NBA Trade Rumors: Joe Johnson wants to stay in Brooklyn

Joe Johnson is reported to want to stay in Brooklyn with the Nets for the duration of this season and beyond.

The Cleveland Cavaliers may have to look somewhere other than Joe Johnson to bring a veteran on the roster to bolster the team before the playoffs. Marc Stein and Mike Mazzeo, both of ESPN, are reporting that Joe Johnson doesn’t want a buyout and that he wants to stay in Brooklyn in the long term.

Johnson being bought out by the Nets to become a free agent this season and linking up with a contending team had been a rumored possibility, but it appears as if the player himself wants to stick in New York. Cleveland were the most likely suitors for the guard. The 34-year-old Johnson is on the final year of his bloated 6-year, $119 million contract signed with the Atlanta Hawks before the Nets took that albatross of their hands.

Stein later retweeted Mazzeo’s report of Johnson staying in Brooklyn for a few more years.

Cleveland are looking to upgrade the team, having had their offer of flipping Anderson Varejao to the Orlando Magic for Channing Frye denied.

This season, Johnson is enduring the worst season of his career since he was 21 years old and playing for the Phoenix Suns. Johnson is averaging just 11.5 points on the hopeless Nets while shooting 40 percent from the floor, both lows since that season with the Suns in 2002-03. In a smaller role with a better team, Johnson could still be useful. Coming off the bench to supplement scoring when LeBron James and Kyrie Irving took rests would’ve improved Cleveland.

Cleveland will continue in their pursuit of manufacturing a roster that could better contend with Golden State, though it’s be fair to be skeptical on how the heavy-footed Johnson would’ve fared against the Warriors small ball lineups. The Cavaliers will hope that Johnson’s mind changes after the deadline and he becomes more receptive to a buyout.