INSIDER: Brooklyn Nets hit a HOME RUN with Cam Johnson-Michael Porter Jr. trade | Can they get MORE?

INSIDER: Brooklyn Nets hit a HOME RUN with Cam Johnson-Michael Porter Jr. trade | Can they get MORE?

On today’s show, the Nets are 14 games into the season and the Michael Porter Jr. Cam Johnson trade is looking like a big win. I’ll dive into MPJ’s early season performance and what it means for Brooklyn moving forward. Right now, [Music] you are Locked on Nets, your daily Brooklyn Nets podcast, part of the Locked On network. your team every day. Welcome in to Locked on Nets right here on the Locked On Podcast Network. Now the number one sports podcast network. It’s your team, the Brooklyn Nets every single day. I’m Eric Slater, Brooklyn Nets reporter for clutchpoints.com. Thank you for making me your first listen of the day. The show is 100% free on all those great platforms. Today’s episode is brought to you by FanDuel. Right now, new customers can bet just $5. And if your bet wins, you’ll get $300 in bonus bets to use across the app. Head to fan.com to get started. And on today’s episode, I’m going to be joined by Lucas Kaplan of Nets Daily Frequent flyer on the pod. We’re going to hit on MPJ’s early season start, why we think that it makes the Cam Johnson trade from this summer a big win for Brooklyn, and could MPJ potentially be flippable in a trade this season. We’ll get into that. What some potential deals could look like. All that coming up right now. And back on the show now, we got Nets Dy’s Lucas Kaplan. And Lucas, we’re here today to talk about Michael Porter Jr. We’re going to revisit the trade that the Nets made this off season. Obviously, outside of the draft, that was the biggest move that the Nets made. It was their top player from last season, Cam Johnson. And that trade was the Nets sending Cam Johnson to the Nuggets for Michael Porter Jr. and an unprotected 2032 first round pick. And it was a deal that the reaction to it was kind of scattershot. It seems like it was all over the place. Some people thought it was a win for the Nets. Some people thought it was win for the Nuggets. Some people thought it was a win-win. Some people crushed it like Bill Simmons who said it was the worst trade of the last decade. And you know, my take on it has was at the time that I thought it was a win for the Nets. But now 12 games into the season with the way that Michael Porter Jr. has been playing. I’m pretty comfortable saying that I feel like this trade looks like a resounding win for the Nets because Michael Porter Jr. is playing the best basketball of his career. He’s playing at a very high level right now, you know, for the season. 24 points, eight rebounds, over three assists, two turnovers. He’s just he’s playing really efficient basketball in the most demanding role of his career. And like I said, like I I’m not we’ll go through the stats and the performance and all that. I’m not trying to victory lap too much MPJ putting up big numbers on a Nets team that’s 2 and 12, but I was okay with this trade. I felt like it was a win regardless of how MPJ performed for the Nets because I thought that that 2032 Denver first was the best asset that the Nets were going to get for CJ. But now, if MPJ can continue to play at a high level, this trade could be a huge win for the Nets because I think there could be potential for the Nets to get another asset out of it, whether by trading him or keeping him. So when you revisit the trade, when you look at how MPJ has performed early this season, what are your thoughts and you know, how are you kind of looking at it now that we have a little bit of a sample size? Yeah, I would say I’m not as surprised by how well uh MPJ is playing. I think the blueprint that the Nets laid down with Cam Johnson as kind of a number one B number two option, you know, considering Dennis Shruder, uh that blueprint was laid down last year and I’m not surprised that MPJ is kind of following in it like he’s just getting put in a lot of advantageous situations and, you know, responding really well. But I was with you in that regardless of how well he played, it was the smart deal for Brooklyn. Uh, you know, there was talk of two firsts for Cam. Uh, a first and like a heavily protected protected one. And they only get one, but it is an unprotected 2032 Denver first, which is, you know, was kind of the crown jewel of tradable assets on the market probably like you would expect the Nets to try to like flip it over the next four or five years when they’re trying to build a winner again. But MPJ playing this well is just the cherry on top. I think it’s another green check mark before anything else like on the coaching staff and for the team that like if you come to Brooklyn, you will be utilized well and you will improve your stock. And I think players that look around the league and they see the way MPJ was kind of discarded and the noise in Denver in his last year like well you got to move on from him to upgrade and now he’s averaging what 247 and three