UNC Basketball: NBA Draft profile of North Carolina wing Cameron Johnson

In his final college season, UNC Basketball sharpshooting wing Cameron Johnson burst onto the scene, having a breakout season that launched himself into consideration for a selection in the 2019 NBA Draft. Here’s why.

Fresh off of a historic run to an NCAA championship in 2017, a run that saw UNC Basketball find sweet redemption in a 71-65 victory over Gonzaga after losing at the buzzer to Villanova at that very same stage just a year prior, it became known quite quickly that a key player would be ending his collegiate career a year early. Justin Jackson, the ACC’s 2017 Player of the Year and the blue blood’s leading scorer, declared that he was NBA-bound, leaving the program in Chapel Hill with a significant hole on the wing that needed to be filled.

In a move that strayed from the norm, head coach Roy Williams turned to the transfer market, with his eyes squared on 6-9 Pitt sharpshooter and graduate transfer Cameron Johnson. Williams was familiar with the slender, smooth-shooting wing from Pennsylvania who followed in his father’s footsteps by playing for the hometown university. Yes, he was fairly familiar with the junior who had just hit 6-of-9 three-pointers en route to a 24-point performance in the Smith Center that same season, and if Williams could add ap layer like that to his ball club, then he would jump at the opportunity.

Johnson jumped at the opportunity to join such a ball club, as it turned out, making the decision to jump to a fellow ACC school with confidence that his two remaining years of eligibility would be put to good use on a perennial contender.

But it almost didn’t happen that way. Transferring in-conference allows schools to hold off the eligibility of its players, and Pitt was very, very hesitant to permit Johnson to play right away at UNC. The fight was public, with Johnson making vocal calls for the university to relinquish its stranglehold over his eligibility, as he didn’t want to sit out a year — he wanted to be like every other normal graduate transfer, in that he could play right away. He didn’t want to waste a year on the bench in street clothes, he wanted to contribute to winning basketball and get a chance to perform on a nightly basis on a team with reasonable championship aspirations.

Luckily for him and UNC, Pitt gave in, and the rest is history.

Cameron Johnson would go on to play for the Tar Heels, something that he would go on to describe as a blessing during his senior season, putting up dazzling offensive performances while concurrently battling injury issues throughout his two seasons in Chapel Hill.

He was a good college player, but not one that was viewed as a realistic threat to be a draft pick following his 2019 graduation — not until his fifth and final season began, with a surgically-restored hip and health on his side, where he lit up opposing defenses as the team’s leading scorer and deadly marksman, moving with renewed fluidity and draining shots with a heightened potency than ever before.

The 23-year-old is old for a draftee, but teams recognize that game based around perimeter shooting and on-court intelligence plus translatable team-friendly intangibles is hard to come by and well-worth a draft selection.

Johnson is receiving plenty of buzz as next week’s draft draws closer, and for good reason. There’s a lot to like about the wing from Pittsburgh, even with some noteworthy limitations that give some evaluators pause.