Nuggets’ Cameron Johnson, Tim Hardaway Jr. explain why they’re excited to play with Nikola Jokić
The Denver Nuggets reloaded this summer. After falling in the second round of the playoffs to the eventual champion Oklahoma City Thunder, the Nuggets went out and positioned themselves as a serious threat to the Thunder repeating next season. They traded Michael Porter Jr. to the Brooklyn Nets for Cameron Johnson, then signed Tim Hardaway Jr. away from the Detroit Pistons, to add to their bench depth.
Both acquisitions very clearly tell us what Denver’s plans were for this summer: add more shooting. Hardaway is a microwave scorer, capable of racking up points in a hurry if he’s got the hot hand, and the ideal spark plug to have off the bench for a team that ranked 27th in bench scoring last season. Johnson is the even better get here for the Nuggets, as someone who fits the mold of a 3-and-D player at 6-foot-8, and is among the most efficient 3-point shooters in the league after coming off a season where he shot 39% from deep with the Nets.
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Johnson and Hardaway should both easily thrive off playing alongside Nikola Jokic, the league’s best offensive mastermind, and both players are practically giddy at the thought of it.
“Honestly, a big part of [being excited to play with Jokić] is not having to play against him anymore,” Johnson said on The Young Man and the Three podcast. “He’s a problem, that’s it, period. He can pass, rebound, score — you don’t know what you’re gonna get any given day, like what mode he’s in. It’s an uncanny ability. He has spatial awareness, just how he feels a game, how he understands the game, like he does it in a way different than anybody else in the league.”
Johnson continued.
“From a peer numbers perspective, you’re not really touching his output over the past couple of years, and it’s not accidental, like he’s just that good,” Johnson said. “So to be able to play off that, to be able to make those reads, like me and Tim [Hardaway Jr.] both will really enjoy playing off these high level players where we’re able to cut, find open spots, get up and down the court, make the right play, and it can just be simple. Knowing that everybody whose on the court, they’re going to make the right play, they’re going to make the right read. And I think that’s the kind of basketball that the front office is driving for and that’s really how they played for the most part. Since I’ve been in the league, and they’ve been really good at it.”
Jokić has a knack for elevating the players around him, and both Hardaway and Johnson will be no different. We’ve seen several players thrive in Denver’s system, and it’s because of Jokić’s brilliance.
“It’s not even just [Jokić], like, you’ve seen Christian Braun step up and have a heck of a season last year,” Johnson said. “Jamal Murray is a super talented dude, and so is [Aaron Gordon]. It’s not an easy team to guard. It hasn’t been an easy team to guard over the past couple of years. Just being able to fit in that environment is going to be a lot of fun for us.”
The Nuggets ranked last in the league in 3-point attempts but ranked fifth in 3-point percentage. With the addition of Johnson and Hardaway, those attempts will surely skyrocket, and with the way both players shoot the ball, there shouldn’t be much drop off in terms of efficiency for Denver. The Nuggets were already going to be a threat to the Thunder next season, but with this retooled roster, the gap between the two is even closer.
