It’s been a busy offseason for notable former North Carolina Tar Heels in the NBA and that continued on Monday night. As free agency was opening, Cam Johnson was involved in a major trade that sent him to a recent championship with the best current player in the league, as they look to cash in further on a championship window.
BREAKING: The Denver Nuggets are trading Michael Porter Jr. and an unprotected 2032 first-round pick to the Brooklyn Nets for Cam Johnson, sources tell ESPN. pic.twitter.com/o6rdWhu3Rl
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) June 30, 2025
Johnson will be headed to Denver to play with Nikola Jokic and the Nuggets. Denver won the 2023 NBA title, but have gone out in the Western Conference semifinals in both of the last two seasons. In Johnson, they’ll now pick up a very good three and D wing that should compliment Jokic and Jamal Murray pretty nicely.
For Cam, this is a bit like moving into a mansion, team-wise. The Nets weren’t going anywhere soon, and the next incarnation of a good Brooklyn probably won’t happen until his nearer to the end of his career. In this deal, he gets to go to a contending team where, while he’s obviously not going to be the #1, #2, or even #3 option, but should play a big role for a team that will contend for the next couple seasons.
To look at this not just from a Carolina Blue-tinted glasses perspective, it’s probably a good deal for both sides. Cam and Michael Porter Jr. aren’t that far apart in talent level, and Johnson is on a team friendlier contract and probably fits better with the Nuggets’ current roster.
As for the Nets, well, they’re mostly tanking, and this has allowed them to cash in on one of their better current players. The badness of MPJ’s current contract doesn’t really matter for a tanking team, and they might be able to let him cook and eventually flip him for something else relevant in their rebuild. Plus, they added a first round pick at a time where the Nuggets might be exiting the Jokic era and not that good anymore.
From a purely UNC tinted glasses perspective, this move is really exciting. After going unexpectedly high in his NBA Draft year, Johnson has proven himself to be a very capable pro player, and even helped the Phoenix Suns to the NBA Finals when he still played there. While the Nets have appeared in the playoffs since he went there, seeing him on a team that was on the way down as opposed to that contending Suns team was a bummer. Now, we’ll hopefully get to see him in big games in the NBA Playoffs again.