{"id":150959,"date":"2025-07-06T10:03:23","date_gmt":"2025-07-06T10:03:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/150959\/"},"modified":"2025-07-06T10:03:23","modified_gmt":"2025-07-06T10:03:23","slug":"cam-johnson-michael-porter-jr-trade-grades-who-won-nets-nuggets-deal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/150959\/","title":{"rendered":"Cam Johnson-Michael Porter Jr trade grades: Who won Nets-Nuggets deal?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"play\"<\/p>\n

Biggest winners from the 2025 NBA draft<\/p>\n

For The Win’s Bryan Kalbrosky says that smart trades and bold picks helped the Suns, Grizzlies, and Hawks steal the spotlight on draft night.<\/p>\n

Perhaps sensing the shifting balance of power in the Western Conference, the Denver Nuggets<\/a> swung a deal to keep pace.<\/p>\n

Denver is sending forward Michael Porter Jr. and a 2032 unprotected first-round draft pick to Brooklyn for Nets forward Cameron Johnson, a person with direct knowledge of the deal confirmed to USA TODAY Sports.<\/p>\n

The person spoke under condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to publicly disclose details of the deal prior to an official announcement.<\/p>\n

ESPN was first to report<\/a> the news of the trade.<\/p>\n

Here are the grades from the trade between the Denver Nuggets and Brooklyn Nets<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Cameron Johnson<\/p>\n

Once seen as a key piece in the deal that sent Kevin Durant from the Nets to the Suns<\/a>, Johnson had been languishing away on a Nets team that was still not close to competing in earnest. Since being traded to Brooklyn, the Nets won 71 out of a possible 196 games (.362 winning percentage) \u2014 including a sweep in the first round of the 2023 playoffs.<\/p>\n

Now, Johnson goes to a 50-win team that took the eventual NBA champions to seven games in the conference semifinals and one that is two years removed from a title. With Nikola Joki\u0107’s superb passing ability, Johnson, 29, should thrive.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s excellent with the ball in his hands and in pick-and-roll scenarios. Throwing him into the mix with Joki\u0107 and point guard Jamal Murray should only lead to a jump in production.<\/p>\n

Grade: A<\/p>\n

Denver Nuggets<\/p>\n

In many ways, this is an interesting trade; both Porter and Johnson have similar skill sets. Both are excellent perimeter shooters and both are decent defenders. Both are signed for two more seasons, through the 2026-27 season. The biggest difference? Johnson is two years older but significantly cheaper.<\/p>\n

According to Spotrac.com, Porter carries a cap hit of $79.1 million over the next two seasons. Johnson\u2019s cap hit over that span is $44.1 million, or a difference of around $35 million.<\/p>\n

This, essentially, gives the Nuggets far more roster flexibility, and they reportedly have already started to use it. Per ESPN<\/a>, Denver brought back Bruce Brown \u2014 a plus defender who excelled during Denver\u2019s championship season \u2014 on a one-year deal.<\/p>\n

This season, the Nuggets lacked depth. Now, it\u2019s a strength.<\/p>\n

Grade: A-<\/p>\n

Brooklyn Nets<\/p>\n

The Nets these days are all about draft picks. They like to stash them. They like to draft with them. Just days after they made all five of their first-round selections, the Nets are taking on the added salary of Porter because of that 2032 unprotected first.<\/p>\n

Porter is a better rebounder than Johnson, hauling in 7.0 boards per game, as opposed to Johnson\u2019s 4.3. He\u2019s a slightly more efficient scorer, though Porter tends to fall into streaky play.<\/p>\n

This is trickier to grade for Brooklyn, because it all depends on what the franchise does with its picks. If the Nets can turn this unprotected 2032 pick into part of a trade package that nets a star, then it\u2019s a home run. If they hold on to it and it leads to a lottery selection in seven years, it could be a home run.<\/p>\n

If not? It could prolong the rebuild.<\/p>\n

Grade: C+<\/p>\n

Michael Porter Jr.<\/p>\n

For a player who was part of a championship run and on one of the more consistent teams during his tenure there, Porter is going into a very different environment. The Nets are very clearly rebuilding and their focus right now is on developing their young players. Porter just turned 27 on Sunday, June 29, so he\u2019s also very young. Still, even with the Eastern Conference entirely open, it\u2019s hard to see the Nets threatening with their current roster \u2014 at least in the short term.<\/p>\n

Grade: D<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Biggest winners from the 2025 NBA draft For The Win’s Bryan Kalbrosky says that smart trades and bold…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":150960,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3767],"tags":[740,7,670,247,3803,6146,2726,301,187,130,133,131,1187,106,3580,562,54,79,70,85,6,671,67,302,61,134,2065,472,65,1937,132,66,83,55,604,64,63,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-150959","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-brooklyn-nets","8":"tag-analysis","9":"tag-basketball","10":"tag-brooklyn","11":"tag-brooklyn-nets","12":"tag-brooklynnets","13":"tag-cameron","14":"tag-cameron-johnson","15":"tag-denver","16":"tag-denver-nuggets","17":"tag-espn","18":"tag-espn-inc","19":"tag-inc","20":"tag-johnson","21":"tag-jr","22":"tag-michael","23":"tag-michael-porter-jr","24":"tag-modular","25":"tag-modular-story","26":"tag-national","27":"tag-national-sports","28":"tag-nba","29":"tag-nets","30":"tag-news","31":"tag-nuggets","32":"tag-overall","33":"tag-overall-positive","34":"tag-phoenix","35":"tag-phoenix-suns","36":"tag-point","37":"tag-porter","38":"tag-positive","39":"tag-sports","40":"tag-sports-news","41":"tag-story","42":"tag-suns","43":"tag-the","44":"tag-to","45":"tag-to-the-point"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/114805722684120640","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/150959","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=150959"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/150959\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/150960"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=150959"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=150959"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=150959"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}