The Philadelphia 76ers‘ season has not gone as planned. Stars Joel Embiid, Tyrese Maxey, and Paul George are all out with injuries, the foremost being shut down by the Sixers for the season, and the last may be officially shut down within the next 48 hours.
Rookie Jared McCain had his first NBA season cut to only 23 games with a torn meniscus. Free agent acquisition Paul George has looked like a shell of his former self in his first season since leaving the Clippers. On top of that, the Sixers’ first first-round pick this year, a pick that was shipped out to the Oklahoma City Thunder to get rid of Al Horford‘s contract, is only top-six protected. This means that the Sixers will either have a top-six pick this season or they won’t have a first-round pick at all.
Currently, the Sixers have the sixth-worst record in the NBA, and if they continue to lose, they could hopefully end up jumping down a spot or two, giving them better odds of retaining the pick. If the Draft Lottery is kind, the Sixers would have their pick of an impressive draft class. While the Sixers likely won’t end up with the first overall pick, missing out on Duke’s Cooper Flagg, there are many quality players with All-Star upside the Sixers could add this offseason. One of the players that the Sixers could look at is Texas’s Tre Johnson.
Sixers draft target: Tre Johnson
To win in the great sport of basketball, one team must simply put the ball in the basket. This is something that Tre Johnson does especially well. Johnson, a freshman for the Texas Longhorns, is averaging 1 9.8 points a night on a 19-15 team. This leads not only the Longhorns in scoring but also the entire SEC division.
Johnson is shooting the ball efficiently as well. His 42.7% field goal percentage may not be overly inspiring, but he also shoots a team-leading 39.3% from beyond the arc (minimum 0.5 attempts per game) while taking 6.8 shots from deep a night. Johnson also averages 3.0 rebounds, 2.8 assists, and 1.0 steals a night.
Strengths
What makes Johnson such an impressive prospect isn’t just his volume but how he scores his points. Pull-up jumpers, isolation threes, shots off of screens – the 19-year-old can score at every level at an elite rate. Johnson’s shooting also looks like it should translate to the NBA level. His form is solid, and he has shown that he can score at any spot on the court. He can hit difficult shots, create his own offense, and has the instincts of a scorer, which will help him make an impact quickly at the next level.
This was most apparent in Texas’s 86-81 overtime loss against Arkansas on Feb. 26, where the freshman guard scored nearly half of Texas’s points, dropping 39 points in 38 minutes of play on 14 for 28 shooting. In the second half, Johnson was the catalyst driving the comeback effort. In overtime, he was the only player to score for Texas. Through an onslaught of threes and drives, the Texas native left it all on the court, breaking the Texas freshman single-game scoring record set by a skinny forward named Kevin Durant.
Johnson is also a serious threat in transition. Between pull-up threes, deadly drives, and accurate passing, Johnson is going to find a way to generate transition offense. He always finds a way to impact the game for his team. In Texas’s loss to the Sooners, Johnson, despite having the worst shooting game of his young college career, set career highs in both rebounds (seven) and assists (six).
Beyond just scoring, at 6’6″ with a 6’10” wingspan, Johnson has the length to be a menacing defensive presence. While he’s only averaging a single steal per game, Johnson does an excellent job at positioning himself on opposing teams’ drives, often covering the corner and providing help defense.
Johnson also uses his size to his advantage, clogging the passing lanes and using his quick hands to create turnovers or deflections. He’s also shown off his point-of-attack defense at times for Texas, demonstrating good footwork while contesting shots. While the defense is not the best part of Johnson’s game, it’s certainly not a weakness.
Weaknesses
At Texas, Tre Johnson is the team’s main source of offense. No other player on the team is averaging even 13.0 points a night. With Johnson being so young and having to carry the offensive load, he struggles with consistency. This showed up most recently in the March 3 game between the Longhorns and the Oklahoma Sooners, which saw Johnson go 0-14 from the field and 0-4 from three. This has also happened in other games for Johnson this season and is something he would need to improve on at the next level. That being said, this consistency issue could be alleviated at the next level, where he wouldn’t have to be the number one option.
Johnson also needs to improve off the ball. While he’s not a bad off-ball player by any means, he does seem to stand still on a lot of plays when he doesn’t have the ball in his hand. This may be a product of Johnson simply taking a break since he doesn’t have to drive the offense. He does lead the conference with 34.5 minutes played per game. That being said, Johnson still needs to improve his off-ball movement as he is always a threat to score and forcing defenses to respect that could lead to more open shots for his teammates.
Johnson also needs to improve his strength. As good as Johnson is as a defender on isolation drive, the guard can run into trouble when it comes to fighting through screens. At 190 pounds, Johnson could benefit from putting on some strength to fill out his frame. If he can increase his strength and buy in more often on defense, Johnson could be one of the best two-way guards in the NBA in a few years.
How he fits with the Sixers
Johnson would definitely have an immediate impact on the Sixers if they were lucky enough to keep their draft pick come May. At 6’6″, Johnson could reasonably play sometime at both the shooting guard and the small forward position for the Sixers. While the Sixers seem to have their guard rotation set with Tyrese Maxey, Jared McCain, and Quentin Grimes, Johnson’s versatility could provide a stable source of offense in the second unit playing guard and forward.
While he hasn’t had a ton of catch-and-shoot opportunities at Texas, he has shown flashes of that ability. As far as NBA comparisons go, he has shades of players like Bradley Beal, Devin Booker, and Monta Ellis. While he may not rise to the levels of Booker, his scoring ability and size will make him a prototypical guard-forward at the next level, which the Sixers could definitely benefit from adding this offseason.
