Nuggets & Jokic are INSTANTLY title contenders again after Cam Johnson for Michael Porter Jr. trade

Nuggets & Jokic are INSTANTLY title contenders again after Cam Johnson for Michael Porter Jr. trade

What’s up, guys? Thanks as always for supporting the show. It would mean a lot to me if you would take a second to scroll down and hit that subscribe button so you don’t miss any more of our videos. Also, make sure you follow us all over social media so you don’t miss any of our content or show announcements. Denver Nuggets big day yesterday. They trade Michael Porter Jr. in an unprotected 2032 first round pick for Cam Johnson. They also signed Bruce Brown to a one-year deal and traded Daario Sarich for Jonas Valenunis as they pretty substantially anchor their bench and solve that fit starter problem. Let’s start with Cam Johnson. So, obviously an unprotected 2032 first round pick, but that’s way out in the future when Joic will in all likelihood be retired and you’re spending it on I’ve always talked about this when it comes to first round draft compensation in the trade market. I’m generally good with it as long as it brings back a guy that you can close games with. A guy that you feel comfortable in a key spot in a playoff series being on the floor with your best lineups that I think makes sense to spend first round draft compensation. When it comes to bench guys, like, oh, this guy’s going to come off the bench for us and have a smaller role. That’s where it gets tricky when it comes to including first round draft compensation, especially when it comes to unprotected first round draft compensation. Now, one of the things I talked about in the after the conference semi-finals, if you guys remember, was that I still very much believe in the core four of the Denver Nuggets. Jamal Murray, Christian Brown, Aaron Gordon, and Nicole Joic. They’re about as perfect fitting a four-man group as you’ll find in the league. They’re big and strong at every position. They have two very good athletes in Christian Brown and Aaron Gordon. all complement each other perfectly on offense, even more so as Christian Brown and Aaron Gordon have both become better jump shooters over the last couple of years. The problem is is that they had nothing but very flawed options at that fifth spot, that fifth guy. We saw stretches in the postseason where they’ve got Russell Westbrook out there trying to fill that spot. Michael Porter Jr. had issues all over the floor in the postseason, including an inability to knock down open catch and shoot jumpers, which in theory would be the thing that he should have been able to handle there. And you guys are you Nuggets fans are probably still scarred by some of the open looks that he missed in pivotal spots in that Oklahoma City Thunder series. And the second problem was that the Nuggets legitimately fell off of a cliff when they went to their bench. I was having dinner on Sunday night with Adam Mars um before the trade and we were just kind of talking making small talk. I’m up here in Denver like I told you guys yesterday. We’re getting ready to move up here and we were just talking about last season and you know one of the things I said to Adam was in that game seven the fronting of the post from uh from Alex Caruso kind of stole the attention coming out of that game seven. And I don’t want to sit here and pretend like that wasn’t the uh one of the big kind of defensive adjustments that kind of rocked that game, but the Nuggets got off to a great start in game seven. And what happened was is they went to their bench. And when they went to their bench, everything just absolutely cratered. And so honestly, like it comes down to it when it get when you get to the NBA playoffs. Ideally, you want to have for sure a fiveman grouping that you trust, but you really need seven, seven and a half guys that you can depend on to play key stretches in key playoff moments in various points of the game. And that bench weakness ended up being part of what burned them. If you remember, it was when the bench came in, they get absolutely rocked. All of a sudden, by the time uh the starters get back into the game, they’ve lost control. Aaron Gordon’s hamstring starts to become a bigger problem over the course of the game. I definitely thought their bench played a role in where things went south for them last year. And so, these two moves directly address these three moves, I should say, directly address those two biggest issues. Who’s that fifth guy that they’re going to be starting and closing games with? and do they have the ability to go to their bench without completely cratering like they did in game seven. Let’s talk about Cam Johnson first. He’s one of the best shooters in the NBA. Out of the 58 players last year to take at least 500 jump shots. He ranked 13th in efficiency at 1.10 points per shot despite being on pretty high degree of difficulty jump shots. A lot of off the dribble jump shots, a lot of off the move jump shots. Some specifics, he was 44% field goal percentage when unguarded off of the catch. That’s 1.31 points per shot when you waited for threes. And he was right at about a point per possession off the dribble. 