https://youtu.be/hTgozYWs35k
Keldon Johnson: small forward of the future for the Spurs? The eye test says yes. The stats test says yes. The emotions test says yes. The taste test says yes. The test test says yes. The “ask Spurs fans” test? A resounding yes shouted from the highest mountaintop. There’s so many yeses here, it’s impossible to conceive of a scenario where Johnson somehow gets displaced from his trajectory of being a core wing player for the Spurs going forward.
The Spurs organization has already gazed into their crystal ball to come to the same conclusion that I just reached. Johnson is getting 32 MPG per game right now, and he’s second on the team in total minutes played. He’s being prioritized to heck right now, and he’s responding.
Honestly, Johnson is probably the best player drafted outside the lottery in the 2019 draft. The only competition is, like, Brandon Clarke. Or Tyler Herro, depending on which picks actually count as the “lottery” (I feel like it changed recently but I don’t care enough to actually look it up). How do the Spurs keep doing this? How do they keep finding diamonds in the rough with their middling picks? Other teams just scramble around in the rough for years without finding so much as a single piece of white dog crap, meanwhile, the Spurs organization strolls out there, sticks their hand in the dirt, and pulls out a handful of gleaming diamonds without even trying. Is it scouting? Is it luck? Is it straight up magic?