Sources confirmed Sunday evening the Nets and Hornets have re-started trade talks surrounding Brooklyn native Lance Stephenson.
The potential deal, which was first reported by Yahoo Sports, would center around Joe Johnson heading to Charlotte in exchange for Stephenson, and forwards Gerald Henderson and Marvin Williams. While the Nets would save minimal money in the exchange — a little over $1 million this year and a little under $3 million next year — it would give them additional depth on the wing as well as more athleticism, two things they desperately need.
Stephenson is averaging 9.8 points, 6.1 rebounds and 4.8 assists, but almost immediately fell out of favor with the Hornets after signing a three-year deal for $27 million —including a team option for the third year — as a free agent in July.
The Nets are scheduled to return to the court Monday against the Trail Blazers after a disastrous end to their short Western trip, getting beaten by a combined 74 points by the Clippers and Jazz and losing Mirza Teletovic for the season after multiple blood clots were discovered in his lungs.
Meanwhile, Johnson — who is averaging 15.5 points, 4.6 rebounds and 3.7 assists per game this season — has been playing through injuries to his right knee and left ankle for the past several weeks.
He’s done so quietly and without complaint, soldiering through game after game for the Nets because there is no one to replace him.
“I’ve just got tendinitis real bad in my right knee, and in my left ankle,” Johnson said after Saturday’s loss to the Jazz. “I’ve been playing with both of them, and been pretty banged up for probably about the past month and a half or so.
“We don’t have time to have guys sit and rest, like some other teams do. We just don’t have the roster for that, so I just have to play through it.”
Between Teletovic, Deron Williams missing most of the month with fractured rib cartilage and Brook Lopez having missed multiple chunks of time for different ailments, Johnson is right that the Nets don’t have the roster depth to afford any more players sitting out.
“Joe’s struggling a little bit physically, but he’s hung in there and he keeps playing,” Nets coach Lionel Hollins said. “He doesn’t ask to come out, he doesn’t want to sit out, and we’ve got to have other people step up and play better so he can get more rest.”
And, frankly, the Nets can’t afford to have Johnson missing any time. Coming into the season, it was clear Johnson was going to be the team’s most important player. With the departures of Shaun Livingston and Paul Pierce, the Nets were left without much depth on the wings.
Those losses also meant only Johnson and Alan Anderson were left as reliable wing defenders, and with either Bojan Bogdanovic or Sergey Karasev starting next to Johnson all season, that has meant Johnson always draws the assignment of guarding the top opposing wing threat, in addition to being his team’s primary scoring option.
“No, it hasn’t [been easy], but I’m a competitor, man,” Johnson said. “I’ve never went to coach and complained about anything.
“I just play through it. I just keep doing that.”
Johnson has been playing through it, but his play has clearly suffered.
He’s averaging 13.1 points, 4.1 rebounds, and 3.5 assists while shooting 36.2 percent overall and 29 percent from 3-point range, and has scored in single-digits in four of the past six games.
“I mean, it’s hard to explode and push off my left knee, which kind of enables my mobility a little bit, or just moving my feet defensively,” he said. “But some games it feels great. Like, I think we had three days off and we practiced and I think I rested two days before the Sacramento game, and I had a little pop that game.
“Then [we] came back with the back-to-back in [Los Angeles], which wasn’t so great, and yesterday off which was pretty good, but it still just kind of lingered.”
With the Nets entering into a brutal final couple weeks before the All-Star break — with eight of their nine games against playoff teams — Johnson is just hoping to survive until the break, when he’ll get 10 days to rest and recover before the second half begins.