‘One of the worst trades of the decade’
It’s been an offseason of troubling moves for the Brooklyn Nets, and it hit fever pitch last week.
After trading two-way wing Cam Johnson to the Denver Nuggets for Michael Porter Jr. and a 2032 first-round pick, Bill Simmons crushed Brooklyn for the deal.
“Did they have to even put Cam Johnson in the trade?” the Ringer honcho said on his eponymous podcast. “I just think that trade, the more I thought about it over the last five days, is one of the worst trades of the decade. You have to attach a pick to get rid of Porter, and I also didn’t get anything for Cam Johnson? Nothing?”
Simmons added that the Nets are among the “bleakest” situations that any team is facing in the NBA right now, along with the Raptors, Bulls and Pelicans.
Porter Jr. has dealt with numerous injuries in his career, dating back to the 2018 draft, which led to him falling to No. 14 despite expectations he would be selected in the top five.
“It’s bad. I thought it was a miracle trade for the Nuggets when it happened… Porter, I didn’t think was tradable unless you took like a Bradley Beal. You know, $78 million for two years. He has a bad back. He has a f–ked up shoulder… For [the Nuggets] he was a complete impediment to making their roster better… here comes Brooklyn, and they’re like, ‘We just need one pick.’ It’s f–king crazy.”
It goes beyond the trade for Simmons, who also took aim at the Nets entering the 2025 draft with five first-round picks and making all of them to much criticism.
“I continue to think they did an awful job,” Simmons said. “Like really bad. I didn’t like their draft… I just don’t understand anything they did.”
Johnson averaged a career-high 18.8 points per game on 39 percent shooting from 3 to go along with 3.4 assists and 3.4 rebounds per game while being known as a plus defender.
Porter Jr. put up 18.2 points per game on 39.5 percent from 3-point range with seven rebounds and 2.1 assists for the Nuggets and helped them win a title in 2023.