That's a really good comp. As a sophomore, even though he was up and down, Johnson wasn't called on to do as much as Griffin is now because that team was loaded with DC, Billy, Stevie and even LeRon Ellis. Too bad he wasn't a point guard...
I think their games are similar. Neither has a great handle. Both are explosive athletes, though DJ was bigger than AG. AG might be a touch quicker.
DJ's shot over Mourning to win the '92 Big East Tourney is one of the great underrated plays in Syracuse history (wow is it really 29 years ago????). And he hit those 2 clutch FTs as a sophomore to beat a loaded Duke team in the ACC/Big East Challenge in Greensboro off a sweet pass from Owens (that was the Duke team that got to the NCAA final only to be destroyed by UNLV). Of course we were #1 in the country at the time.
Johnson averaged 19.4/6.3 as a junior, and 19.8/7.0 as a senior. All in all, I think he may be the most underrated SU player of the past 30 years. It's a shame he flamed out in the NBA.
In some ways AG is ahead of where DJ was as a soph where he averaged 6.5/2.4 in 18 minutes as on that loaded team. I was surprised to see that AG is averaging 15.8/6.9 already. Steady improvement (especially his handle), letting the game come to him, and becoming more consistent - if he can do that, we are in really great shape moving forward. Hopefully he stays for his junior year - he'd be crazy to leave, but we've seen it before.
