7 Imaginative NBA player comparisons for Milwaukee Bucks guard AJ Johnson

Floor comparison for Bucks' AJ Johnson: Jaden Ivey

Jaden Ivey does play a bit more of the shooting guard position, (though he played 27 percent of his minutes in his rookie year at point guard), where AJ Johnson figures to be more of a point guard. Yet, imagining AJ Johnson as a combo guard is not difficult.

Jaden Ivey still has some development to do after being drafted in the 2022 NBA Draft by the Detroit Pistons. That said, there are plenty of reasons why comparing Johnson to Ivey makes sense.

First, Jaden Ivey is 6-foot-4, 195 pounds. Yes, Ivey has some weight on AJ Johnson, but at 19 years old, it's a realistic expectation that Johnson is going to put on weight in time.

The second reason to compare them is length. Ivey was viewed coming out of Purdue as slightly undersized while still possessing a long wingspan at 6-foot-10. At the combine, Johnson was listed with a 6-foot-8.5 wingspan, so there are similarities between the two.

Moving into statistics is where we have to start to use our imagination a bit because AJ Johnson is joining a team with championship aspirations. His playing time will be far less than that of Ivey, who joined the perpetually rebuilding Detroit Pistons. However, using percentages and some imagination, the comparison is fair.

Last season, Jaden Ivey averaged 15.4 points, 4.5 assists and 3.7 rebounds in 28.8 minutes per game. Again, in Summer League, AJ Johnson averaged 11.2 points, 2.8 assists and 3.4 rebounds per game in 22.2 minutes. If Johnson played a proportional amount of minutes, his averages would be 14.4 points, 3.6 assists and 4.4 rebounds. Johnson is right there with Ivey.

Looking percentage-wise, Jaden Ivey shot 42.9 percent from the field, 33.6 percent from the 3-point line and 74.9 percent at the free-throw line. AJ Johnson will have to raise his efficiency a tiny bit to reach Ivey's percentages, but it certainly doesn't seem unreasonable to think that he can, especially when factoring in that Ivey was a year older in his rookie season than AJ Johnson is now.