Hopefully Joe Johnson enjoys playing out another year of his twilight with the listless Brooklyn Nets.
Because he isn’t going anywhere.
Not by the Nets’ hands at least.
Some have speculated that Brooklyn would look to deal Joe Johnson’s expiring contract after firing head coach Lionel Hollins and reassigning general manager Billy King. But, as common sense would dictate, the Nets have no plans to shop Johnson, according to Nets Daily:
So suppose Johnson keeps putting up those numbers for the next month, is he a trade piece at the February 18 deadline? A contending team might want a veteran presence who can hit the big shot and provide leadership. Of course, he still makes $24.9 million which even if it’s expiring, the league’s second highest salary is a big nut to move.
And would the Nets be interested? Word is that while Frank Zanin, Billy King’s assistant, has “the phone” and will take calls, ownership is unlikely to be interested. The big reason is the return. The Nets would have to take on multiple deals, at least one or more would extend into next season and thus cut into the Nets salary cap space. As anyone who listened to Mikhail Prokhorov this week understands, that $40 to $45 million in cap space is essential if there is to be a “small reset.”
Trading Joe Johnson makes absolutely no sense for what the Nets are trying to do. They don’t have the rights to their own draft pick until 2019, tethering them to a free agency-based rebuild. And that kind of restructuring takes cap space—the sort of cap space allowing Johnson’s $24.9 million salary to trickle off the books helps create.
Unless there’s a team slinging a combination of expiring contracts that cheapens the Nets’ bottom line, they have no incentive to flip Johnson. A buyout is a possibility if the veteran wing so desires, but even that’s unlikely. Brooklyn has every reason to win as much as possible now, since their draft pick is owed to the Boston Celtics, and losing Johnson, even at a discount, will only make the loss of said selection sting that much more.
