Alize Johnson is showing why the Indiana Pacers drafted him. He is killing it in the G League.
Usually, late second round picks mean nothing. When the Indiana Pacers drafted and signed Alize Johnson in the 2018 NBA draft, nobody really knew what to think or what expectations to put on him.
In summer league, he showed off a high motor and turned some heads. In five games, he posted 12.4 points and 8.6 rebounds per game while playing effective defense and hardly ever turning the ball over. It was summer league, so it was taken with a grain of salt, but he made a few people realize that he has some game.
Then the NBA season started, and before the G League season started, Alize Johnson got to get some NBA minutes. He racked up 9 minutes, in which he hit a shot and pulled down 4 rebounds. He got his defensive rebound rate over 50 (!) percent, and he got to score his first NBA points:
Despite showing all of his flashes of solid play, there isn’t enough room on the Indiana Pacers for Alize to get minutes. But the team still wants him to develop, so they sent him to the Fort Wayne Mad Ants to get playing time.
Many Mad Ants players have been thriving this season, and Alize Johnson is no exception. Entering games on November 29th, Johnson is posting an insane stat line. 19.2 points, 14 rebounds, 2.5 assists, and 1.2 steals is just the tip of the iceberg.
He is shooting 55.2 percent from the field and 50 percent from deep, video game numbers. His PER is 22.5 (a terrible stat, but the only advanced stat that is easy to find for the G League), his offensive rating is a gaudy 127.1, and his 62.3 true shooting percentage is setting the world on fire. He is an unstoppable force.
Some of the individual games Johnson has had seem fake. He had 27 points and 20 rebounds in one game. He had 18/14 in another. In his second-lowest scoring game, in which he had only 14 points, he ripped down 21 rebounds. His hustle is evident in the stat lines, and it is more apparent if you watch the games:
Johnson’s defense has been at worst adequate, but remember it is against minor league players. Who knows how it would translate to the pros. But he has been so good on the glass and scoring that it almost doesn’t matter at this point in his development.
If Alize Johnson keeps this up, the Indiana Pacers are going to have to give him a look at some point. Who knows what kind of pro he will end up being, but his play in the G League is certainly turning heads.