and getting all this positive buzz. That’s just a good sign for the team uh moving forward. Yeah. And we’ll get more into MPJ his numbers whether we think he’s flippable all that. what you said I think is a really good takeaway from this is Jordie Fernandez and this coaching staff’s ability to get the most out of some of the players that they’ve been given and that is obviously the job of every coaches to form a team and then it’s to get the most out of the players on those teams and this is becoming somewhat of a consistent theme with Jordy. I mean you look at like Dennis Shruder you know and a lot of that was Dennis’s own doing but playing the best basketball of his career like I think Jordy did play a role in that. Then he goes to, you know, Golden State and Detroit and he’s still productive, but like it’s just not at the level that he was at there. Cam Johnson playing the best basketball his career with Jordy. Goes to Denver. He’s had a couple of good games of late, but it’s been a major drop off. Obviously a much different role. But now MPJ also comes in and is playing really high level basketball. And you just hear Jordy Fernandez talking about it. Like last night I asked him pregame about, you know, how MPJ has bought into the role. and Jordy was very complimentary, but he said like, “We put Mike in these advant advantageous positions. Defenses are now adjusting to it. It’s my job to continue to put him in those positions and alter as defenses alter.” So, Jordy just very cognizant, very proactive, and doing a really good job of putting a lot of these different players in in positions that benefit their skill sets. And I said like, you know, you said that you, you know, weren’t all that surprised or aren’t all that surprised that MPJ is playing this well. I mean, I’m somewhat surprised that he’s been able to be at the efficiency that he’s at on the volume that he’s putting up because I said his numbers before. You know, he’s at 248 and three with two turnovers. That’s pretty elite. 56.2 effective field goal percentage. That’s sixth in the NBA among 17 players attempting over 18 shots per game. So, he’s at a near 27% usage, which is 7% higher than any other season in his career. and he’s, you know, among players posting that kind of usage, that kind of shot attempt volume. He’s near the top in terms of efficiency. He’s also taking care of the ball relatively well. He’s making good decisions. The Nets are actually seven points better per 100 possessions with him on the floor, which like their bench isn’t great, but like we’ve seen it with CT. You can be the top volume scorer on a team and the Nets aren’t always better. Sometimes they’re a lot worse. So, I just think that the level that MPJ is playing at, this is like pretty close to the best outcome that the Nets could have hoped for with how that looks for him early this season. Yeah, I I And he’s not even shooting well from three yet. That’s really the uh surprising thing for him. For him, he’s not shooting well from three. Yeah, he’s at 36%. Um, cleaning the glass has him at again, so super small sample, but six of 20 from the corner threes and which is 30% and he’s a career like 48 49% corner three-point shooter, which is ridiculous. And you would assume that’ll come up. Um, he he takes some tough corner threes, I’ll say though. Like just overall the three-point diet obviously this year the quality of the looks are different. Like how many how many MPJ3s have we seen where somebody’s standing literally an inch away from him and he tries to just like rise up over them and shoot from three. He took a couple yesterday, hit one over Jaylen Brown and we just like laugh. But the degree of difficulty on those shots is so ridiculous. So I would expect dip in in the efficiency. But the thing that’s really saving him, right, is how many freebies he gets from this designed offense for him. You know, Nick Claxton deserves a little bit of credit here where when he back cuts, you know, they clear out the spacing, the bottom, you know, the I guess low side of the court and you can throw it over the top to him and he’s getting all these easy layups, easy fouls. Again, cleaning the glass has him shooting 39 of 48 at the rim. And, you know, he’s not dribbling all the way to the rim a ton. So again, you know, we’ve talked about it taking advantage of a uh of a positive situation. And we’ve heard MPJ talk about his uh you know, perception, his reputation. Michael never swing the rock. Porter Jr., it’s a lot easier to get the ball moving, swing the rock, give it up when there’s two on the ball when you know you’re the focal point of the offense and there are plays being run for you. It’s a lot harder to, you know, make the extra extra pass when your job is to shoot the ball, but you only touch it every, you know, four or five possessions like he did in Denver. Yeah. And that’s um, you know, that’s something that I think we’re see like last year in Denver, you saw him take some shots that were pretty bad and with just within the