11:55pm: Williams announced via Twitter that he has officially signed his contract to remain with the Nets.
JULY 10TH, 11:47pm: Williams' contract will include an early termination option after the fourth year, tweets ESPN.com's Marc Stein. The point guard is currently finalizing his deal in Las Vegas, says Ken Berger of CBSSports.com (via Twitter).
JULY 3RD, 6:09pm: In a message from his official Twitter account, free agent point guard Deron Williams announced that he has elected to sign with the Nets. Williams will sign a maximum-salary, five-year contract, tweets Yahoo! Sports columnist Adrian Wojnarowski. The deal will amount to $98.77MM, as we calculated back in May.
Heading into the offseason, Williams was widely regarded as the number one free agent available on the market. As we neared July 1, reports surfaced that he had narrowed his options down to two teams: the Nets and his hometown Mavericks. Considering Dallas could only offer a four-year contract that was roughly $25MM less than what Brookyn had on the table, Williams' decision was not a shocking one.
Yesterday the Nets agreed to trade for All-Star guard Joe Johnson without giving up any prime assets, and now we wait and see if players such as Kris Humphries, Brook Lopez, and MarShon Brooks will end up being moved to the Magic in a deal involving Dwight Howard. If the Nets cannot facilitate a deal for Howard, they'll look to re-sign Humphries, who's currently an unrestricted free agent, tweets Wojnarowski.
Had the Nets lost out on Williams, they were prepared to offer Goran Dragic a $9MM per year contract, tweets Wojnarowski.
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Drats. Cuban gonna have do something epic now.
They can have Dirk play Center and bring in Josh Smith and Goran Dragic.
That would patch things up a bit.
The beginning of a dynasty.
Deron, Joe Johnson, Brook Lopez…I’m sure other eastern conference teams are really shaking in their boots…
They also have Brooks, Wallace and are probably going to resign Humpries so thats a pretty good team. Definently a playoff team.
Ehhhh…..look around the East. They’ve got a looooong way to the top.
never said top. they are a solid 6-8 seed
2 players @ $165 million over the next 4 years? Lol. No way D Howard gets to the Nets now.
Don’t forget Wallace is getting 40m over 4 years as well.
Forgot, 3 players @ $205 million over the next 4 years. Crazy.
The only way Dwight gets there is for a huge discount and this guy has
Proven he does not care about teams or basketball it’s all about money and media. He is not going to Brooklyn. They just cost them selves out of Dwight I don’t understand the Joe Johnson trade at all
Good deal you two! Glad 2010’s deadline deal paid off.