Inside the Bold Nuggets Trade: What Michael Porter Jr. for Cam Johnson Really Means for Their Championship Hopes

Defensively, Johnson is not special, but he’s the better of the two players in the trade. Porter Jr. deserves a lot of credit for learning to use his size (6-foot-10) and the help of defenders around him to evolve from a terrible defender to a passable one. It’s the kind of improvement that goes unnoticed but is incredibly important. By the end of his Nuggets’ tenure, Porter Jr. was good enough to not get played off the floor defensively.

Johnson was at one point overrated on the defensive side of the ball because of his “3-and-D” archetype, but he was never a lockdown defender with the Nets. Now his reputation and skills align as an average defender who won’t make a defense worse, and he has the size (6-8) and quick-enough feet to guard multiple positions capably. His versatility is definitely his greatest asset on that side of the ball.

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