The general belief around the league is that Cameron Johnson is an exceptional person and a very good teammate. He is viewed as limited some by his size, and skill set but he is still a very good role player. He is known as a solid defender, that can cover 3-5, and offensively plays a decent amount of center. Defensively he switches well and plays hard, but his height (6'8") and wingspan (6'10") limit his ability to play more than 20% of his minutes at the 5. Offensively he is a good volume 3 point shooter, and he is solid at the line and scoring inside. Most likely it will take close to a max contract to get Cam Johnson at his age (27) and level of improvement.
I wouldnt give him the max but Id pay 90 million over 4 years. Then trade 2025 and 2027 swaps and the Nets 2026 frp back to them with Eason and Martin for Bridges. they would absolutely suck next year and have to give that pic to us, but they reclaim their future and still have the Durant/Kyrie assets.
Maximum contract decreases are 8%, so a frontloaded deal might look like this 35m 32.2m 29.8m 27.5m 125m Brooklyn is a tax repeater and this deal would put them WAY over the tax line, which would be brutal for what looks like a non playoff team. If my math is right, Brooklyn was 13-15 since the trade, that is a 38 win team, which is likely not a playoff team.
The main thing I'm looking at as advantages to Grant Williams over Cam Johnson is going to be cost and strength When we faced the Nets I noticed players were able to drive through Cam pretty easily, Cam's only 210 and has a lanky high center of gravity frame, seems pretty similar to a more perimeter-oriented Jabari defensively, and unlike Jabari he's 27 and won't be putting on any significant muscle mass. Williams, in the PJ Tucker mold, while a shorter player is still a wall physically and would provide better interior defense. This team is severely lacking defensive physicality, the only players who aren't wet paper to drive through defensively right now are Sengun and Garuba. Johnson is a superior volume and movement shooter, a superior scorer in general, but Williams potentially coming in at half or two-thirds the cost, on top of adding the versatility of guarding inside and outside with muscle is an appealing alternative.
I’m not sure, guys, I don’t know why we would be signing a #3 guy on a ‘ship team, at best, to a max contract, before having our #1 and #2. This is not some situation like Denver signing MPJ to a max, that team is a contender and has figured out their pecking order. Cam would be a our best and highest-paid player next year in this scenario. But that’s not his role… That’s asking for more dysfunction.
Realistically you are only competing against Brooklyn because no one else has cap space without renouncing people or getting creative in trades. I don't think it would take the max necessarily but $20mil for Johnson seems like a reasonable amount Brooklyn would be hard pressed to match given they would be in the luxury tax if they tried to match that OR it would force them to give away a rotation player for nothing to duck under the luxury tax threshold and we aren't even talking about what happens if Houston front loads a deal to make it even harder for Brooklyn to match given their salary situation clears roughly $40 mil from the books in 2024...but are they really going anywhere if they commit $84mil to Ben Simmons, Mikal Bridges, and Cam Johnson in 2024?
I see him as a prototypical small forward who has been playing out of position, personally. He's pretty thin and plays on the perimeter a lot.
I think the rockets should be prepared to make a big offer for him. Even if we don't get him it helps push his price up to a level that makes things difficult for the Nets moving forward.
Cam is solid. Would love him on this team. Still young and can grow with Jalen, Sengun, and Jabari as the main core.
Cam is solid. Would love him on this team. Still young and can grow with Jalen, Sengun, and Jabari as the main core.
I am very interested in Cam Johnson for the Rockets. Feels like he would be a perfect vet fit on this team.
This is how I feel. Will he be over paid? Probably because he isn’t a star but he does impact winning. He can shot a high volume of 3 and make them… he isn’t going to cause any chemistry issues, practices very hard and plays hard. His skills are not diminishing and at worst he can back up at a high level 3-5. I have had a couple people tell me that he isn’t talented enough for the type of money he will make - but he is already producing
It is a risky situation, this org intended to pay #2 and #3 veterans near max or max money to teach youngsters to be that #1 or #2 on the same team. It should be better than anything under Silas but I see the maximization at 33-35 wins short term in the competitive West and that is with 2-3 teams tanking every year.
