Kevin Gorman: Cameron Johnson becomes shooting star for Suns

PHOENIX — Cameron Johnson is past the pinch-me phase of his first NBA season, where the wide-eyed wonder of playing against the world’s best basketball players has worn off.

When it comes to shooting, Johnson is an old pro.

The highest NBA draft pick from Western Pennsylvania since Danny Fortson in 1997, Johnson’s 3-pointers are falling at a record pace this season for the Phoenix Suns.

The 6-foot-8, 210-pound forward from Moon, who starred at Our Lady of the Sacred Heart, Pitt and North Carolina, became the first rookie in Suns history with four 3s in back-to-back games last week, and his 40 treys in his first 20 games broke Wesley Person’s 25-year-old team record for best start.

“I’m just doing my job. If an open one comes to me, knock it down,” Johnson told the Tribune-Review after a shoot-around Monday at Talking Stick Resort Arena. “I’m spacing the court. I take advantage of a spacing opportunity when I get it. It’s kind of what my role is right now, and whatever my role is, I do it to the best of my ability.”

This is no surprise to the Suns, who were so in love with Johnson’s smooth stroke that they chose him 11th overall in the NBA Draft. The backlash the Suns received from fans for selecting a stick-thin, 23-year-old with a lottery pick has been replaced by the reward of picking the pure shooter.

The night Cameron Johnson cashed in his winning lottery ticket by becoming an NBA lottery pick. pic.twitter.com/u5oaoRClEK

— Kevin Gorman (@KGorman_Trib) June 21, 2019

“Well, we didn’t question him, so I really don’t concern myself with the people who say whatever they say,” Suns coach Monty Williams said. “We value a guy who is 6-8, can flat-out shoot the ball, is a great kid, comes from a great program and works his tail off every day. It’s kind of hard to argue with those positives when you talk about his game.”

Williams ticked off a list of positives that show Johnson isn’t purely a shooter but a better all-around player sooner than the Suns could have imagined: Johnson moves well without the ball in transition, gets to the corner faster than anyone else and tends to find the right spot on the floor.

And Johnson also has made it a habit of sinking his shots. He is averaging 9.1 points in 19.7 minutes a game and earning increased playing time, as adjusted analytics project him to average 16.6 points in 36 minutes and 21.6 points per 100 possessions. Through his first 20 games, Johnson’s 41.2% shooting from 3-point range ranked third among qualified NBA rookies. Johnson also has made 16 consecutive free throws and is shooting 94.1% from the free-throw line.

“We love his shooting,” Williams said, “but I see the slashing. I see the spacing in our make offense and our miss offense, and he just makes the right reads. He’s more seasoned than most rookies are.”

Of course, Johnson also is older than most rookies — he was born seven months before Suns star Devin Booker, a fifth-year NBA veteran — but takes pride in his upside.

Defense is one area where Johnson knows he needs to improve, as he sometimes is playing against smaller, quicker guards and bigger, stronger power forwards. Williams noted strength is more of an issue with Johnson than positioning, especially as forwards figure out they can back him down.

Suns rookie point guard Ty Jerome played against Johnson the past two seasons at Virginia, so he expected the 3-point shooting. What has impressed Jerome is the polish of Johnson’s game, offensively and defensively.

“One thing people don’t realize is how good of an all-around player he is,” Jerome said. “He’s not super flashy, doesn’t do a lot off the bounce, but he’s such a good cutter. He’s good defensively off the ball and on the ball — he doesn’t get enough credit for that — and he’s really good in all areas of the game.

“He’s exceeded my expectations, for sure.”

Booker was so unfamiliar with Johnson that he watched highlight videos on YouTube when the Suns drafted him. It wasn’t until Booker saw what he called Johnson’s “effortless” stroke this past summer that he became a believer, to the point of scoffing at the suggestion Johnson doesn’t react like a rookie when open and hasn’t hesitated to pull the trigger.

“He better not be scared to shoot. That’s his job,” Booker said, noting Johnson’s fluid repetition. “Every time he shoots it, you feel like it’s going in — and it looks like it’s going in.”

That’s one area where Johnson is hard on himself. A day after sinking four 3s at Orlando, Johnson repeated the feat in tying his career high of 18 points last Thursday in an overtime victory at New Orleans. Despite making 7 of 12 shots, Johnson dwelled on the shots he missed and how he could have been better.

“Obviously, I want to score as much as I can, but the biggest thing on my mind is making the right play, contributing to what the team needs,” Johnson said. “I think I am capable of having that game any time I step on the court. It’s more of an expectation than a surprise to me. Those games are going to come.”

That expectation is one reason why Johnson’s NBA success shouldn’t come as a surprise. After a 6-inch growth spurt in high school, he set his sights on playing at the highest level. Despite starting his college career with a redshirt, Johnson proved himself, first at Pitt and then after transferring to North Carolina.

Johnson knows the difficult odds of making it to the NBA from the WPIAL, so he wants his success to serve as an example that football-fueled Western Pennsylvania can produce pro basketball players. Johnson might be a lottery pick, but he doesn’t act like he hit the lottery anymore.

“I hope they do think they can do it. I hope they work towards getting there. A lot of things are possible, man,” Johnson said. “If you would’ve told a lot of people when I was in high school that this is where I’d be a couple years later, I’d bet you that not many would take you very seriously.

“I always believed it. I knew myself better than anybody who watched knew me. My family knew me better than anybody who watched knew me. They knew what path I was on. But not many people outside of that thought this was possible.”

It’s kind of hard to argue with those positives with Cameron Johnson, who has gone from long shot to sure shot and is creating a space for himself as a shooting star with the Suns.