Deron Williams reaches buyout agreement with Nets; looks to sign with the Mavericks
Three years into their marriage, Deron Williams and the Brooklyn Nets have looked to part ways on Friday, after both parties reached a buyout agreement on the player’s remaining two years on his contract. Williams will receive 27.5 million dollars of the remaining 47.5 million dolalrs on his deal. NBA on TNT’s analyst David Aldridge reports that the Nets will use stretch to pay Williams his 27.5 million through 5 years (5.5 million each year).
Williams would clear his waivers in 48 hours however it is unlikely that any team will pick up his max contract. With his detoriating performance due to injuries, Williams’ five year 98 million dollar deal he signed with the Nets in 2012 soon became the league worst contract.
After clearing waivers, ESPN’s Marc Stein reports that Williams and franchise Dallas Mavericks are looking to sign a deal in the range of 10 million for 2 years. Earlier in the week, Mavericks were spurned by DeAndre Jordan after the center broke his verbal agreement with the team to sign with the Los Angeles Clippers at midnight of July 9th, when NBA’s moratorium period came to a close. The Mavericks were also the team who lost out to the Nets while trying sign Williams when he was a free agent in the summer of 2012.If the deal does go through, Williams will give the Mavericks a starting point guard that they are missing right now, after free Rajon Rondo bolted to Sacramento as a free agent.
Once named a talent as good as Chris Paul, Williams has had problems with the Nets and their Head Coaches in the past two years. In the first year, his season was ruined with various ankle problems so Jason Kidd was brought to the team as Head Coach to revive his playing days but that made things worse as Kidd started playing Williams off the ball and had Shaun Livingston play point guard. The following season Lionel Hollins the new Head Coach had a heated arguement with Williams and since then the two have been seperated.
The buyout will be the end of the Deron Williams era in Brooklyn, one that was supposed to make the franchise contenders, according to owner Mikhail Prokhorov. Williams was his first big splash en route to making the Nets a contender after he brought the team in interest from Bruce Ranter in 2010. The Nets acquired him in a trade with the Utah Jazz, who received Derrick Favors, Devin Harris and first round picks in 2011 and 2013 plus cash.
This is what Paul Pierce, who played a year with Williams after the Nets acquired him and Kevin Garnett in a trade, had to say about Deron:
"Before I got there, I looked at Deron as an MVP candidate," Pierce told MacMullan. "But I felt once we got there, that's not what he wanted to be. He just didn't want that. I think a lot of the pressure got to him sometimes. This was his first time in the national spotlight. The media in Utah is not the same as the media in New York, so that can wear on some people. I think it really affected him."
Williams was an exceptional talent while he was with the Utah Jazz, who drafted him third overall in the 2005 NBA Draft. He made it to two All-Star Games twice and led the Jazz to the Conference Finals in the 2007 NBA Playoffs. He was named to the All-NBA Second Team in 2008 and 2010.