Most Nuggets fans are excited about the team’s addition of Cameron Johnson, but they may not fully understand how great this could look. The trade, swapping Michael Porter Jr. for Johnson, was seen as a lateral move at worst and a slight upgrade at best.

But in reality, this move could be massively beneficial for Denver. Statistically, Johnson has a higher Estimated Plus Minus than anyone on the Nuggets other than Nikola Jokic. He was buried on a bad Nets team for the last few years, completely overtasked as a primary playmaker and offensive hub.

Despite being put in a position to fail and the team performing very poorly around him, Johnson was still able to put up strong stats with good efficiency. People are just assuming that he’ll slot right into MPJ’s slot and replicate exactly what he was doing, but the potential is there for so much more.

If Johnson’s efficiency translates, Denver will have elite offense

Now, Johnson will be in a role that’s much more suited to his game. He’ll be able to play off of Jokic and Jamal Murray as a movement shooter, cutter, floor spacer, and secondary creator. He’ll get plenty of chances to run the offense and take advantage of mismatches and compromised defenses.

But he shouldn’t ever be forced to do too much, and his shot quality should go through the roof. In Brooklyn, he was one of the focal points of the offense, and opponents would game-plan to stop him, specifically. He’d often be guarded by the other team’s best defensive player and would frequently face extra help, double teams, and rotating defenses.

Teams won’t have that luxury when they face the Nuggets. They’ll always have to load up on Jokic and Murray, plus Christian Braun, who is one of the best cutters in the league, and Aaron Gordon, who is one of the best lob threats in the league.

Now, add in Johnson to that mix, and if anything, he may end up being a bit of a forgotten man. He’ll constantly face overmatched defenders, and with the amount of attention that will be paid to his teammates, Johnson should be able to walk into one open shot after another.

Jokic and Murray are going to be able to feed him easy looks left and right, and while some of his counting stats may go down, there’s a good chance that Johnson has the most efficient season of his career. If that’s the case, this Nuggets offense is going to take another step and could become one of the best units in league history.