Johnson’s Value Too Rich For Nets To Just Give Away In The Name Of Tanking

NYDailyNews.com

Question for the fans who say they’re comfortable with the Nets bottoming out this season: How long will the tank be in full gear?

The reason I ask is because it is likely that Brooklyn General Manager Sean Marks will start putting competent pieces around his 2025 first round picks as soon as next season. A common mistake among the NBA tankers is to allow a losing culture to fester alongside the immersion of high picks into the club. Veteran presences are important in showing the youngsters what it takes to win at the highest level, and those lessons can’t wait.

Wouldn’t it be great, then, if the Nets kept a winning player with a reasonable contract around for the build-up portion of the rebuild, someone like Cam Johnson?

Johnson’s 33 points in Brooklyn’s 101-94 victory in Toronto on Thursday night raised his scoring average this season to a career high 19.2 ppg. But that’s not all—his efficiencies from the field (48.9%, the three-point line (43.1%), and the foul line (87.4%) are also the best marks of his six NBA seasons. Ditto for his per game averages in rebounds, assists, and blocked shots.

In a contest between two injury-riddled clubs, Johnson stood out with his playmaking at all levels. He produced offense off pick-and-rolls, isolations, and with clever off-ball movements. He even delivered in the clutch, a bugaboo of many fans. From the five-minute mark with the score tied at 86-86, Johnson scored all 15 of Brooklyn’s points, making eight consecutive free throws and knocking down 3-of-4 field goal attempts, including a huge three-ball in transition to put the Nets up for good with 1:50 remaining.

Given the current deficiencies in Brooklyn’s creative talent, it isn’t easy for a player who was formerly known in Phoenix as a catch-and-shoot specialist to develop such a diverse bag in the nearly two seasons since being traded in the Kevin Durant blockbuster and then suddenly be thrust into the focal point role. Yet Johnson has managed to raise his game while posting the lowest turnover percentage among the team’s regulars this season.

To me, Johnson’s elevated Basketball IQ further separates him from the standard talent. His defense, though not the lockdown type, is fundamentally sound; he’ll keep his hands up to avoid foul trouble (he has been whistled for the fewest fouls per 36 minutes among Nets players who have played more than five games this season) and moves his feet to avoid being beaten to the opponent’s strong hand. To listen to Johnson speak on the subject, like in his recent appearance on “The Young Man and the Three” podcast, is to be educated by a tenured professor on the nuances of how the game is played and what it’s like to be on a team with little hope for a winning season.

But with Johnson, 28, among the veterans pushing the Nets (11-16) to overachieve in the early going, unfortunately, the overriding problem has been that they are winning too much for some people’s liking, and that might include Marks. Brooklyn reacquired the rights to their 2025 and 2026 first round Draft picks in the summer, so there is motivation to stack losses to gain the marginal benefits of better lottery odds.

One way organizations do that is by trading away their top players. Still, It’s one thing for Marks to offload team leader Dennis Schroder’s expiring contract on Golden State (to clarify, I ONLY had a problem with the timing and the virtually nothing return for a guy who could start for a team with designs on a deep playoff run, not the principle of trading him) and eventually auction off Dorian Finney-Smith, who has a player option for next season.

Johnson, though, has two more seasons on his contract with cap hits of approximately $20.5 million and $22.5 million. Marks got Johnson to accept the intermediary decline during the 2023 offseason’s extension negotiations as part of his plan to target this coming summer, when the Nets can theoretically get to about $70 million in cap space for improvements. (Note: Brooklyn also has a $23.3 million trade exception that expires on July 7, a few days after the opening of the new league year. Using it this season would defeat the mission of getting under the luxury tax threshold.) So, can we definitively declare that Johnson doesn’t fit the Nets’ timeline?

Brooklyn’s Draft pick stock is already overwhelming—15 1s and 13 2s through 2031, per NetsDaily. As I noted in a prior post, they’re not going to be able to roster everyone, nor should they. For instance, the team is slated to have five picks that should land in the top 40 of what is hyped to be a deep 2025 Draft. How many will wear Nets uniforms next season? More likely, some portion of the current and future inventory will be dealt so the franchise can return to a competitive level sooner rather than later.

At least seven of those picks, including the second rounder the Nets got from Memphis to take on Ziaire Williams’ expiring contract, came courtesy of the consideration from July’s Mikal Bridges trade to New York. At the time, I was disappointed at what the move meant, but I certainly understand that the unprecedented haul for a player who had never earned an All-Star berth couldn’t be turned down.

I’m not saying that the Nets should hold out for something equivalent before they trade Bridges’ “Twin”—though I’d argue Johnson has had at least as good a pre-trade run-up as Bridges did for Brooklyn last season--but it should be substantial nonetheless. Start the bidding with two 1s.

For those holding out hope that Marks finds a suitable trade partner, understand that the new collective bargaining agreement, with its hard caps and aprons, will make the math difficult, particularly when you factor in the unlikely incentive bonuses of $3.375 million in Johnson’s contract that count against the apron but not the cap. Marks also isn’t going to accept commitments to future payroll, limiting the directory of players to which he will be amenable in a trade.

What I don’t want to see is Marks cave solely in the name of tanking like I felt he did with Schroder. If a fair deal for Johnson can’t be worked out by the February 8 deadline, so be it. Severely devaluing assets, though, is not the way to return to respectability.