Tennessee basketball: Can Jalen Johnson have a breakout season?

The 2019-20 Tennessee basketball roster is starting to take shape. Can Jalen Johnson step up and have a breakout season?

It’s late June, and yes, we are still talking about Tennessee basketball. Graduate transfer Kerry Blackshear decided he would play for the Florida Gators next season leaving Tennessee looking for answers in the backcourt.

Jalen Johnson won’t help in the backcourt; he’s a guard. However, this could be the year we finally see all that potential we know Johnson has.

Johnson was the highest-rated recruit in the 2016 class. The three-star prospect was rated 147th in the nation, 30th small forward, and 4th highest from North Carolina. He had offers from Florida, Providence, Alabama, USC, Clemson, Miami, Texas Tech, South Carolina, and more.

He is one of the best leapers on the team, yet can step back and make the three-point jumper. But, what’s holding him back is his inability to play defense on the SEC level.

Can that change? Sure. Will it change? We don’t know, but it needs to.

Johnson hasn’t seen much playing time with the Vols but should be expected to give more productive minutes going forward. He’s only attempted 26 three-point shots in two seasons with the Vols connecting on 12 of them, 46.2 percent. That could be valuable to a backcourt that only has three guys at the moment.

It’s reasonable to expect for Johnson to have a more significant impact next season. Look what Jordan Bone did from year two to year three. The recent NBA draft pick went from scoring 7.3 points per game to 13.5 and established himself as not only of the best point guards in the SEC but in the entire nation.

We shouldn’t expect Johnson to be an All-SEC type of talent next season. However, scoring around eight points a game is extremely doable, and I think we finally see it from Johnson. If not, Tennessee could be in more trouble than most of us are thinking.