Strengths
Right handed....Wesley Johnson is a long, lanky Small Forward who is one of the most athletic players in the nation. He is an explosive leaper and a punishing dunker… He is a pure-scorer, but not one-dimensional by any means. He is an excellent outside shooter with deep range, who is currently hitting over 50% of his 3-point attempts, as well as almost 60% from the field. And when you score like Johnson does, you often attract the opponent's best perimeter defender and double-teams. Even so, Johnson shoots at an amazingly effective rate- we will keep a close eye if he can continue to do this through the rigors of Big East play starting in late December. The two non-conference games against North Carolina (25 points on 10-17 shooting) and Florida (17 points on 7-12 shooting) suggest Johnson will be an All-American by year's end… Offensively in the post, Johnson loves to create contact. He will utilize a pump fake or move into the defender to create the contact, try and force a foul, while finishing the shot at the same time… He may not have the desire to chase down every rebound, especially playing in a 2-3 zone with two teammates who are excellent rebounders at 6'9", but when he does in deed go up for a rebound, chances are that Johnson will come down with it. His long arms and jumping ability are the key tools behind his terrific rebounding… Offers great court awareness. He seems to always know where his teammates are and where defenders are playing. He is a solid passer and sets up his teammates well… He plays with poise and great leadership for someone who has only played a handful of games for this Syracuse team… He has tremendous potentially defensively. He is averaging over 2 blocks and 2 steals a game, all while playing in a zone. Johnson could rack up more statistics playing man-to-man, but right now, he is a defensive force, altering shots and causing teams to game plan against his side of the zone…
Weaknesses
Johnson weighs in just over 200 pounds right now, which may cause him to struggle with the bigger, stronger 2's and 3's of the NBA. At Syracuse, he gets pushed around the bottom of the 2-3 zone, by cutting Bigs and screening Guards… He plays flat-footed on defense, which makes it more amazing that he is averaging the block and steal totals that he is… Johnson seems to focus on the ball too much on defense, allowing men to flow through his zone without much cause for concern. He needs to see both the ball-and-man. By blocking cutters or at least accounting for these players would make him much more effective on the bottom of that 2-3 zone…
Note: He has transferd from Iowa State to Syracuse.