flow of the offense, you could tell weren’t the right play. And, you know, taking the point that you just made, but I would say like he is making the right play consistently. I feel like outside of taking some bad shots, you know, sometimes I don’t really fault him for that though because this Net’s defense is just so devoid of shot creation that he’s going to have to take some bad shots. Like that just comes with the territory. But I think we saw it like, you know, we saw the two seven assists games against the Magic and the Wizards. And then last night he only had, I think, two or three assists, but he had a bunch of hockey assists in that one. And he had some other good looks that really looked like they could have been finished by his teammates. So, the all-around play, I think, is a, you know, resounding positive. Obviously, what he’s doing offensively. The efficiency with what he did. I think there were some concerns, or at least I had some concerns, that he was going to come in and be like, “This is my time to shine, clear out, give me the ball at the top of the key. Let’s spam some high pick and rolls. Let’s get into some ISO spots.” And we heard him say that, like, he talked about those kinds of volumes of plays going up during the offseason after the trade. He also said like, “I feel like I can score eight to 10 points just facing up in the mid post.” and he really hasn’t done any of that. And I, you know, credit a lot of that to Jordy Fernandez probably shutting some of that down, bringing him back into the role that he knows that he’s going to be efficient in. And he has done that. And then the defense, which was abysmal to start the year, has ticked up to, you know, I’d say at least respectable or approaching respectable. Yeah. And he and he tries to get involved on the uh on the offensive glass, which, you know, kind of which boosts his um offensive profile a little bit. He’s um average, you know, he’s still above 4% offensive rebound rate. He’s grabbing a ton of defensive boards and like still gets lost. Still not the greatest like navigating switches and all that, but as of I guess they’ve played 14 games. As of the latter seven, so the second half of what we’ve played so far, his defense has been professional quality. Good, good word, good word choice there. Uh, but yeah, I’d say that the all-around performance that we’re seeing from MPJ, I think other teams around the league are going to take notice and that will bring in the conversation given where this Nets team is at in their timeline. Is Michael Porter Jr. flippable? Does his performance this season make him a legit, you know, give a legitimate chance for the Nets to trade him and get back another asset for him? So, is that the case? What could that look like? We’ll get into all that when we continue locked on debts after a quick break. Guys, let’s talk about something every business owner knows too well. Missed calls. When a customer tries to reach you and you can’t get through, that’s money slipping away. 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We talked about why we thought that trade was a win regardless of how he performs. But this early season performance gives the Nets potential gives the trade potential to be a huge win for the Nets cuz Michael Porter Jr. could be flippable this season if he continues to play at a high level. Like that’s my take on it. That’s my read on it. I think I’m not saying it’s a foregone conclusion. The Nets will be able to find a deal or get an asset for him. But I definitely think that it’s within the realm of possibilities if he’s playing at this level. there will there will be teams who see him and say that guy can help us right now. What is your take on that before we get into some specific teams of what it could potentially look like? I don’t think it’s happening this season. I think that as well as he’s playing, it’s going to take a little bit longer to swing that pendulum back from negative asset to one the Nets would feel good about dealing. Um whether or not it’s fair because he has played many games in the last few seasons. There’s still the injury concerns. There is still the notion of like he’s doing this on a bad team. There’s a sour taste, I think, in in people’s mouths. The way that his time in Denver ended. Not like that he blew the whole thing up, but just that the a very good team felt like it was just time to move on from him to upgrade the roster. You know, that that stuff reverberates throughout the league. And him personally, like after 7 years of that, I’m sure he maybe doesn’t mind the situation he’s in and will assume that over the next year or two if he resigns in in a year and a half, the team is not going to be this bad and they’re going to try to start winning. So, he might not be so gung-ho for a trade. And and I know he doesn’t have a no trade clause or anything, but that stuff obviously matters in the market. So, for all those reasons, I I think we’re it’s still unlikely that he gets flipped this year, especially