BROOKLYN, N.Y. — It is becoming almost common to read the box score and see San Antonio Spurs' Keldon Johnson have an offensive explosion.
Ahead of the team's game versus Brooklyn, Johnson strung together back-to-back 30-point games against New York and Dallas. He also has totaled five 30-point scoring nights including a season-high 33 points versus the Bulls on October 28, 2022.
And for head coach Gregg Popovich, the team's forward has come a long way on the offensive side of the court since entering the NBA.
"When he first came in [to the NBA] he was kind of a bull in a China shop. He's gotten a lot more sophisticated," Popovich said.
Johnson is currently averaging a career-high in scoring at 21.5 points per game and a career-high in two-point attempts at 10.6 per game.
But what has really helped improve his offensive game is his three-point shooting. That's been his biggest offensive key according to Popovich.
"He's learned to shoot the three," Popovich said. "He wasn't a three-point shooter when he came in. He's learned that."
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Heading into Monday's game versus Brooklyn, Johnson was connecting on 35 percent of his threes. That's the second-highest average of his career so far.
To close out 2022, he connected on 33 percent of his three-point tries in December and went 4-5 from the three-line versus Dallas on New Year's Eve.
That's not to say Johnson's three-point shot is automatic.
He still struggles from beyond the arch as he was hot from long distance to start the season at 43 percent and dipped in November to 31 percent from the three-line.
However, beyond the scoring averages and three-point shooting, Popovich notes how much Johnson has learned how to put himself in better offensive positioning even knowing when it is time to pass the ball to create offensive opportunities for himself.
"He's learned to position when people are closing out on him. How to move. How to find space when he doesn't have the ball," Popovich said.
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Johnson's offensive game has certainly been more diverse as his career moves forward.
Consider this, in his rookie season, he went from shooting at the rim at 73 percent to now 58 percent according to Cleaning The Glass.
He has a more balanced offensive attack whether it's getting to the free throw line (a career-high 4.8 free throw attempts), hitting the three-point shot, making shots just outside the paint, or still scoring at the rim.
He's emerged as the team's leading scorer and ranks among the top scorers at the small forward position behind Jason Tatum (30.9 points per game), LeBron James (29.9 points per game), and ex-Spur DeMar DeRozan (26.3 points per game).
"So all those things he's developed in the past couple of years," Popovich said.
Twitter: @KENS5, @JeffGSpursKENS5