The Nuggets’ loss to the Trail Blazers on Monday came with a much bigger headache than the final score. With a little over a minute left, Cam Johnson reached for his left hamstring, and that moment may have changed the early shape of Denver’s season.
Johnson had already missed three games this year with a sprained ankle, and now the outlook appears to be even worse. The expectation is that he could be sidelined for several weeks, though Denver has not yet announced the full extent of the injury.
That’s the part that has to sting for the Nuggets: this is starting to look like a familiar pattern. Johnson played only 54 games last season, and injuries kept interrupting his rhythm then too. A right knee bone bruise and hyperextension caused the longest stretch on the sideline.
The front office made its bet on Johnson when it left him out of offseason trade discussions. That choice made sense at the time.
The Kroenkes had already sent a first-round pick to get him a year earlier, and the team clearly valued what he brings when he’s actually on the court. But six games into this season, he’s been available for only half of them.
The fit is still obvious. Denver moved Michael Porter Jr. to Brooklyn for Johnson in part to create financial flexibility, but also because the Nuggets believed Johnson could provide the same kind of impact, if not more. His spacing has already shown why that mattered.
Johnson is 30 and in the final year of his contract, earning $23 million, so every missed game carries extra weight. He’s playing for his future in Denver, and he can’t do that from the sideline.
There is at least one reason for the Nuggets to avoid full-blown panic: it’s still early. Johnson has time to get back before the second stretch of the season and, most importantly, the playoffs. But soft-tissue injuries have a way of hanging around, and this one adds another concern to a team that already had injury questions before Monday night.
For now, there’s still time for Johnson to prove Denver right. But two weeks into the season, he’s already run into two separate setbacks, and that’s not exactly a comforting start.
If the injuries keep piling up, it’s fair to wonder whether his time in Denver could end sooner than anyone wanted.
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