making 25% of the cap. I would agree with that. I think it’s unlikely. I’ve said I got a ton of questions about this after that trade and leading into the beginning of this season. And I consistently said that I feel like I would be pretty shocked if a trade happened this season. I felt like it was much more feasible when he was an expiring contract next year. But I’d be lying if I said I didn’t think that this early season performance at least increases the likelihood or makes it a possibility. And this is obviously predicated on him continuing to play at a high level. He doesn’t have to play at this high a level, but if he’s, you know, in like the 21 to 25 points per game range on good efficiency and his defense isn’t deplorable, I think that there will be teams who at least inquire and have conversations about him, even if I don’t think it’s the most likely outcome. And it’ll also depend on what the Nets are looking to get back. Like like you said, you know, the pendulum has to kind of swing to a certain point where the Nets would be able to get some kind of an asset with him. So, are the Nets looking are they going to hold out or think that they can get an asset for him or are they okay maybe if they can just get him off their books for expiring contracts and open a huge chunk of cap space uh huge like another huge chunk of cap space which would be 37 million or around that this offseason probably okay with that. So, how much are the Nets holding out for? they don’t really have any reason to trade him, you know, early, but if they get an offer where maybe they can get like a young player and an an expiring contracts and open up just another huge chunk of cap space going into this offseason, which is going to be huge for them, that is a possibility. But, you know, what do you think about that? What do you think about that conversation about how they’ll how they’ll approach it? And then I’m going to throw some teams at you who I think maybe could inquire about it. So they would have to write trade for a similarlyssized expiring contract on a good team. That’s the framework where it’s a team that is trying to win and they have kind of a black hole on their books or they think MPJ could be a big upgrade and it is only another season and a half. So, it’s not like you’re locking it in forever. And either uh uh some sort of pick that is appealing, that is worth that makes the juice worth the squeeze or I guess a reclamation project. Again, it would have to be it really comes down to circumstance of like what team is it, what young player or what, you know, what expiring contract is there? Or maybe it’s not expiring contracts, but two medium-sized contracts. And then you can like keep breaking it down. It’s like the reverse of trading a penny for a house on eBay. You just keep getting smaller and smaller chunks. So you throw some throw some hypotheticals at me. Yeah, I got you. And yeah, like you said, it’s like the the value the three things like the assets the Nets can get in this are they can get a pick obviously like draft compensation, they can get young players who they like or they can get expiring contracts which the asset there is the cap space that they’ll open up. There are some teams like I went through the whole NBA. I didn’t come up I didn’t come away with a ton but there are a few. The first one that I looked at was the Detroit Pistons who I think have a need for some outside shooting obviously alongside uh Kate Cunningham and they have this huge expiring contract in Tobias Harris where if you just look at Tobias Harris who I think’s at $26 million expiring you give him they have some midside midsize contracts that I think they would be fine parting with and they have draft picks. That’s a pretty simple framework for a team that it might have its sights set higher on the trade market, but like we’re hearing a lot about like Larry Markin to the Pistons. Like that’s been a thing that’s been rumbling within NBA circles as a possibility. We had the conversation yesterday about Larry Markin and it’s like if the Pistons are looking at it and it’s like we can have Larry Markin in for multiple picks and all this stuff and whatever and like Jaden Ivy and other guys are thrown in and then you have MPJ over with the Nets who you can get for you know your non not that impactful aspirings in a pick. I think there that there could be something there like I could talk myself into that. Yeah. I I I I like even though he’s playing well, if he’s, you know, off the team this year, there’s no scenario in which that’s really going to be devastating. Uh not, you know, not the least of which is that he’s the key to this offense right now. And when it’s going well, he’s keeping them afloat, which is a credit to him, but also again probably not the year in which you want Michael Porter Jr. to drag you to victories. Um Yeah. Yeah. I got to throw that in. I said the three assets that the Nets get, you know, draft picks, young players, space, there’s four. The fourth would be if they