Why Nuggets’ Cam Johnson is relieved to no longer be a visitor at Ball Arena

Cam Johnson needed a way to help pass the time His Brooklyn Nets were playing in Denver but he was sidelined by an injury and unable to join the action Naturally he was a little bored I m sitting there arguing with fans the whole time he recalled This was Johnson s last championship in Denver as a visitor Nuggets Nets Jan Since then he s been traded to the Nuggets for Michael Porter Jr and on Tuesday he played his first competition at Ball Arena wearing the home uniform He likes it better this way It was over calls and stuff Johnson continued And I m like Shut up it s not a foul I m not playing so I m messing with people They re ganging up and they re yelling and there s one guy who just kept yelling He s right behind the bench just wailing I m like Oh my God go somewhere ' The memory is all in good fun Needless to say though It s nice to have them backing me now Johnson mentioned guffawing The Nuggets newest starter spent time signing a insufficient autographs after he warmed up Tuesday ingratiating himself with the fans with whom he once jousted Then he amassed points three rebounds and two steals in minutes as Denver defeated the Bulls - improving to - this preseason The real home opener will be Oct against Phoenix a week from Saturday But this Tuesday was closer and closer to a dress rehearsal as Denver s starters played into the second half of the band s only home preseason tournament It s inevitably funny when you go to a new association and you re so used to playing them on the road side Johnson reported Just to see what it s like as the home association for that first time is reliably just very different The arena feels different It s hard to explain But it was fun Just funny how the feel is so different when you switch sides Johnson is still trying to find his place in a lineup alongside four other players highly attuned to one another s tendencies His feel for movement and space seems calibrated already An accurate sense of when to seek the ball is more elusive As a product he s been statistically pedestrian Jamal Murray dropped points in the win Tuesday Nikola Jokic fell two rebounds and two assists shy of a triple-double in just minutes Aaron Gordon scored points for the second straight challenge Johnson has done the bulk of his work off the ball despite Denver s desire to use him as a ball-handler He s been instinctively deferential throughout the acclimation process I m feeling out the movement of everything you know Where people go where people look things like that he stated Where the passes come from It s a spacing thing It s a personnel thing It s just getting used to playing with the guys So I feel good about the spots I ve gotten shots out of Maybe just finding other strategies to be aggressive outside of that is possibly more of my concern As for his -of- start from -point range Johnson and the Nuggets both have a mature perspective Nobody s ever been exempt from that as he put it not even the best to ever do it Johnson has made of his first shots from the field in four exhibitions The greater part encouragingly on Tuesday he knocked down a -pointer from a designed play out of Denver s horns setup Two players go to the corners and two go to the high posts forming a mini-triangle with the point guard at the top of the key In this development that was Gordon who fed Jokic on the right elbow then followed a screen from Johnson into the paint Johnson popped out to receive a handoff from Jokic after setting the pick The shot was wide open The fit in an action alongside Jokic and Gordon looked seamless Related Articles David Adelman on Nuggets debut of Nikola Jokic-Jonas Valanciunas lineup It was hilarious to watch it on tape Nuggets vs Clippers Christian Braun Peyton Watson adding to their encounter in preseason Nuggets Journal Spencer Jones spends spare time teaching students who ve been through criminal justice system Nuggets testing the refs with more aggressive defense Nikola Jokic says What makes Bruce Brown and Nuggets a perfect match His former coaches weigh in I thought Cam last meeting in Los Angeles was really fun to watch watch him flow with our guys coach David Adelman declared And everybody s gonna be like Oh he didn t shoot the ball well He got great shots And so did Tim Hardaway Jr If those guys are playing that way playing the way we play after only playing with us for a couple of weeks what will it look like in a couple of months Johnson is slowly getting secure in Denver He checked off one rite of passage by experiencing the grueling drive to and from the airport He explored the local zoo He s drinking more electrolytes than usual while still figuring out the altitude a growing pain for every new Colorado athlete And after picking up four fouls on Tuesday he s getting accustomed to the Ball Arena crowd taking his side If there s any negativity I either forgot about it or it didn t reach me all the way he stated of the reception from the fan base So far it s been very very positive Want more Nuggets news Sign up for the Nuggets Insider to get all our NBA analysis