Sam Vecenie pokes holes in, makes comparison for Tre Johnson

Sam Vecenie is not at all sure how translating to the next level will go for Texas G Tre Johnson.

On ‘The Game Theory Podcast’ where they did a mock draft on Monday, Vecenie had Johnson going at No. 12 overall to the Houston Rockets in the 2025 NBA Draft.

“I think (the Rockets) just take the talent. Honestly, like, this is the spot where I have Tre Johnson being the next player,” Vecenie said. “Like, they just tend to take talent is what they do.”

That’s with what Johnson has shown through his freshman year with the Longhorns. That’s specifically with what he has done as a scorer as he’s averaging 19.8 ppg. with that being first in the Southeastern Conference and first among freshmen in the NCAA.

“Tre Johnson is listed at 6’6″. I think he’s probably like 6’5″, 6’5″ ½ so I don’t really have a problem with that listing. Averaging 19 points per game this year….44%-37%-88%,” said Vecenie. “He is a guy that I believe in as a shooter, much in the same way that I believed in Cam Thomas as a shooter…When he’s feeling it, he’s awesome.”

However, that’s where the critiques from Vecenie began on Johnson.

To start, Johnson is doing that scoring on 15.7 shot attempts per game. Over a third of those are from three with several more being on pull-ups in the mid-range. He’s shooting efficiently enough on those at the collegiate level but that shot chart may not work for him the same way in the association.

“You mentioned the rim-finishing, right. Tre Johnson, this year at the basket, is shooting 50% at the rim. He has taken 42 half-court attempts at the rim (on the season). As a player that takes sixteen field-goal attempts per game, only 1.5 of those is a rim attempt in the half-court, right. Everything is like a pull-up shot. Everything just feels likes it’s very difficult for him to try and get to, right,” Vecenie said. “He’s had just this monster pull-up shooting year where, you know, he’s shooting 36% from three on pull-ups. He’s shooting 42% on mid-range jumpers on pull-ups, which is a really good number for a teenager…42% is a really, really good start. It’s a really good building block. 34% on catch-and-shoot threes feels like a real concern to me. He does take them off of movement at times, which is good.

“But, again, like, he just doesn’t feel like he disrupts anything defensively to me. Does have the positive assist-to-turnover ratio but, like, some of these shots are turnovers a lot of the time, it feels like to me, where they’re just super, super contested and difficult shots to make.”

Then, once you take away the scoring, Vecenie doesn’t know what else Johnson fully provides at 3.8 rebounds, 2.6 assists, and 0.9 steals finishing his stat line.

“I would say he doesn’t really do much else, right,” Vecenie said. “That’s where I really kind of struggle with Tre – other than scoring the basketball.”

With that, Thomas, another freshman who was once a leading scorer in the SEC in ’20-’21, was the comparison for Johnson by Vecenie. That doesn’t suggest much about his future as a pro, though, considering how Thomas is viewed as a scorer himself through his four seasons with the Brooklyn Nets

“I brought up the name Cam Thomas earlier, right. The game is very similar. Like, the style of play of Tre Johnson at Texas and Cam Thomas at LSU is quite similar. Like, they both had, like, some interesting, veteran college players next to them and they just went and fired from three and fired from mid-range and, like, kind of tried to make their game work. Didn’t get a lot of rim pressure, right,” explained Vecenie. “I think Cam’s game off the bounce is just more developed. Like, we’ve seen how this has gone with Cam. Like, it’s hard. It’s hard for him to get the opportunities that his skillset, like, says he should. But it’s just because the style of play is very difficult to make work in the NBA. Like, you have to be Devin Booker, basically.”

Johnson has been able to fill it up scoring-wise at the college level this year in Austin. Even so, Vecenie is unsure if he’ll about to continue that, or at least do it effectively, once he gets to the NBA.

“Like, I’m not a – I don’t know. I’m not a Tre Johnson guy, I think,” said Vecenie. “I don’t know, man. It’s hard.”