The Denver Nuggets' stellar offseason came with quite a surprise. It wasn't as if nobody thought Michael Porter Jr. wouldn't be traded, but instead that nobody thought the Nuggets would get a player like Cam Johnson in return. Nikola Jokic makes a lot of players look better by sharing the floor with them, and that'll prove true once again with Johnson.
Sam Vecenie and Es Baraheni talked about the best offseason moves on the Game Theory Podcast, where Baraheni said the Nuggets' trade for Johnson was the best in the league.
Baraheni detailed why, saying that Johnson is a better player than Michael Porter Jr. and will give Denver more of what it needs from that position. He brought out the numbers, pointing out that Johnson was 85th percentile in spot-ups, 89th percentile in transition, and 81st percentile off screens.
That translates to this -- the perfect player to share the floor with Jokic.
Cam Johnson is the perfect player for Jokic and Nuggets
Johnson will help address the Nuggets' need for more shooting, but as Bareheni pointed out, he moves better off the ball than Porter. He'll be rewarded for that when he shares the floor with a player who seemingly has eyes in the back of his head (and in the side of his head). All Johnson will have to do is get open and look for the ball, even if Jokic isn't looking at him.
The forward said that he was excited about going to Denver when he learned about the trade, with one of the first thoughts that crossed his mind being that he no longer had to play against Jokic. While that is an understandable reaction, he'll soon learn how he'll reap the benefits of playing with him. He has a long list of players he can reference when comparing their stats in Denver to those of their other teams.
After spending the past two-and-a-half seasons in Brooklyn, Johnson will no longer have to carry the kind of offensive pressure he did with the Nets. Even better, he's back with a winning team. He'll contribute to something far bigger than banking on the draft lottery.
Jokic is happy (not just because his horse won). Denver answered his call for depth by bringing the ideal player to the city. Cam might know what to expect when playing with Jokic, but it will be different when he actually experiences it.
This should be fun.