could trade him for guys who are not that impactful this year, they’re they’re going to improve their tank in a year where there’s just a ton of disgustingly bad teams in this race. So, you actually might have to, you know, put your foot on the gas a little bit in that regard. Yeah. And they Yeah. Again, it’s really early like, you know, two and they’re two and 12, which is like a 12 win. a 12- win pace, but you know, they win two in a row and then all of a sudden they’re on, you know, like a 30 win pace or whatever it is. Not quite like a 24 win pace. So, it’s Oh, man. I can’t believe we’re only on game 14 and there’s like 68 more games of talking like this. Well, what do you think about the What do you think about that Pistons framework or just the possibility of them, you know, being a team that could sniff around that because they’re going to be looking for upgrades? Yeah. And I I think I think the Pistons are young enough a window and again we always overestimate windows in the NBA, but it is open enough to where they might not want to lock themselves into that $40 million contract for the next year and a half. like I I think they might not think it’s a big enough upgrade to, you know, do that instead of just rocking with Tobias and and seeing what happens this year and then maybe reassessing in the off season. Again, I think when we talk about these guys, whether it’s MPJ or even Nick Claxton, trades are more likely in the offseason, but they are I think it’s good leading with them. I think that’s the most natural fit and he would help a lot of their problems or not problems but you know just another scoring outlet a great shooter. You know we don’t know really what’s happening if Malik Beasley is going to be back there. um he hurts kind of the defense athleticism around around Cade which is kind of their formula but there it would be I think it’d be dependent on just what picks they’re willing to sacrifice like just the protections or maybe the amount of seconds stuff like that. Yeah. And the the Pistons in that scenario, like you said, they’d be, you know, Tobias Harris isn’t expiring. They’d be locking themselves into MPJ, you know, plus whatever else they have to give up for him. Like that 26 million that is expiring for Tobias. They would be adding that onto their books for for next season. So, they’d be giving up some flexibility. So, in turn, like I think they, like you said, they’d probably be some haggling over like we’re giving up this flexibility even though he’s an upgrade. You know, that would probably lead them to be like we don’t want to give up a good pick or anything along those lines. But I think that that situation makes enough sense that there could be a conversation between the two sides where there could be at least some traction. There’s a few other teams that I had in mind. Want to get your thoughts on those and whether they’re realistic whatsoever. So, we’ll get into that and we close out locked on deaths after a quick break. When Skiims announced they were making underwear for men, the reaction made perfect sense. People have been talking about Skiims comfort for years. Most guys though stick to whatever they’ve been buying since college. the same fits, the same waistbands that roll and a whole lot of settling. Ski men’s changes that. 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There are a few other teams that I thought could be a possibility. Another team that I looked at, the Memphis Grizzlies. I think that it depends on, you know, they obviously have had an extremely dis a disappointing start to the season. The John Moran situation looks really uncertain, but they’re a team that, you know, I’m not sure that they’re just like going to be okay being terrible this season and tanking and, you know, like that would give them a good pick and maybe they just take that good pick and they reset around Jiren Jackson Jr. and some of their other guys, they figure it out that way. But if they do want to get better and compete this season, there is a framework where you look at like they have some guys who are just dead money on their books and they’re not expirings. But if the Nets could just get those back and be in the same financial situation as they were with Michael Porter Jr. the two guys, it’s Contavius Cwell Pope, Brandon Clark were the two guys that were looking at. KCP is playing terrible. Like he’s been a total bust for them since they got him from the Magic. Brandon Clark has had all these injuries. He has a knee injury. He’s going to be out for an extended period after this. Those guys both have one more year at on their contracts after this season like MPJ and they combine for around the same amount of money. So, if the Nets took back those guys, they’d be in the same financial situation. They’d be worse this season, which would improve their tank and perceivably improve their draft pick. And maybe they can get like one of those many first round picks that the Grizzlies have after that trade with the Magic with Desmond