Keldon Johnson set to surpass big names in Spurs' record books

If Keldon Johnson has even close to a repeat performance of his 2021-22 season, we should be seeing him climb up the San Antonio Spurs' leaderboards often in 2023.

Suddenly becoming a sniper seemingly overnight, Johnson catapulted himself up the record books this season, burying 159 shots from beyond the arc out of 399 attempts for a 39.8% shooting clip. With the impressive showing, he already cemented himself into the top 10 for the most 3-pointers in a season in franchise history, tied with Patty Mills for 9th.

Unsurprisingly, the rest of the list is full of some of the best 3-point specialists in Spurs history like Danny Green, Chuck Person, Bryn Forbes, and Sean Elliott. Considering Johnson began his career as mostly a crash-into-the-lane driving force, seeing him in such company in year three is already a pleasant surprise. Still, Johnson can catch some other big names in his fourth season if he keeps up even a fraction of that pace.

Keldon will pass up some big names next season

Heading into the 2022-23 season, Keldon Johnson is currently 25th on the Spurs all-time in made 3-pointers with 232. He'll likely surpass Terry Porter, who sits at 24th with 236 threes, in the first couple of games of the season.

Further up the list are players like Roger Mason, Lonnie Walker, Jaren Jackson, Derrick White, and Gary Neal. If Johnson were to keep up the pace he had last season and knock down another 159, he'd vault all the way up to 13th all-time on the Spurs leaderboards with 391. That would have him settled in between Marco Belinelli (426) and Brent Barry (356).

Even if he has a bit of a regression and only knocks down 100 threes next season, he'd still jump up to 14th, just behind Barry with 332.

Another impressive aspect of Johnson's rise from 3-point land is how efficient he's been at it. If he were to keep up the same pace he had this season, he'd land at 13th with 1,001 total attempts. Only 12 Spurs in history have attempted 1,000 or more, and they're the top 12 long-range bombers in franchise history.

During his first couple of seasons, we frequently addressed Johnson's need to add to his game, and he did a tremendous job of that as the Spurs continued their rebuild. His huge year taught us a lot about what he's capable of, and he doesn't show signs of slowing down.

Next season should be historic for Keldon Johnson in many ways.