Coming into the season, the Nets had many concerns, but the
play of Joe Johnson wasn’t one of them.
Johnson has been one of the most consist players in the game
over the last 6 years. He’ll shoot about 45% and 35% from three and give you
around 16 points a game. Was there some thought that he would drop off this
season? Yes, but nobody foresaw the decline that is happening.
This year Joe Johnson is 35%/31%/11ppg. Not only is Joe
Johnson bad, with his contract he is the worst player in the league.
It is safe to say Johnson won’t be part of the Nets in March
he will be bought out or traded. But how do you trade the worst player in the
NBA?
Luckily for Brooklyn, Johnson is on an expiring deal and
that gives him some value.
On The Lowe Post this week, Zach Lowe said he heard that the
Nets are willing to make trades but still want to win now. So the Nets won’t
start the rebuild anytime soon, but how could they rebuild without draft picks?
Joe Johnson isn’t getting any first round picks in return, which means it is
time to get creative.
My idea for the Nets (I am available for an internship) is
to trade Joe Johnson for players under contracts for next year and maybe even
longer.
Why? Because no one is coming to Brooklyn next year in free
agency, it’s a dumpster fire here, and we all know the Nets don’t control their
own draft pick until 2019. The Nets need picks and Joe Johnson isn’t the guy to
get picks, but if you acquire guys in a trade for Johnson you can turn them into
picks next year or the year after.
The best analogy I can come up with is to flip a house. People
buy houses that are under value or a disaster, they spend some time
and money to fix it and then put it back on the market and make a profit off it
(HGTV!!! My mother would be so proud). Obviously in the analogy houses=players.
(You can take out LaVine and put in Shabazz Mohammad, LET ME
DREAM ABOUT ZACH LAVINE.)
But this trade is the perfect example of my idea you take in
Kevin Martin who can still shoot threes very well and has another year left on his
contract, when he is an expiring contract he could have value and net something
decent in return. Now the big turnoff in this deal is Nikola Pekovic, his contract isn't good and he is always in a suit during games (in
which he looks like the perfect bouncer) because of injuries. At the moment he
has zero value, but if he can get healthy and play a full season in Brooklyn all
of a sudden he has trade value and could get something in return. Mohammad or
LaVine would be a young assist for Brooklyn. In this deal the Nets would be
deserving of young talent because they would be giving the Wolves a lot of cap flexibility.
(I have Faried in the deal because Gallinari and Wilson
Chandler are unavailable on trade machine at the moment because of contract extensions
they have signed, but insert one of the two for Faried)
The Nets get an expiring in Hickson, a cheap veteran in
Nelson and it gets the Nuggets out of a longer term deal with players who let’s
be honest aren’t taking the Nuggets anywhere. If Chandler/Gallinari/Faried play
better over their contract the Nets can
eventually trade them for more value.
This deal gives the Nuggets more cap flexibility.
My favorite trade is Joe Johnson for Derrick Rose.
Both are having awful seasons the Bulls would probably be
scared because Chicago loves D-rose but for pure basketball reasons this trade
makes sense for the Bulls, They would get out of Rose’s contract a year early
by taking Joe Johnson and would have money to throw around this summer and
Chicago is an attractive city for free agents. For the Nets, maybe D-Rose turns
it around? OK, probably not but Rose in a Nets jersey? That would be fun. (Fun doesn’t
equal productive)
The Nets are in a bad place and Joe Johnson hasn’t been
good, this is my best idea at the moment.
For everything Nets and NBA following @threwthenet.
