NBA Rumors: The Detroit Pistons may be preparing to try to pry Cam Johnson away from the Brooklyn Nets.
When the Brooklyn Nets traded Kevin Durant to the Phoenix Suns, the return of Mikal Bridges and Cam Johnson (amongst other pieces) ended up being better than anticipated. Bridges has the look of a potential budding superstar and Johnson also took a step forward with a bit of a bigger role with the Nets.
During the latter portion of last season (with the Nets), Johnson averaged 17 points and five rebounds on 37 percent shooting from 3-point range. He managed to take his game to another level in the postseason in which he averaged 19 points and six rebounds on 43 percent shooting from deep.
Suffice to say, heading into restricted free agency, Johnson is going to get some rich offers. And if the Nets aren’t willing to pay him the big-money contract that he’s likely going to be asking for, there are going to be other teams willing to make such offers.
And one of those other teams could be the Detroit Pistons, who will be heading into the offseason looking for a small forward that could develop around its already talented young core.
The Detroit Pistons have their eyes on Cam Johnson
According to a recent report, the Pistons will be one of the many teams interested in signing Johnson this offseason. Of course, the problem with that is even if he signs an offer sheet with the Pistons, the Nets would be able to match.
That said, there are ways that the Pistons could make it difficult for the Nets. They could always make his contract a poison pill framework in which the deal is extremely backloaded. Either way, from all indications, the Nets appear to be primed and ready to match any deals that Johnson gets on the open market.
Taking it a step further, Johnson may not even hit the open market. If the two sides are sold on finding an agreement with each other, perhaps he could simply renegotiate with the Nets without taking any outside meetings or calls.
Johnson was a key part of the return for KD. From that point of view, it’s easy to see why Brooklyn would want to bring Johnson back. In fact, I would go on to say that the Nets can’t afford to let Johnson leave in free agency.
Either way, it’s extremely rare for restricted free agents to switch teams. It almost never happens. But that’s not going to stop a team like the Pistons from trying their hardest to pry Johnson away from Brooklyn.