Cam Johnson knows what time it is. More precisely, what time of year it is.
This was a rebuilding year for the Nets, and Johnson knew his name would be in trade rumors.
And with just two weeks until the Feb. 6 deadline, these reports will come in fast and furious. But he did his best to eliminate them.
Are they making noise-cancelling headphones because of trade rumors?
“Keep your head down. I'm just trying to emotionally detach from it,” Johnson said before Wednesday's 108-84 loss to his former Suns. “I have to invest all that energy for myself and now and for the team.
“No matter what happens, the Nets have invested a lot of resources into trying to make me a better player. So my job is to serve the city, this team, this organization and It's about competing for my teammates. And that's what I'm going to do. And if I get traded, that objective will shift to where I go. But for now, this is where I am. ”
Johnson, who was on Wednesday, jammed again Tuesday while being guarded by Mikal Bridges and was sidelined again with a sprained right ankle.
He has missed eight of the past 11 games and could miss more if the ankle pain persists.
But he's averaging 19.4 points on 49.1/41.9/89.8 shooting splits and is clearly still playing hard, even though he's a prime trade target for a rebuilding team.
“It's a competitive group. There's a lot of outside noise, and I think we understood that from day one,” Johnson said. “A lot of people have a lot of things to say about what we've done. But what's important to us is what happened in the locker room and what happened on the court. …At the end of the day , when we go out and compete against each other, no one can take that away from us.
“It has nothing to do with what we do on the court when we get between those lines. Our goal is to win every game and compete in every game.”
The Nets and Kings haven't talked about Johnson in recent weeks, and Sacramento doesn't see a viable path to a Johnson deal and is working with other teams to reach its goal, according to Stein Lein. It was reported.
Brooklyn reportedly indicated to rival teams that it would not move Johnson as much as it would let go Dennis Schroder or Dorian Finney-Smith.
Tyrese Martin, Keon Johnson, Jalen Wilson, Noah Clowney and Nic Claxton started, making their 24th start of the season.
According to Elias, this is the most in team history through the first 45 games.
Johnson (sprained right ankle) and Ben Simmons (illness) were demoted to the outs.
Also absent were Bojan Bogdanovic, Max Lewis, De'Anthony Melton, D'Angelo Russell, Cam Thomas, Trendon Watford and Zaire Williams.
Williams is every day. Watford have been upgraded to carry out contact work.
