Nets general manager Sean Marks said the front office “should expect the unexpected” in regards to Cam Johnson’s pending restricted free agency.
Coming off a career year and an impressive playoff stretch, Johnson is set to hit free agency for the first time in his career. Since he is a restricted free agent, the Nets retain first right of refusal on any competing offer sheet.
If he signs an offer sheet from another team, the Nets can match the offer within 48 hours to retain his services and keep him in town. Free agency begins Friday, June 30 at 6 p.m.
Marks was once the GM of a Nets team that resorted to exorbitant offer sheets tendered to restricted free agents in an attempt to poach b-list talent from rival teams. They did it twice in the summer of 2016, making offers on both Portland’s Allen Crabbe and Miami’s Tyler Johnson that ultimately crippled each team’s ability to add other free agents to the roster.
The shoe is on the other foot, and Marks doesn’t know if karma is in store. The Houston Rockets and Detroit Pistons are among the most popular teams to offer Johnson a significant contract, potentially north of four years, $90 million. Both the Pistons and Rockets are desperate enough to make a statement with an offer sheet, and both are armed with available cap space to sign Johnson to such a high-paying contract.
“I don’t have a crystal ball,” Marks said after Thursday’s NBA Draft at the HSS Training Facility in Industry City early Friday morning. “I don’t know. I think it’s one of those things that maybe…we should expect the unexpected. Things happen all the time in this. We’ll be prepared for that.”
Retaining Johnson has been a priority, and Marks said as much in his end-of-the-season exit interview following Brooklyn’s first-round playoff sweep. The ex-Suns forward emerged as a go-to scorer for the Nets in the postseason after the Philadelphia 76ers doubled Mikal Bridges beginning with the second half of Game 1.
Johnson averaged 18.5 points per game through four playoff games and shot 51% from the field and 43% from downtown. He was also a starter, alongside Bridges, on the Suns team that made it to the NBA Finals in 2021.
“Cam knows how we feel about him. We hope he’s a Net and so we’ll just have to sort of play it all out,” Marks said. “I think we’ve got a nice young group and he can see how this group has a chance to do something special here and do something special in Brooklyn.”
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