What to do with Joe Johnson?

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.

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