After a disappointing 13-19 start to the season, the Sacramento Kings are good again – winning eight of their last nine games (putting them at 21-20 overall).
Now, collective thought has shifted from how the team can kickstart a rebuild to how they can enhance their current core to try and make a run in the loaded Western Conference. One name that has commonly come up in these conversations is that of the sharpshooting forward Cam Johnson.
As a 6'9 sharpshooter (42.8% from three this year) with some defensive acumen on a tanking team in the Brooklyn Nets, Johnson seems like an obvious trade target. However, this recent report suggests that the Nets won't part ways with their sniper unless they get an offer they can't refuse.
In his most recent edition of his weekly substack, NBA Insider Marc Stein offered some valuable insight on the Nets' stance with Johnson:
"[A]bout the Nets' determination to hold out for a significant return in any potential Cam Johnson trade: Brooklyn believes it doesn't have to more Johnson now in part because it has sufficiently weakened its team already by trading away Dennis Schröder and Dorian Finney-Smith. The Nets are 4-13 since boasting a 10-15 record on the day they traded Schröder to Golden State."
"In case you missed it: Brooklyn also just lost to the Clippers in Los Angeles by 59 points. Six teams still had worse records than Brooklyn entering Sunday's play, but concerns that this team would be too good for its own good after reacquiring control of its 2025 first-round pick from Houston last June are finally starting to fade."
In theory, Johnson has everything teams with aspirations of winning games are searching for. He is tall, he can shoot, he can attack off the catch, and he can use his length to offer some resistance on defense.
The Nets know this, and they also know that he isn't the type of player who can carry a bad team and ruin their unspoken pursuit for Cooper Flagg (the player many people view as the number one pick in the 2025 NBA Draft).
On top of these variables, Johnson still has another two years left on his four-year, 94.5-million dollar deal (per Spotrac). So, the Nets have the luxury of waiting until the offseason or the next trade deadline cycle if they so choose.
For the Kings, this means that they will need to offer the Nets a sweet compensation package in return for Johnson's services. They can't try to offer them pennies on the dollar and hope to add the veteran forward to their roster.
Given that the Kings aren't super asset-rich, it seems unlikely that the team will be able to put together an offer that gets the Nets to pull the trigger before the deadline.