1:04pm: The Cavaliers have officially signed Williams to a 10-day contract, the team announced in a press release.
7:47am: Recently released Heat forward Derrick Williams is signing a 10-day contract with the Cavaliers, reports Shams Charania of The Vertical. Williams became an unrestricted free agent on Wednesday when he went unclaimed on waivers.
Williams, who turned down a 2016/17 player option with the Knicks, subsequently signed a one-year deal with Miami last summer worth $4.598MM. However, he only appeared in 25 games (11 starts) this season before falling out of the Heat’s rotation. He averaged 5.9 PPG and 2.9 RPG in those contests, with a career-low .394 FG%, and was waived earlier this week in order to open up a roster spot for Okaro White.
While the Heat will continue to carry $4.5MM+ in dead money on their books for Williams, the Cavs will sign him to a 10-day deal that counts for $57,672 against their cap. Cleveland is currently in a luxury-tax tier that applies a $2.50 tax charge for every dollar spent, so Williams’ 10-day contract will also add more than $144K to the team’s year-end tax bill.
Williams may not be the ball-handling “playmaker” that LeBron James publicly called for last month, but the former No. 2 overall pick will provide the Cavs with some frontcourt depth for at least the next 10 days. His contract is set to expire during the All-Star break, so Cleveland will free up a roster spot in time for the trade deadline, giving the team some added flexibility.
Austin Kent contributed to this post.
If he plays 4-5 minutes in the place of LeBron, that is HUGE.
Rofl have they not seen him all season? I mean…he can take the ball off the drobble, but…
At least D-Will can spell dribble
Ha!
you win
Thank you I’ll be here for the next ten days, lol
Ya you’ve never typod, or had your phone autocorrect actual words into gibberish before
it happens all the ducking time
Lol
It’s just a joke, and also, was “typod” intentional?
At least you spelt Typo right
I just really hate autocorrect. I have poor vision, so I can’t always tell ahead of time when something like that happens, especially b/c I naturally assume that it posts what I typed out
I wasn’t trying to be rude I was joking around. I hope you don’t take it personal.
It’s cool lol. I was just more annoyed at autocorrect changing an actual word to drobble
Alright no hard feelings, we are cool.