Cam Johnson, excited to remain a Brooklyn Net, reflects: ‘Don’t ever think you got it 100% understood’

Prior to Friday’s win over the Miami Heat, Cam Johnson reflected on a crazy, rumor-filled season so far.

Cam Johnson can finally take a breath. He can finally go to sleep without the worry that he’ll be awoken by a phone call informing him he now lives across the country.

For now.

“At least there’s gonna be a little cushion, where it’s gonna calm down and then, who knows? Maybe it picks up again. But I just can’t give my energy towards that, I gotta focus on what we’re doing here.”

That shouldn’t be a problem for the 28-year-old if his recent track record is any indication. Johnson has not only been in trade rumors since last summer, but it seemed like a formality that the Brooklyn Nets would sell him for assets as they entered a rebuilding era.

“It was just different, it was a completely different experience for me,” he says. “I think that the rumors have been moving quickly since Mikal got traded, and maybe even before then. Every time my agent called me over the summer, it’s like, ‘Oh, is something going down? I don’t know.’”

Despite the constant uncertainty and myriad ankle sprains, Johnson’s sixth NBA season, his second full one in Brooklyn, has clearly been his best …yet. Team-wide injuries and trades have foisted more creative responsibilities upon him, and he’s excelled with the ball in his hands…

That tweet is from early mid-November, and three months later, we see it was no small-sample gimmick. Johnson has turned it over more, but understandably so; on most nights, he’s been Brooklyn’s #1 option, and has responded with career-best assist-numbers, two-point shooting, and foul-drawing. Overall scoring too, duh.

And he’s shooting 41.8% from three…

Some credit has to go to his head coach. Jordi Fernández, in his first year with the franchise. Not only for the untold hours of play development behind the scenes, but offensive sets featuring frequent side-to-side motion (curls, dribble-handoffs, flare-screens) that create advantages for Johnson.

Of course, it’s a two-way street.

Johnson says, “I feel that this year I’m a much better player overall than I’ve been in the past,” but adds, “I get different opportunities this year. I think the shot profile is a little different.

“The one thing that I’m balancing is the reads of it all, the reads, the demands of it all, and trying to learn that, watch film, go over it, kind of see what’s developing, see what I’m missing, see where turnovers come from, missed opportunities, and just kind of be critical in that lens and try to push that further. And I’ve enjoyed it a lot. You know, it’s a silver lining to all of this. With everything going on, we’ve been banged up, we’ve had this going on, that going on, rumors going on, but I’ve been trying to do my best to take advantage of the learning opportunity that’s been presented to me.”

All that was evident in Friday night’s 102-86 win over the Miami Heat, in which Johnson led the team with 18 points. It was a welcome sight for Fernández, who probably didn’t expect to still have his best player on the team come February. Maybe that’s why he was effusive with praise for Johnson post-game.

“He’s a very reliable person, not just player. He shows up everyday, positive energy, super smart, helps his teammates and accountability — he’s the type of person that you want around, that you want in your family. And that’s what we’re building here, and like you said, all that [trade] speculation kind of came from the outside. We obviously value Cam Johnson, and we want him here. He’s been great, he’s gonna continue to be great.”

All that’s left for Nets fans to do — at least until the summer, when they can fire up those trade machines again — is hope Fernández is right. They can take solace in Johnson’s career-best production to this point, and the fact that it doesn’t feel like a hot-shooting fluke, but also in the first part of the head coach’s quote.

He didn’t ask to be a Net, yet Johnson has embraced it with open arms. Not just on-court opportunity with the ball in his hands, but the opportunity to be part of the next iteration of winning Brooklyn basketball. At shootaround on Friday morning, the 6’8” wing was all smiles, joking with reporters that we couldn’t get rid of him yet.

“I feel like it’s just kind of ironic,” he says. “I’ve been thrown around so much [in rumors] and end up not being traded. You know, that’s what I tell people, you just never think that you’re gonna have the answers to these things. When you think you’re going to be traded you might not, and when you think you’re not going to be traded, you might be traded. Just don’t ever think you got it 100% understood.”

Johnson clarified this was his ideal outcome for the deadline.

“It’s just clarity moving forward and where I’m going to be and what’s going to be going on, and then obviously what comes with that. Staying here. there’s a lot of familiarity. And you know, a lot that we still want to accomplish.”

I’ve written many times that I don’t think Brooklyn should head down the path they seem to be considering: cutting the rebuild short and not taking their best swings in two renowned draft classes in 2025 and 2026.

Alas, if they do chase some win-now players with all the cap space and future draft assets they have this summer, Johnson is an excellent player — and locker-room leader — to have around.

“That’s my dawg, man,” says Trendon Watford. “We got closer this year, with us being around each other for another year. It was a lot of speculation on whether he was going to be here, whether he wasn’t going to be here, but I don’t think it [affects] him at all. It’s always good to have a teammate like CJ and a brother like CJ. It looks night and day different to me from last year.”

So, who better to have representing Brooklyn at All-Star Weekend?

It’ll be Johnson’s first time competing in the event, which he called an honor, and it’s just the latest moment in a season of brand-new experiences for him.

At least the last couple have been positive.

“I like to tell people: When I got traded to Brooklyn, I was on the road. Day seven of a nine-day road trip. I had nothing but one or two sets of clean clothes, and I came right over here. Didn’t get to go home, didn’t get to see nobody, just poof, gone. And, you know, your life just flips just like that. Now, my contingency bag is unpacked at the house.

What’s in the bag, you might ask?

“Don’t worry about that, just know it’s unpacked.”

For now, Cam Johnson is here to stay in Brooklyn.

Prior to the Three-Point Contest, he’ll next be lacing ‘em up when the Nets take on the Charlotte Hornets at 7:30 p.m. ET on Monday night from the Barclays Center.