{"id":71430,"date":"2024-04-01T13:07:10","date_gmt":"2024-04-01T17:07:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=71430"},"modified":"2024-04-01T13:07:10","modified_gmt":"2024-04-01T17:07:10","slug":"hawks-rising-star-jalen-johnson-return-imminent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/04\/01\/hawks-rising-star-jalen-johnson-return-imminent\/","title":{"rendered":"Hawks Rising Star\u2019s Return Imminent"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>As they attempt to maintain their spot in the 2023-24 Play-In Tournament, the Atlanta Hawks will have rising star <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/j\/johnsja05.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Jalen Johnson<\/a> back in the lineup on Monday, Apr. 1 (per The Athletic\u2019s Shams Charania).<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Hawks forward Jalen Johnson (sprained ankle) will return tonight vs. the Bulls, sources tell <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/TheAthletic?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">@TheAthletic<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Stadium?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">@Stadium<\/a>. Johnson \u2013 in a career season averaging 16.1 points, 8.6 rebounds and 3.5 assists \u2013 has been out since March 18 after suffering an ankle sprain against the Lakers.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/ShamsCharania\/status\/1774829251662876936?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">April 1, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h2>Hawks Rising Star Jalen Johnson\u2019s Return to Imminent<\/h2>\n<p>A multifaceted forward <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/03\/17\/hawks-mini-lebron-jalen-johnson-mindset-stellar-season\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">who\u2019s being compared to<\/a> league legend <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/j\/jamesle01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">LeBron James<\/a>, Johnson has had an eye-opening season, averaging 16.1 points, 8.6 rebounds, 3.5 assists, and 2.0 combined steals and blocks per game. His biggest obstacle has been his health. Out since Mar. 18 with an ankle injury, Johnson has been out for at least a three-game stretch on three separate occasions. He\u2019s missed nine total games this season due to ankle injuries.<\/p>\n<p>Unfortunately for Johnson, he\u2019ll be ineligible for the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/03\/31\/nba-awards-end-season-predictions-2024\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">2023-24 Most Improved Player Award<\/a>. With just eight regular season games remaining on the Hawks\u2019 schedule, he\u2019s only played 51 games this season<\/p>\n<p>The NBA now has <a href=\"https:\/\/bleacherreport.com\/articles\/10093879-explaining-the-nba-rule-changes-for-2023-24-season\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">a 65-game minimum<\/a> to be eligible for end-of-season awards and all-league honors. It\u2019s an unpopular measure among fans and players because otherwise deserving candidates \u2014like Johnson \u2014will be overlooked. Nonetheless, it raises the bar for the league\u2019s standard-bearers and incentivizes players to not rest for games if they\u2019re not injured.<\/p>\n<p>In any case, Johnson and the Hawks\u2019 focus is on the postseason. Now 10-8 since <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/y\/youngtr01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Trae Young<\/a> sustained <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/03\/02\/scottie-barnes-injures-hand-out-indefinitely\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">a pinky tear<\/a>, Atlanta has navigated a difficult road admirably. With that being said, Young is inching back to the court as well.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Hawks say Trae Young is making progress in his recovery.<\/p>\n<p>Next step of his rehabilitation: introducing small finger motion exercises this week.<\/p>\n<p>His status will be updated as appropriate. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/8MCUXIvlK0\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/8MCUXIvlK0<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Lauren L. Williams (@WilliamsLaurenL) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/WilliamsLaurenL\/status\/1772723402635157781?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">March 26, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Last week, the Hawks announced that the three-time All-Star had taken the next step in his recovery process.<\/p>\n<p>Though he still hasn\u2019t practiced, his return is highly anticipated. Young has averaged 26.4 points, a career-high 10.8 assists, and a career-high 1.4 steals per game this season. He\u2019s also shooting 37.1 percent from 3, converting over 36 percent of his long-bombs for the third time in his career.<\/p>\n<p>Per the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nba.com\/news\/key-dates\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">2023-24 NBA schedule<\/a>, the regular season ends on Apr. 14, and the Play-In Tournament will take place from Apr. 16-19.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As they attempt to maintain their spot in the 2023-24 Play-In Tournament, the Atlanta Hawks will have rising star Jalen Johnson back in the lineup on Monday, Apr. 1 (per The Athletic\u2019s Shams Charania). Hawks forward Jalen Johnson (sprained ankle) will return tonight vs. the Bulls, sources tell @TheAthletic @Stadium. Johnson \u2013 in a career [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5008,"featured_media":71444,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4,1608,62,3],"tags":[3853,1143,4745,596,1349],"class_list":["post-71430","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-hawks","category-basketball","category-nba","category-news","tag-jalen-johnson","tag-nba-awards","tag-nba-injuries","tag-nba-playoffs","tag-trae-young"],"modified_by":"Quenton S Albertie","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71430","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5008"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=71430"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71430\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/71444"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=71430"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=71430"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=71430"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}