Nets unlikely to trade Cam Johnson before NBA trade deadline

All quiet on the Nets’ trade front.

Could they actually stay that way?

Cam Johnson has had his name constantly linked in rumors since the Nets shipped out veterans Dennis Schroder and Dorian Finney-Smith.

But with the trade deadline fast approaching at 3 p.m. on Thursday — and sources telling The Post that Brooklyn is not shopping Johnson — it seems more and more likely that no team offers enough to get the Nets to change their minds.

League sources have consistently told The Post that the Nets — who were obviously highly motivated to deal away Schroder and Finney-Smith, since both were 30-somethings set to hit unrestricted free agency — have not been shopping Johnson.

They’ve only taken calls on him, and apparently none are convincing them to move the sweet-shooting wing.

So does Johnson go to Brooklyn general manager Sean Marks on the incessant reports? Or let his agents handle that while he keeps his focus on the court?

“Yeah, the latter more so,” Johnson told The Post. “If I felt the need to go speak to him about something, or I catch wind of something that I want to bring up to him, then I will.”

So far, there hasn’t been much of a need.

In various reports, Johnson has been linked to Golden State, Indiana, Minnesota, Oklahoma City and the Lakers.

But he’s still in Brooklyn, and Marks is seemingly more than content to stand pat.

“He has a job to do. I have a job to do. And that’s what I’m focused on right now,” Johnson told The Post. “And right now, my job is to play for this team and to contribute to this team and to try to do all those things.

“And his job is to manage the group. So I’m not [worried]. If there’s something that I need to know, then I trust he’ll tell me, my agent will tell me. And [I’m] going from there.”

Johnson, who missed Tuesday’s game against the Rockets with a sprained ankle, is in the midst of a mid-career breakthrough.

The forward is currently averaging 19.4 points on 49.1/41.9/89.8 shooting splits. His true shooting percentage is up to 65.8 this season.

In 10 December games, Johnson poured in 22 points on 48.9 percent shooting, including a white-hot 44.0 percent from 3-point range. And he’s doing that on a de-escalating team-friendly contract that makes him easy to keep past Thursday.

“[The Nets] are not shopping [their] players, so there isn’t an asking price,” one source told The Post.

Johnson is under team control for the next two years on a deal that counts just 13 percent of the salary cap each of those seasons. The Nets never spoke with Golden State about Johnson, according to sources, and with the Lakers and Kings having made huge moves on the wings, two potential suitors are off the board. Brooklyn could bring more teams into the bidding process in the offseason.

There is a very loud segment of the Brooklyn fandom that wants to see Johnson moved precisely because he is good.

The tanking Nets are 17-33 after their stunning 99-97 win over the Rockets on Tuesday despite Johnson not playing and are sixth in the lottery odds.

Johnson contributes to wins.

Right now, the Nets’ odds of landing the coveted top overall pick — and Duke superfrosh Cooper Flagg — are 9 percent. By far their most likely landing spots as of Tuesday were seventh (at 28.5 percent) and eighth (20.0 percent).

But the analytics don’t support the hysteria. Johnson’s career-best win share mark is 5.6 back in 2021-22, and it’s 3.3 now.

The Nets will reach the two-thirds mark of the season next week, meaning realistically, even if Johnson has similar health and production the rest of the way, he would lift their win total by one or two victories.

In short, if the Nets move him, it won’t be about tanking but getting a big return.

And chances are it’ll have to come to them.