Nuggets’ Cam Johnson-Michael Porter Jr. trade is backfiring in a big way

The Denver Nuggets’ decision to trade Michael Porter Jr. away in a salary dump to the Brooklyn Nets for Cam Johnson this past offseason was mostly a positive. After all, it opened up cap room for the Nuggets to bolster the team’s depth. But now that Denver is here in the 2026 NBA playoffs, they might be missing a player of Porter’s caliber after all, especially with Johnson not exactly being at his best through the first three games of their first-round matchup against the Minnesota Timberwolves.

Johnson has not been at his best all season long for the Nuggets, and in the playoffs, his struggles have become even more magnified. He has gone just 3-16 from deep through the first three games of the series, and in their 113-96 loss to the Timberwolves in Game 3, Johnson scored just six points on 2-6 shooting from the field (0-3 from beyond the arc).

On a night where the Nuggets were missing Aaron Gordon, Denver needed an additional scoring punch. With Nikola Jokic struggling to the tune of a putrid 7-26 shooting night from the field, that need was even more pronounced. And Johnson has to do a better job of filling the gaps for a Nuggets team that’s in dire need of a reliable tertiary scoring option.

Now, this might be an overexaggeration. It’s not like Porter was doing very well last year for the Nuggets in their playoff run. As one would recall, the Nuggets also lost Game 3 of their first-round series against the Los Angeles Clippers in convincing fashion (117-83) and Porter put up a stinker as well, scoring just seven points on 2-9 shooting from the field.

Porter was struggling in last year’s playoffs, which is partly why the Nuggets felt comfortable to trade him for a “downgrade” in Johnson. But now that Johnson’s not doing so well himself, expect there to be even more overreactions to Denver’s offseason gambit.

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