Bane. So, that was something that I thought could be a possibility. I don’t think it’s an unrealistic framework. I just think the Grizzlies have a ways to go before they’re good enough to do something like that. Um there’s I don’t really know how much MPJ fits that system and and and that team specifically, but that’s kind of a secondary worry. The worry more so is that they’re just not good enough right now to justify it. And if they somehow, you know, improve enough over the next couple months, right, to the best part of that framework is that it’s a huge upgrade for similar money if you can excise KCP and Brandon Clark for MPJ. Like, yeah, those guys are those guys are giving you nothing right now. Like Clark isn’t even playing and KCP stinks. So, I understand the argument of like we’re not in a position, we’re like not good enough right now, but they have those guys on their books for a year after this. So, you’re just replacing those guys. Obviously, the asset, you know, depends, but it’s like it’s not like those guys are coming off their books and they’re gaining all this financial flexibility though this summer. They’re stuck with them next season. So, that was kind of my logic behind it. Yeah, I it’s good logic. I think the thing that prevents that is that they have been historically reluctant to add that other big contract around their homegrown stars or centerpieces and they just actually dealt one of them away in Desmond Bane. And so I just don’t see MPJ being the one they finally try to cash in on and sacrifice assets for. Like it’s very they very much operate in the typically small market line of thinking, which is we draft our best players and then we sign them to big contracts and then we try to win on the margins around them. And right now, as as harsh as it is to say, the star players just haven’t given them enough, right? They’re not consistently at the top of the league as you’d expect with like two, you know, hopefully top 15, top 20 players and John Jiren regardless of what the other guys are giving you. So, for that reason, it’s going to be a no for me. For that, for that reason, I’m out. You’re like, that reason I’m out like Shark Tank. Uh, yeah. No, I agree with you. I mean, I’m throwing out like I think the Pistons is more realistic. I’m just throwing out the teams I thought perceivably get That one’s a good That one’s a good That one. There’s good logic behind that. I just think it’s happening. You know, if if John Morant was giving the Grizzlies anything and, you know, not shooting 14% from three and having all these issues, that might be a little more realistic, but they just look so bad earlier this season. But hey, maybe it turns around there. Maybe they just get so sick of getting nothing out of KCP and Brandon Clark. Like, it could be a possibility. A couple of other teams didn’t have as much specifics. I mean, like you look at the Chicago Bulls, a team that’s been hot. I mean they have a big expiring contract in Nolvous who they have sniffed around the trade market for. I don’t even know as much if this would be an MPJ one. I don’t want to turn it into another conversation but you know I threw around people asked me about Nick Claxton trades on the last fan take Friday and I said like the Nets could just swap Clax for Vu who’s an aspiring contract. The Bulls get guy who’s way younger can do some of the things that Voo obviously struggles at. They have their own draft picks. They have a lot of stuff like whether it’s Clax, MPJ, like the Bulls have expirings. They have like Kevin Herder who’s another midsize contract. They just have a lot of stuff there and they’re a team that is, you know, playing well and perceivably is trying to keep improving around Josh Giddy. So, I think there could be something there whether it’s Clax, whether it’s MPJ, whether it’s whoever. Yeah, it’s the Bulls the Bulls one is is interesting especially for Clax because if you look at it right they are the fourth most accurate team right now from three and they are the 28th most accurate team at the rim. So they desperately need like to upgrade finishing a little bit but when you dive into those numbers they take they’re leading the league in shots at the rim and so a lot of that is because Vu spaces the floor for them. He’s been hitting threes. It like kind of totally changes. Yeah. Reconfigures your team a lot. If we’re talking about Clax. And if you give up MPJ, if you take MPJ in that deal, say, then you’re giving up your starting center and you have like Jaylen Smith and um Zack Collins or whoever they have. Like it’s just that I don’t know. I just think that there’s like enough stuff there where there could be something like down. they would need to kind of go through a slump and and but not enough of one where, you know, it totally takes them out of maybe winning a playoff series or two um this year. But they could use both those guys. I just don’t know about the the um like configurations, right? Again, the trade stuff. MPJ making it if you flip their