke Kornet and Harrison Barnes, even Julian Champagnie's name may be one that comes up before Keldon Johnson. But a star teammate isn't missing the opportunity to give the 26-year-old forward his flowers.
“I think he's gotta be in contention to be one of the 6th Men of the Year,” Fox declared of his fellow former Kentucky Wildcat.
Johnson is averaging 13.1 points and 6.5 rebounds per game. He's putting up those numbers in 24 minutes per night on a young squad with the aforementioned firepower centered on Victor Wembanyama, who's been out since mid-November with injury.
“I think he's been one of the best players coming off the bench this year. And even when he's not scoring, he comes in, he just immediately gets an offensive rebound, or he immediately gets a loose ball, gets on the floor, or he scores,” Fox continued. “I think he brings so much energy for us, even games where we haven't started off well, he comes in and affects the game. Games that we're playing well, he comes in, he adds to that. So, he brings it every single night.”
“He did what he's done all year,” Fox concluded following the team's NBA Cup quarterfinal victory vs. the Los Angeles Lakers.
Over the last several years, Johnson has cemented himself as the team's ‘rah-rah' guy. The boisterous forward can often be heard post-game from the locker room in the nearby press conference area and following practices when players are meeting with the media. It's energy that's transitioning into a direction for a core reliant on 19-21-year-olds.
“Set the mentality for my team that, ‘Okay, we're not just coming here to play. We're coming here to win,'” Johnson said of the Cup win in LA.
“We're coming here to make noise. And, that's my job as a leader of the team,” Johnson continued.” And I feel like I came out there and led with my actions in the first quarter, and everybody, kind of, followed. It was a good vibe, and we continue to trust on each other, lean on each other throughout the game.
Keldon Johnson the ‘Heart and Soul' of Spurs
While Fox may have “KJ,” as his teammates know him, up for one of the NBA's most prestigious awards, his head coach lauds him another way.
“That guy is the heart and soul of the team,” Mitch Jonson said.
“He's relentless. I thought he did a phenomenal job of harnessing that relentless attacking energy and aggressiveness in playing the right way, getting off the ball when he saw a crowd, and letting the game come upon what was needed at the time. I thought he did a phenomenal job of that.” Johnson described following the 132-119 outcome in Los Angeles.
The season before Wemby arrived, Johnson led the Spurs in scoring at 22 points per game. Midway through his 7-foot-7 teammate's rookie year, Johnson was moved to the bench in order to give the second unit a shot in the arm. Though foreign at first, it's a move the 2019 SEC Freshman of the Year has since embraced.
“You see it all over the place, the kid's just falling on the floor. He puts his body in harm's way for the betterment of the team every game. We've got a lot of big personalities, and we've got a face of the franchise,” Johnson admitted before calling KJ the ‘heart and soul.'
The first-year head coach then concluded with what is becoming obvious for these Spurs.
“I think you can see it when you watch us for long enough.”
