Mikal Bridges and Cam Johnson arrived in Brooklyn together, so-called Twins because they’d been so close in Phoenix.
Now that Bridges was traded away last week, will Johnson be next?
“Obviously we failed in our mission this year — point-blank, period, no way around that,” Johnson said after the Nets’ first non-playoff season since 2017-18. “But like I said, man, that’s all part of the process.
Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose. You’ve just got to get better and focus on what we can do going forward.
“And that’s where my head’s at right now: How we can elevate the organization. How we can be better on the court, off the court and get back on track to where we think we should be?”
The question is: Where will Johnson be?
The Nets raised the white flag on title contention anytime soon, signaling their full-on rebuild by sending Bridges across the East River to the rival Knicks.
Their mission to tank has seen veterans like Johnson and Dorian Finney-Smith put on the trading block, and both have already garnered at least some level of interest.
The Post had reported on interest in Johnson from the Cavaliers, and Hoopshype has cited at least some levels of interest from the Kings, Raptors, Pacers and Magic as well.
Brooklyn has reportedly been in contact with the Lakers too, according to The Athletic.
But despite claims the Nets were interested in a reunion with point guard D’Angelo Russell, sources told The Post that’s not expected to happen.
So with shooting-starved LA having missed out on target Klay Thompson, could Johnson be next on the list?
None of the interest is particularly shocking.
Johnson, who was back in Arizona on Monday night attending the WNBA Phoenix Mercury’s loss to the Connecticut Sun, has the profile NBA teams are looking for.
In what was viewed as a down year, Johnson averaged 13.4 points and 4.3 rebounds in 58 games, slogging through a litany of injuries (calf, leg, shoulder, ankle, adductor and toe).
He still managed to shoot 44.6 percent overall and 39.1 from 3-point range, just one percentage point off his solid career average.
“It’s part of it all,” Johnson said. “It’s part of it. Nobody ever says anything will be handed to you, anything will be easy, adversity won’t come up. So it’s part of it. You’ve just got to take it, keep on pushing, keep working, and focus on tomorrow, focus on what we can do today.”
That long-range touch, his age (still just 28) and size (6-foot-8) combine to make Johnson a valuable commodity.
Though Johnson’s average of 2.4 made 3-pointers this past season was a dip from his career-best 2.9 in 2022-23, there were still just 10 players at least 6-7 in the entire league who averaged more.
Though Johnson has three years and $68.8 million left on his contract, it de-escalates after next season to become a team-friendly deal.
His $21.5 million salary in 2025-26 is just 13.91 percent of the suddenly spiking salary cap, more than manageable for any team trading for him.
Finney-Smith has drawn exploratory interest from the 76ers according to Hoopshype, but nothing is considered imminent there.
After Jacob Gilyard was on a two-way deal this past season with Brooklyn, the Nets didn’t extend him a qualifying offer.
But a source told The Post the 25-year-old will go to Las Vegas with the Nets, play point guard for their summer league team and the sides will go from there.
