Why for the Nuggets: Cameron Johnson is having a down year when he traded to Denver in exchange for Michael Porter Jr.. By trading away his salary and a their late FRP on draft night, they can easily dodge over 10 million dollars. Why, you ask, would they need to dodge such money? Because Peyton Watson is a free agent and he will be expecting a bag this offseason after what a spectacular job he’s done this year, easily outperforming Cameron Johnson. Along with this, Brandon Clarke is a positive role player off the bench, and he’s a good backup power forward, and he can even stretch to the 5. The Nuggets this season had trouble finding serviceable bigs due to injuries with Jokic and Valancunias. They do all of this, and still are out of the 2nd apron hopefully, maybe they have to trade another player like Zeke Nnaji, but I don’t think so. Now, you might be asking, why would the Nuggets trade away a whole first round pick for Brandon Clarke? Well, the trade isn’t about Brandon Clarke, it’s about salary dumping. The Nuggets are giving the Grizzlies 10 million extra dollars, so they have to provide something in return. A normal first round pick might be too much, but the Nuggets first round pick is extremely late, which is why it is seen as expendable.

Why for the Grizzlies: They get off the iffy Brandon Clarke money, seeing him as expendable because they have many power forwards/centers on the team such as Santi Aldama, Zach Edey, Olivier Max-Prosper, and more. They get a positive starter in Cameron Johnson, but he’s not good enough to make the Grizzlies win a lot of games, which is exactly want they want. Essentially, Cameron Johnson is put in the same position where he was when he was playing on the Brooklyn Nets: don’t win that much. The Grizzlies are tanking, so that’s their strategy. They also get another first round pick in this years draft, boosting their draft stock and young potential and depth.

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