NEW YORK — Brooklyn Nets forward Cam Johnson came into the 2023-24 season as the second-highest paid player on the team as he received a significant pay raise last offseason. Unfortunately for Johnson and the rest of the team, this season was disappointing for everyone involved given that the team missed the postseason completely, but he still has confidence in this roster.
“I feel like the pieces are there,” Johnson said during his exit interview on Monday when asked why he still has confidence in this roster being a winning one at some point in the near future. As Nets fans know, Brooklyn began this season with a 13-10 record only to go 19-40 the rest of the way despite the firing of head coach Jacque Vaughn.
“I feel like the base is there,” Johnson continued. “I feel like it’s possible, it’s accomplishable. Obviously we failed in our mission this year, point-blank period, no way around that. But like I said man, that’s all part of the process. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose, you just got to get better and focus on what we can do going forward.”
Johnson, 28, had himself a down season as he went from averaging 16.6 points, 4.8 rebounds, 2.1 assists, and 1.4 steals per game last season to 13.4 points, 4.3 rebounds, and 2.4 assists per game while shooting 44.6% from the field and 39.1% from three-point land. He also had to deal with enough injuries this season to cause him to miss 24 games, including missing seven of Brooklyn’s first eight games this season with a calf issue.
“It’s part of it all,” Johnson said when asked about how difficult this season was to deal with given all of the injuries to him and other key players in the Nets’ rotation. “It’s part of it. Nobody ever says anything will be handed to you, anything will be easy, adversity won’t come up, so it’s part of it. You just got to take it, keep it pushing, keep working, and focus on tomorrow, focus on what we can do today.”
Johnson also addressed a matter that most believe was a turning point for Brooklyn this season and that was the decision by the organization to sit out several players in a key matchup against the Milwaukee Bucks on Dec. 27. Not only did the action seemed to anger everybody involved including the players, but the NBA issued a $100,000 fine to the Nets for violating the Player Participation Policy as well.
“I’m not going to put it on any specific time in general,” Johnson said when asked about that day in relation to Brooklyn’s downward spiral around that time of the season. “Early January, late December. I think we were in a good place, you know, early December, mid-December. Competitive in the mix, in the playoff hunt, maybe trying to even get out of the Play-In. And we just stumbled, man, and we didn’t pick up the pieces well.”
As one of the veterans and highest-paid players on the team, Johnson will be expected to play better and to help lead the guide to greener pastures as well. The hope is that he can stay healthy and be able to help lift the team’s overall shooting/scoring ability.
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