Earlier this week, news broke that the Denver Nuggets were trading away small forward Michael Porter Jr. and a 2032 first-round pick to the Brooklyn Nets in exchange for forward Cameron Johnson. Even though the draft pick is seven years away, trading away a first-rounder is never a small thing in professional sports. And now, it’s got the league talking.
Denver receiving Johnson is a big deal for the team. Since winning the NBA Title in 2023, the Nikola Jokic-led Nuggets have not quite fallen on hard times, but have fallen behind fellow Western Conference competitors such as the Oklahoma City Thunder and Houston Rockets. Receiving Johnson — an elite scoring forward — could bring them back to glory. But did the deal make sense?
We fired up NBA 2K25, made a MyNBA save, and decided to see for ourselves.
What Do Teams Offer For Michael Porter Jr. In NBA 2K25?
So, unfortunately, I couldn’t recreate the exact trade in NBA 2K25. In-game, the Nuggets only have two draft picks to deal out — one in 2026 and another in 2028. Therefore, I couldn’t include a 2032 draft pick as part of a deal for Johnson. My only recourse was to put Michael Porter Jr. on the trade block and use the Trade Finder function.
The Nets did make an offer for Porter, but it didn’t include Johnson. Instead, Brooklyn offered up point guard D’Angelo Russell and the Phoenix Suns’ 2029 first-round pick. Not a terrible deal, but we already have Jamal Murray at the point, so that won’t quite work.
But what about other teams around the NBA? What are they prepared to offer for Porter?
Well, we had 19 offers in total. But the one that stood out the most was the offer from the Milwaukee Bucks.
Under the condition that we also include veteran big man DeAndre Jordan as part of the deal, the Bucks were willing to give us small forwards Kyle Kuzma and Pat Connaughton. Though not as elite a scorer as Johnson, Kuzma is a very versatile scorer. So we accepted the deal.
The Deal Didn’t Pan Out
Unfortunately, the deal we made didn’t work. In what would be the team’s worst finish in years, the Nuggets finished with a 46-36 record, which was only good enough to get into the NBA Play-In as the 7th seed in the West. Unfortunately, it was a one-and-done for us after losing to the Sacramento Kings in the Play-In round.
That said, it wasn’t all bad.
Nikola Jokic finished as league MVP, and veteran Russell Westbrook was the NBA’s Sixth Man of the Year. That said, I don’t think this would be enough to keep our job in real life.
