Marc Stein of The Stein Line said the Brooklyn Nets are telling teams that they don’t have to trade Cam Johnson before the Feb. 6 trade deadline.
Johnson, who turns 29 in March, is having a career year in Brooklyn, averaging 19.4 points on 49-42-90 shooting splits in 32.3 minutes per game. His contract — $22.5 million this season, $20.5 million next season, $22.5 million in 2026-27 — is extremely team-friendly, and, for win-now teams in search of a boost on offense, he’d be an ideal acquisition. If the Nets can’t get the type of return they want, though, they could simply keep him around.
“They’re basically sending the message that Cam Johnson has a descending contract, we’ll wait until next season, we don’t have to trade him right now,” Stein said during an appearance on the “ALL NBA Podcast.”
NBA trade rumors: Nets have steep asking price for Cam Johnson, Pistons might change course
Jack Maloney
Stein reiterated what he and The Stein Line’s Jake Fischer had reported over the past week: The Nets have told some teams that they’re looking for two first-round picks and a good, young player. The Cleveland Cavaliers are interested in Johnson but can’t meet that price. The Indiana Pacers like Johnson, too, but they’re hesitant. The Sacramento Kings have been linked to Johnson many times, but, per multiple sources, they haven’t talked to the Nets in weeks.
The implication was clear: Johnson probably isn’t going anywhere if Brooklyn doesn’t budge on its price point.
Generally speaking, the Nets should take this position, even if they would prefer to trade him in the next 12 days. If it becomes clear they’re not going to get their dream offer, they can decide in a week and a half what kind of deal they are willing to accept.
Regardless of Butler outcome, Miami determined to make playoffs
As The Stein Line noted on Saturday, citing sources, the Miami Heat have no interest in winding up in the lottery. This is not just because the Heat have historically been averse to bottoming out; it is because they are strongly incentivized to get a non-lottery pick in this year’s draft.
Miami owes its 2025 first-round pick to the Oklahoma City Thunder, but it’s lottery-protected. The Heat would like to surrender that pick to the Thunder and avoid owing anybody an unprotected first-round pick.
If Miami gets a lottery pick this year, then it will owe the Thunder an unprotected first-round pick in 2026. But that’s not all. At the moment, the Heat owe the Charlotte Hornets a lottery-protected 2027 first-round pick. If they get a lottery pick this year, though, that pick going to the Hornets will convey in 2028 and it will be unprotected.
(Fun fact: The saga of this pick owed to Oklahoma City dates back to the trade that brought Jimmy Butler to Miami in the first place. The Heat traded what was then a lottery-protected 2023 pick to the Los Angeles Clippers in that deal, and the Clippers then sent it to the Thunder in the blockbuster that involved Paul George and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. In 2022, Miami and OKC made a creative little trade that amended the protections on the pick so that it would convey in 2025 or 2026.)
All of this is to say that while the Heat aren’t quite in win-now mode — they reportedly want to add young players, draft capital and cap flexibility in a potential Butler trade — they aren’t at the other end of the spectrum, either. In ninth place at 21-22, Miami will spend the rest of the regular season trying to move up a few spots and avoid the play-in, regardless of what its roster looks like after Feb. 6.
