The former All-Star point guards pass their wisdom to the 20-year-old rookie
AJ Johnson has a long road ahead of him in his NBA career. As a 20-year-old rookie from Australia’s NBL who played just 26 games, he needs a lot of coaching to reach the levels that general manager Jon Horst and head coach Doc Rivers think he can reach. To help him attain that ceiling, with their plans set for him to be a primary ball handler, Rivers brought one of his former disciples in for training camp: Rajon Rondo.
“It was great, you could just tell that [Rondo] really wanted to help me and give me [his] knowledge,” Johnson said. “He’s one of the greatest point guards, so you know being able to learn from him and his mind is really good.”
It’s not just one all-time great point guard to learn from; it’s Rivers as well. While it has an undeniable impact on Johnson’s development, Rivers did admit it hasn’t been the easiest thing to endure, considering Rivers and Rondo’s backgrounds.
“I’m sure we over-coach him. I was a point guard, so that’s probably not great for AJ,” Rivers joked. ”Rondo can attest to that. [I’m] not easy on point guards because they run the team. There are times when I’ll tell the guys who work with him to let him feel it and then times when we probably over-coach him, but we believe in him, and so he’s gonna get a lot of instruction.”
Of the biggest takeaways from that instruction for Johnson has been learning the pace of the game from the two former point guards. Between those two and the daily work that he does has allowed the game to get slower and slower for Johnson.
“He’s been telling me about the pace of the game; of course, it’s different [than] I’m used to playing, and both of them being on me every single day,” Johnson said. “Every single day, it gets a little bit slower. The practices that we have, the film sessions, it all [helps it] slow down.”
Veteran big man Bobby Portis echoed those sentiments and talked about his first experiences coming into the league. “The biggest thing with him, man, is trying to tell him to slow down. Obviously, when you first get to the league you’re playing ultra-fast, you don’t know that the game can be slow, take some minutes and find your rhythm. Everyone has their own speed on the court, so I think his biggest thing is finding the speed that he needs to play at to be effective.”
There seemed to be early evidence of the game slowing down for Johnson back in the preseason after Johnson went 1/8 in his professional debut against the Detroit Pistons. After that rough debut, Johnson came back for preseason game number two against the Los Angeles Lakers and put up 13 points, four rebounds, and three assists, while shooting 3/5 from three-point range.
“I thought AJ Johnson was really good in a lot of stretches, and then [there were] stretches where he was a teenager again.” Rivers said after the Bucks’ loss to the Los Angeles Lakers on October 10th. “He’s getting lessons by going through all this stuff, I think it’s invaluable what he’s going through… I actually thought the second unit came in against their starters and changed the game. AJ Johnson came in and changed the pace of the game.”
While he won’t play most days in the NBA, Rivers is more concerned about him getting reps both with the G League Wisconsin Herd and with the pro team to further Johnson’s development.
“He’s so young; the more he plays, the better. It’s tough, the G-League thing, because playing with us is still better, and what we’re going to try to figure out is the days when we have a real practice, we’ll bring AJ back because I think he needs to play more.” Rivers said. “Seeing Dame play and Giannis play every day has to be the best teacher that you could possibly have.”
During his time in the G League, Doc has thrown Johnson to the fire, by having him run the offense for the Herd. Rivers said Johnson is in good hands under the tutelage of 15-year NBA veteran (and former Milwaukee Buck) Beno Udrih, another former point guard. In the four games Johnson has played in the G League so far, he’s averaging 11.8 points on 41.2% shooting from the field, 4.5 assists (1.5 assist-to-turnover ratio), and 3.5 rebounds per game.
“He has done some things I like, [but] he needs to be more consistent, we want him to make quicker decisions with the ball,” Rivers said. “He’s really never played the point position, he’s been more of a scorer, so he’s learning.”
Despite only playing in four NBA games so far for a grand total of eight minutes, Johnson still has his eyes set high for himself and the Bucks, saying that his goals for the season are “win, you know for sure to get that championship, I’m going for rookie of the year of course, because why wouldn’t I.”