KD Johnson Is Coming to Fairfax

By Palmer Johnson

Auburn grad transfer guard KD Johnson has committed to playing for Tony Skinn and your George Mason Patriots.

🔰 𝓟𝓪𝓽𝓻𝓲𝓸𝓽 𝓟𝓵𝓮𝓭𝓰𝓮 🔰

George Mason has earned the commitment of Auburn transfer KD Johnson.

Massive get for Coach Skinn & Co. pic.twitter.com/EeizJwk2WH

— George Mason Recruiting (@GMURecruiting) April 19, 2024

KD is a 6’1 grad transfer combo guard with one year of eligibility remaining.

Johnson is from Atlanta, but played for Hargrave Military Academy in Chatham, Virginia, which is in the southern part of the state.

Coming out of high school, KD was a top 100 prospect, and went to go play for Georgia. After his freshman season, Johnson transferred to Auburn, where he played for the next three seasons.

As a transfer, KD is a 3-star, the 249^th ranked player to enter the portal.

KD Johnson By The Numbers

As a freshman at Georgia, KD averaged 13.5 points, 2.8 rebounds, 1.2 assists, and 1.9 steals per game on 42.2% from the field and 38.7% from three on pretty decent volume. He only played in 16 games, but all were against SEC opponents. Johnson ended up making the SEC All-Freshman team.

As a senior at Auburn, Johnson averaged 7.1 points, 1.8 rebounds, 1.3 assists, 1.1 steals, and a career low 0.9 turnovers per game on 37.8% shooting and 27.1% from three. KD gets a lot of steals, as in conference play, he had the 2^nd highest steal rate in the SEC at 3.8%. That’s high.

Throughout his college playing days, a common theme is that Johnson draws fouls. Not an insane amount, but between 4 and 5 per 40 minutes, except for his freshman season, where he drew 7.4 per 40.

A little red flag is that the combo guard committed 5.8 fouls per 40 minutes. I guess getting a lot of steals has a tradeoff.

Over his career, KD has scored over 1000 points. They aren’t the most efficient 1000, but it takes some skill to get there in a conference like the SEC.

Here’s some stats compiled by College Basketball Scouting via Synergy Sports.

Johnson hit 49% of his shots at the rim. You’d like that to be higher, but I imagine that it will rise with a move down to the A10.

It was pretty low volume, but KD shot 44% from the left corner three. There definitely is potential for him to be a shooter there, with that combined with his freshman season shooting. Johnson shot 33% from the right wing, so maybe he just has some spots that he generally got better chances from.

The Auburn transfer was in the 67^th percentile for isolation points per possession. I can’t imagine that would decrease in the A10.

KD Johnson Scouting Report (Full Game vs. St. Bonaventure)

I picked this game since it is an A10 opponent, so it will give me the best idea of how his athleticism will compare to the conference.

Let’s start with his athleticism and other intangibles.

Johnson is noticeably more athletic than anybody else on the court, including his teammates. He can’t exactly jump out of the gym, but KD has unreal horizontal athleticism. I would consider him a plus vertical athlete, but a plus plus horizontal one.

I can’t find any wingspan measurements online, but Johnson’s arms look pretty long.

A plus about KD’s character, he had the chance to receive a lob, but his teammate dunked it instead. Johnson went crazy, in a good way, and before his teammate dunked it, you could hear who I assume is KD yelling “THERE YOU GO!” He’s so passionate. When the 6’1 guard is going up to congratulate his teammates, you think he’s going to knock them into the third row.

On offense, KD does a lot of sitting in the corner. When a defender is closing out on him in the corner, will pump fake to get him in the air to get an open shot. The shot looks pretty good Before the possession gets to that point though, Auburn liked to use Johnson as a secondary ball-handler.

For his scoring, Johnson is good enough from three that guys have to close out. He can create separation on the perimeter with his dribbling, but you would rather have him doing other stuff.

Near the end of the game, KD was subbed out, Auburn went on a huge scoring drought, but when he came back in, Johnson got big man Noel Brown switched onto him, and beat Brown in a race to the rim to seal the game.

To speak more on his playmaking, after a steal, the Auburn guard brought the ball down the court like a point guard and then made a perfect pass to a guy wide open under the rim.

On defense, KD has crazy burst, along with good instincts on where the ball is going. Not only is he smart, but he’s intense. Johnson drops low into his stance and looks like he’d rather do literally anything else than let his man get past him.

St. Bonaventure’s Moses Flowers was playing isoball with Johnson on the perimeter, KD perfectly mirrored him and then stole the ball with both hands, getting a bad foul call. Although the newest Patriot clearly disagreed with the call, he politely handed the ball to the ref.

When the ball-handler has decided he’s done with the ball, Johnson does a great job at challenging his pass out of his hands. Nothing comes easy.

Auburn ran a decent bit of 1-3-1 zone. KD plays the middle of the 3, and does an awesome job shutting down anything between the free throw and top of the three point line.

Something else I noticed is that when the ball-handler is dribbling along the baseline and might be in trouble, KD mirrors his movement near the three-point line, taking away an escape pass target.

Johnson seems to always box his man out when the opponent is shooting, which is a huge plus.

Areas of Improvement:

Pretty much the only improvement area that sticks out is shooting, but Johnson isn’t bad enough at it that it will hurt the spacing. It would be very nice if he came out of the offseason as a 34% shooter.

Where Does He Fit?

There’s a good chance that KD gets big minutes at point guard. Whether that is starting or coming off the bench, I don’t know, probably starting. It will likely depend on his development during the offseason.

Overall, this is a pretty high upside get, and it could pay big dividends if it works out. Lineups with him and Billups will nullify the opposing team’s guard play.

Johnson doesn’t need to score to make his impact. Any scoring he provides is house money.

The guard depth is pretty deep now. It was looking pretty iffy just a bit ago, but now it could be a strength.

This commit is a big deal. A four year contributor in the SEC coming to Mason is HUGE.

Welcome KD Johnson to Fairfax, Mason Nation.