salaries, it’d be maybe a little different if MPJ was only making like 14% of the cap instead of Clax. Yeah. last team I had, you know, I think that Bulls won. I’m interested like we’ll I’m going to revisit that on coming pods if Nick Claxton also continues playing well because I think there could be something there. Last to be clear, one one thing they are 17 points worse per 100 with Vu on. So like he’s Yeah, like Vu is, you know, Vu is old. Like he does some good things, but like there’s a reason that there’s been talk about trade conversations with him and there’s a reason that they’ve been disappointed with that contract. So in expiring like even if it was just vouch for clax like the Nets get it spiring they open up all that space maybe they can get an asset alongside it like Kobe White like I don’t know there’s just a lot of pieces and stuff there. Last team I had was the Los Angeles Clippers who have started off this season extremely disappointing. You know they but they also owe their pick to the Oklahoma City Thunder. So there’s they’re not going to want to gift the Thunder a top pick. Now, how aggressive are they going to be to improve? Cuz that pick is a sunk cost at the end of the day and they seem like a team that probably is not looking to be in like the Kawhi Leonard like older guys business for that much longer. So, it might be just a reset. But, if you’re looking at them like they do have incentive to try to get better. They’re in a little bit of a win now mode. They have stuff and they have a big expiring contract in John Collins who I don’t think that they like dislike, but he is a guy that I think, you know, they could perceivably move him. And a guy like MPJ, you know, their contracts aren’t an exact match, but you get to MPJ’s salary easily. They have other stuff, and I think that he could fit in there. So, they were like the last team I found where I was like, “Okay, that that’s something.” Yeah. you never need. It’s tough to get inside the mind of the Clippers, but they would need to again like improve a little bit and and and hey man, MPJ in the corner would give Harden a pretty great outlet um when he’s driving the lane and you get Kawhai back. I definitely don’t mind that. I probably think they’re not again in the business of giving up assets. Probably knowing their windows closed and everything you’ve heard about them is they’re rejiggering for 2027 free agency. keeping their books clean has been a big thing. So that was like the roadblock for me is I’m skeptical that you know in a season where they look really bad that they’re going to give up John Collins firing take back more money for the following season and then limit some of their financial flexibility give up an asset like all that doesn’t seem that likely but hey like maybe they maybe they feel a moral imperative to save the NBA from Thunder getting the number one draft pick. I think you know what like the the NBA should intervene and force them to make that trade. Yeah, we were talking about that in the media room last night. If the Clippers, like if the NBA was ever going to fix the lottery, they would have to just fix it to prevent the Thunder from getting the number one pick if the Clippers remain this bad. But yeah, like with the MPJ thing, it’s I it’s unlikely. I’m just throwing the teams out there that there is some framework that could work. But hey, like Steve Balmer, passionate guy, wants this team to be good. Maybe one day he’s just like, you know what, f it. Give me give me MPJ. me anybody who can make this team better this season. So, whatever. We’ll see how it plays out. But overall, MPJ’s early season performance very encouraging and I think it will lead to him having some kind of a market whether it’s this year, whether it’s next year, you know, provided that he continues to play at a decent level. So, all that is good for the Nets. But Lucas, appreciate you taking the time as always. We got the Nets back against the Celtics on Friday and then we got an excited exciting slate of games to follow week. So, we’ll have you back on soon. But yeah, appreciate you taking the time. That does it for today’s Lockdown Nets episode. Hope you guys enjoyed the talk with Lucas. If you do not already, make sure to subscribe to Locked on Nets on YouTube and wherever you get your podcast, whether Apple Podcast or Spotify. If you enjoy the content, smash that like button, leave a comment, leave a five star review. Anything you can do to engage is much appreciated. We got the Nets back in action on Friday, and we got an exciting slate coming up the following week. So, we’ll have coverage of all that and more when I’m back tomorrow talking more Brooklyn Nets basketball.

Erik Slater and Lucas Kaplan discuss Michael Porter Jr.’s breakout season and why the Brooklyn Nets’ Cam Johnson trade was a resounding win. They dive into how Porter Jr. has fit into his new role and whether his hot start could make him a trade candidate this season.

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