LAS VEGAS — For the Nets, keeping Cam Johnson as a part of their core was a priority.
For Johnson, helping Brooklyn build that core was just as important.
That’s why Johnson’s talks during restricted free agency were not just “very, very Nets-heavy,” but the deal they struck was front-loaded to give the team salary-cap flexibility going into next summer and the summer after that.
“Oh, it’s a big relief,” Johnson, 27, said of having his free agency behind him. “You try not to think about it, human nature kind of makes you think about it a little.
“But it’s a blessing, it’s a relief, and being able to move forward having a better understanding of what could potentially be in the future gives me a lot of comfort and I’m excited to get back to work with these guys.”
Johnson — who spoke at the Nets’ summer league game versus Milwaukee — is invested in that future.
The sweet-shooting forward inked a four-year deal initially reported as $108 million that will keep him playing alongside Mikal Bridges.
And his longtime pal was the first to call him with congratulations.
“But it was more of a ‘the next X amount of dinners are on you,’” Johnson laughed. “So he seems to forget he signed a pretty nice deal a little while before I did.
“He conveniently forgets that.”
That contract was also designed to not just help Johnson, but also aid Brooklyn in putting a better team around him.
It includes $13.5 million in unlikely bonuses, which don’t count against the cap.
And his cap hit will also decrease during the first three years of his pact, from $25.7 million this upcoming season to $23.6 million in 2024-25 and just $21.6 million in 2025-26 before rising to $23.6 million in the final year of the deal.
The past two seasons of Johnson’s contract will come after the NBA negotiates a huge new television/streaming deal, which will make him an even smaller chunk of the salary cap.
This front-loaded pact was designed to give Brooklyn more roster flexibility down the road to build around Johnson and Bridges.
“Yes, that’s a big part of it,” Johnson said. “I want to be surrounded by the best players possible. I want to be on the best team possible. So as to how the contract is weighted, it’s not like they’re taking or adding anything to it, it’s just a distribution of it.
“So I was trying to be as flexible as possible in allowing the best for the team situation.”
Johnson averaged career-highs of 15.5 points and 4.4 rebounds last season on 47.0/40.4/84.2 shooting percentage splits.
But he leveled up his game in Brooklyn.
After arriving with Bridges in the Kevin Durant deal, Johnson averaged 16.6 and 4.8 boards in 25 games.
And he was even better in the playoffs, boosting that to 18.5 points and 5.8 rebounds on 42.9 percent shooting.
The Nets suffered a first-round sweep versus the Sixers, but Johnson is convinced they’ll take a quantum leap with a full offseason and camp to build cohesion.
“Just build, man, continue to get better,” Johnson said. “We’re just every day fighting to establish an identity and establish an order and how we want to do things. So having this full offseason, having training camp, we’re doing a lot of team building right now, and trying to be a connected team. Because that’s first and foremost when it comes to success.
“We do not have the five best players in the world on our team … but who can be the most connected, who can execute what they need to execute the best, and who can play together the best?
“It goes a long way in our league, and we have very, very talented players, so if we put it together we can accomplish a lot.”