The Denver Nuggets traded longtime staple Michael Porter Jr. to the Brooklyn Nets for the similarly skilled Cam Johnson.
Under new management with the NBA transactional frenzy in full swing, the Denver Nuggets wasted no time trying to re-establish their championship credentials.
Denver made perhaps the biggest splash of Monday’s tip-off to free agency negotiations, trading Michael Porter Jr. and an unprotected 2032 first-round pick to the Brooklyn Nets in exchange for his fellow forward Cam Johnson per Shams Charania and Ohm Youngmisuk of ESPN.
Porter had been a staple in the Denver starting five and was a part of their 2023 champion run, averaging 16.2 points and 6.4 rebounds in six seasons.
Unloading Porter’s contract, however, gives the Nuggets a new offering of financial flexibility, as he was due to make nearly $80 million over the next two seasons as part of a five-year extension earned on his rookie deal. Johnson, in comparison, is due just over half that with similar stats and skills and should fit in nicely with a Denver lineup that retains Nikola Jokic and more.
Welcome to Brooklyn, MPJ! pic.twitter.com/0rhdid2sjr
— Ballislife.com (@Ballislife) July 1, 2025
Fully capable of filling the three-point void that Porter is set to leave behind, Johnson is coming off a career-best season in Brooklyn, where he spent the past three seasons after coming over from Phoenix in the Nets’ casting away of Kevin Durant at the 2023 trade deadline. Injuries have been an issue (Johnson has missed at least 20 games in each of the last three years) but he has generated forward momentum with 18.8 points and shooting over 47 percent from the field.
The Nets, fresh off a busy showing at last week’s NBA Draft, obtain some championship panache in Porter, who will no doubt help with the team’s outside game. Brooklyn (26-56) inched toward the right direction in its first year under head coach Jordi Fernandez, but ranked 25th in three-point success rate at just over 34 percent.
Trading Porter, who had been stationed in the Rockies since coming over a first-round pick in 2018, is the first major move of the Nugget era overseen by the new front office tandem of Ben Tenzer and Jon Wallace, both of whom essentially take over for the fired Calvin Booth.
In addition to obtaining Johnson, the group re-signed Bruce Brown and also hired JJ Barea to serve as an assistant coach on the staff of David Adelman, who takes on full-time boss duties after the shocking firing of Michael Malone.
Geoff Magliocchetti is on X @GeoffJMags