37.4% on off the dribble threes specifically as well. He was very good on the move. He was one of the very best movement shooters in the NBA last year out of 31 players to take at least 75 shots coming off of offball screens. Cam’s 1.15 points per possession ranked third in the entire NBA. One of the very best offscreen players in the NBA. Steph Curry, by the way, still holding off still holding down the top spot there. Um Cam specifically shot 39% on threes coming off of offball action. He has substantially more off the dribble pop than Michael Porter Jr. as well. He ran a ton of action last year in Brooklyn. He ran 264 pick and rolls right at about a point per possession including passes. He was a really good ISO player. He ran 68 ISOs that led to 76 points. That’s 1.12 points per possession. Really just had a he kind of added over the course of the last couple years some of those basic ISO off the dribble moves like side step threes, step back threes, things along those lines to get little bits of separation for him to beat guys in one-on-one situations. The offensive fit in Denver is an absolute dream. He’s just a way better and way more versatile offensive player than Michael Porter Jr. ever was. He brings a downhill rim pressure coming off of action that Michael Porter Jr. never did. He’s better at shooting off the dribble than Michael Porter Jr. When it comes to like straight up standstill shooting, Michael Porter Jr. is obviously one of the best guys that we’ve had in the league over the course of the last few years, but even then that failed him in big spots in this postseason run. I can’t look at it as anything other than a massive upgrade. And then on defense, it’s a bit more complicated, but I still view it as an upgrade. Michael Porter Jr. is a better rebounder than Cam, and he offers a bit more length at the rim in terms of like help defense situations, recovery stuff at the basket, but Cam is substantially better than him at every other element of defense. Cam has become a legitimately useful perimeter defender in the NBA. Has good foot speed and length. He competes on that end of the floor. I actually think he can guard the second best perimeter player on the other team and that’s what he’ll be doing off of Christian Brown. There have been many examples over the course of the last few years if you guys remember where Denver had to deploy Aaron Gordon on a wing for various reasons because Michael Porter Jr. can’t do that. And the side effect of that is it it removes Aaron Gordon from the rim as that helper defensive rebounder type of player which he can be so impactful there. Right. So, like I think they can actually just use Cam Johnson as their secondary perimeter defender instead of using Aaron Gordon like they have in years past, which I think gives them a stronger backline defensively in a lot of different situations. I I think Cam’s just a better athlete in terms of just up and down the floor athleticism in transition as well. That’s big for a Denver Nuggets team that could have used some perimeter athleticism. I just think Cam Johnson is an awesome basketball player. I think he’s a better basketball player than Michael Porter Jr. and I think he’s a perfect fit with the Denver Nuggets. This is a classic let’s go allin type of move and I now view the Nuggets as a legitimate top tier contender in a way that I did not before the trade. I think especially if you zoom out and it’s like they were this close to giving Oklahoma City a real problem last year in terms of them having a eight-point lead in the fourth quarter of game four, a game that could have put them up 3-1, a 9-point lead in the fourth quarter of game five, a game that could have put them up 3-2. I I just I like it as an all-in move to try to increase their margin for error in those matchups. Bruce Brown, he took a payday after winning the chip and he goes to Indiana, but he struggles to find roles in Indiana and in Toronto. So, why not go back to the role that got you paid in the first place as that kind of like deacto sixth starter for the Denver Nuggets? He’s always had great chemistry with Nicole Joic as an inverted screener and as a cutter. He brings perimeter athleticism for a team that needs it. They just ended up trading Dario Sarzich for Jonas Valenunis. They have I I prefer Al Horford for this spot, but I think Yonas is a certainly a better option at backup center than whatever Denver has had access to in years past. But like regardless of what happens the rest of the summer, the Nuggets did it. They identified the urgency surrounding the prime of the greatest player in the game today and they pushed their chips in the middle and now I believe they have a great chance to win the title. They specifically match up really well with Oklahoma City. And this is the thing that I’m focused on and what all Denver fans should be excited about. Their interior size is a problem for Oklahoma City. Nicole Joic is a problem for Oklahoma City. Their overall basketball IQ on defense in terms of like forcing them to make decisions and make jump shots is something that manifests well in the matchup against Oklahoma City. These two addition, these three additions I should say, could be what pushes them over the hump to be able to win in that matchup. You know how you remember how we talked about how Isaiah Hartenstein and Alex Caruso, those two additions basically put Oklahoma City over the top? These could be similar additions for Denver that put them over the top. They they addressed this summer as an arms race. And with an Oklahoma City team that’s likely going to be standing pat, they’re betting on internal improvement. And guess what? Internal improvement will certainly be on the table for them this year. But Denver went and got better. Denver went and brought in talent and now they’re giving themselves as good a chance as they possibly can to compete with Oklahoma City at the top of the conference. I’m not obviously going to make a decision right now. That’ll be something we do closer to the season and I can change my mind a half dozen times during the season, but I feel like Denver has a real shot, like a really really good shot to win the Western Conference now because of the way they match up matchup to match up through the conference.

Jason reacts to the Denver Nuggets trading Michael Porter Jr. and a 2032 first round pick to the Brooklyn Nets for Cam Johnson, why he’s such a perfect fit alongside Nikola Jokic, Jamal Murray, and Aaron Gordon, and why it makes Denver an immediate NBA title contender again.

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