LAS VEGAS — LAS VEGAS — The Nets have always liked Keon Johnson, even before he became a first-round draft pick.
Now it’s Johnson’s mission to make them love him.
Enough to keep him.
After being with Brooklyn on a two-way contract last season, Johnson now is an unrestricted free agent.
The raw-but-athletic wing is in Las Vegas with the Nets’ summer league squad, trying to earn a new deal to stay in Brooklyn.
“It’s really their interest that they’ve shown to me at the beginning,” Johnson, 22, told The Post. “Brooklyn had interest in me during the draft. They couldn’t get me in the draft, but really just having an organization around me that is hands-on and wants to see me grow.
“So I feel like with the free agency that I have right now, all I’m focused on is just someone giving me the opportunity to play ball. I feel like everything else will settle itself whenever I step out onto the court. But right now I’m just focused on step [one], being on the court and showing what I can do.”
Johnson has a familiar face in his corner with the Nets, one who is seeing not just what he can do but how much better he’s gotten at doing it.
Drafted by the Knicks in 2021, Johnson was immediately flipped to the Clippers.
But just before the trade deadline of his rookie season, he got dealt to Portland.
It was as a rookie that Johnson got to know then-Portland assistant Steve Hetzel.
Now Hetzel is Brooklyn’s associate head coach under Jordi Fernandez, and in charge of the Nets’ summer league squad.
“I’ve seen tremendous growth from his rookie year,” Hetzel said. “We saw him grow in Portland, and now being away from him for a season and coming back and seeing him, he’s continued to grow. He has NBA experience in terms of years, but he’s still a very young man, so he has a long career ahead of him if he continues to grow the way he has.
“So for me, giving him simple goals of being disruptive and challenging him to try to be the best defender he can be in summer league, to take the challenge of guarding the other team’s best offensive player and really focusing that athleticism on defense is where I’ve given him his goal. And tried to make it as simple as possible on offense: make simple plays. If somebody’s in front of you, kick the ball. Nobody’s in front of you, show your athleticism.”
Johnson has been known for that athleticism, and his staggering 48-inch vertical leap is an all-time record at the combine.
But he’s learning how to harness that athleticism, rather than be as reckless as he was as a rookie.
“I’d just say being more in control of when I should expose my athleticism,” said the 6-foot-4, 185-pound Johnson. “There’s times where early in my career I would be out of control. … But I feel like for me, just being able to show that I can play under control but also play fast as well and still show my athleticism at the same time.”
Johnson, who averaged 6.2 points in five cameos for Brooklyn, put up 18.2 points and 6.4 boards on .478/.379/.803 shooting splits in 26 games with G-League Long Island.
“Similar to most younger players that have gained experience, he understands the repetition of the NBA game,” Hetzel said. “Most teams run similar actions, they just call them different things. Most teams have similar spacing, they call them different offensive sets. But he’s more comfortable in that spacing. He’s more comfortable recognizing what the different actions are to guard defensively.”
If Johnson hopes to earn another two-way deal in Brooklyn, and possibly even playing time on a rebuilding team, he’ll have to continue that mental development.
“[Hetzel] has motivated me and just told me that he’s seen a lot of growth from the last time he’s seen me in Portland and up until now,” Johnson said, “and just really just been encouraging me to continue to do what I’m doing, because it’s effective on the court.”
