‘The Twins’ Mikal Bridges, Cam Johnson excited to join retooled Nets roster

BROOKLYN — From the moment Cam Johnson came into the league he and Mikal Bridges were attached at the hip. So much so that the two were dubbed “The Twins” while in Phoenix.

“From that point on, basically everything we did, we kind of did together,” Johnson said ahead of Saturday’s Nets debut. “We worked out together, we chilled off the court together, we ate, watched film, whatever it may be. So just a couple months into that season, our teammate – our old teammate – Deandre Ayton gave us the nickname ‘The Twins’ because we do everything together. And three and a half years later, we’re stuck with it.”

Now Bridges and Johnson are in Brooklyn, together, after being part of the blockbuster trade that sent Kevin Durant to the Phoenix Suns. Similar to the rest of the world, “The Twins” found out they were Brooklyn Bound in the middle of the night while the team was in Atlanta.

Bridges said he had been on his iPad when the news first broke and then he got a phone call from Damion Lee, who said he was sorry. A confused Bridges quickly discovered what was happening on Twitter.

“He was like, ‘you just got traded for KD.’ I was like get out of here,” Bridges said. “I went to Twitter, I refreshed it. It was right there. And then I tweeted, and then my agent ended up calling me, and then right after I got off the phone with them I called Cam, I’m like ‘bruhWhere are you? What room you in? I’m coming up there.’ And then we were just out there, our former teammates were just chilling up there. That was like a little last supper type of vibes.”

While the news still came as a bit of a shock, Bridges and Johnson had both been prepared for the possibility of being traded. The two had been mentioned in trade rumors over the summer when Durant had first requested a trade.

The two had been out to breakfast after a morning workout during the summer when rumors started to heat up. They discussed the possibility of living in Brooklyn and what could come.

“We’ve had a lot of time to wrap our mind around the possibility,” Johnson said.

The two now make up a big part of the Nets going forward as the organization retools post-Durant and Kyrie Irving, Bridges and Johnson started on Saturday night, alongside fellow trade deadline acquisitions Spencer Dinwiddie and Dorian Finney-Smith.

The starting lineup on Saturday gave the Nets more versatility on both ends of the floor, Nets coach Jacque Vaughn said beforehand.

The two had been eager to get on the court once the deal had become official, but watched Thursday’s game against the Chicago Bulls from the stands. Johnson and Bridges poked fun at one another over it.

“He was shaking. ‘I got to get out there. I got to get out there.’ I’m like calm down man. It’s pregame there’s like nine, 10 minutes on the clock he’s like ‘We got to get out there and get to our seats,'” Johnson said about Bridges.

“Don’t get it twisted. Don’t act like….this man…when we got traded he’s over here looking at the schedule and was like, ‘Well if you do miss this game, you’ve already played one more game than them so if you look at it you might actually finish playing 83 games this year, have a little bonus maybe,” Bridges retorted.

The two certainly seemed to enjoy themselves in their first game in Nets colors and they went out of their way to express their excitement for the chance to play in Brooklyn.

As for their thoughts on being the primary pieces in a deal for a megastar like Durant, Bridges doesn’t blame them for making the deal.

“I mean, it’s KD, I get it. I a-hundred-percent get it and that’s just how it is,” Bridges said. “I mean, I get it, you’re getting Kevin Durant, bro. Maybe I’ll probably make that trade too.”