Cam Johnson is already looking like the steal of the offseason

Free agency got off to a painfully slow start over the summer, but then the Denver Nuggets swooped in with a trade to make things exciting. They sent Michael Porter Jr. and a 2032 first-round pick to the Nets for Cam Johnson. Not only did moving off MPJ's contract provide Denver with some much-needed financial relief, but Johnson is also a pretty good player.

It's still early (as in the Nuggets have played only two preseason games), but what fans have seen from Johnson is exciting, to say the least. He's a more consistent shooter than Porter, and he's a better defender. Johnson is coming off a season in which he shot 39% from deep. In Denver, he'll get better looks than ever before.

Johnson missed this shot from the corner in the Nuggets' preseason win over the Raptors on Monday, but these are the kinds of looks he'll get playing with Nikola Jokić.

There's also this play, where Johnson was in the pick-and-roll with Jokić. He drove to the basket, kicked it out to Peyton Watson, and curved around to the three-point line, where Watson passed it back out to him for a bucket.

Again, the sample size is small, but the offense is much more free-flowing than it has been in the past couple of seasons. Johnson is a big part of that.

Cam Johnson is already making his impact felt with the Nuggets

The front office entered the offseason knowing it needed to boost depth for Denver to have a shot at winning another title with Jokić, and it did so by reuniting with Bruce Brown, signing Tim Hardaway Jr., and trading for Jonas Valančiūnas. DaRon Holmes II is back after missing all of last season with a torn right Achilles tendon.

As impressive as all those moves were (seriously, how did the Nuggets manage to land Valančiūnas?), the move that everyone can point back to as giving Denver the most success is the Johnson trade.

People like to call players "Jokić merchants," as if that's a bad thing when the team is built around Jokić. Look at how Brown did in his lone season with the Nuggets in 2022-23. Johnson brings more to the Nuggets than his shot-making (as does Brown), but he could be the prime Jokić merchant this season. That's a good thing!

Yes, getting Cam cost a first-round pick, but think of it this way — the Nuggets would've needed to attach draft capital to MPJ's contract anyway, so Johnson was a bonus! If he has the season that it's looking like he will, the trade could go down as one of the most impactful moves during the entire NBA offseason.