Grant Williams is excited about his new start with the Mavericks, but he didn’t enjoy the process that got him there, writes Eddie Sefko of Mavs.com. As a restricted free agent, he had to wait for offers while many of his peers got their new contracts right away. The sign-and-trade that sent Williams from Boston to Dallas didn’t become official until Wednesday.
“Very difficult. Restricted free agency is terrible,” Williams said. “Unrestricted, you have a good understanding of where you want to go, but restricted, you’re pretty much in a waiting game. You want to make sure you understand what the offers are, but also understand that teams might match or a team might be asking for more than another team is willing to give. It’s definitely an interesting process. I still think free agency is a little bit fun, but also a little bit nerve-wracking.”
Williams has been spending the last few days meeting his new coaches and teammates and getting an idea of what they expect from him this season. He’s close to getting the splint off his left hand after having surgery in June for a torn ligament.
“It’s going great,” he said of his recovery. “I should be out of it (the protective splint) in four days, five days. So pretty much back to the court and moving from then on.”
There’s more from the Southwest Division:
- Seth Curry‘s new contract with the Mavericks is non-guaranteed in the second season, tweets Michael Scotto of HoopsHype. Dallas used its mid-level exception to sign Curry, who will have cap hits of $4MM in each season, instead of its $4.5MM bi-annual exception as originally anticipated, adds Yossi Gozlan of HoopsHype (Twitter link). That leaves the Mavs with the bi-annual exception still intact and $5.4MM of their MLE remaining, according to Gozlan.
- Zion Williamson‘s statements about accountability during a recent podcast appearance with Gilbert Arenas are an encouraging sign for the Pelicans, observes Rod Walker of NOLA. He notes that Williamson is only 23 and still has time to establish himself as a reliable player.
- Jalen Green has been through a lot of losing during his first two years with the Rockets, but he believes the team is headed for a turnaround after its offseason moves, writes Michael Shapiro of The Houston Chronicle. Houston started the offseason with a coaching change, landed two projected lottery players in the draft and then upgraded its defense and experience with a series of moves in free agency. “I’m excited about what’s going to happen with us,” Green said. “We got Ime (Udoka), we got a whole bunch of vets, we got young talent. The sky’s the limit right now.”
If you’re Jalen Green, it certainly has to be refreshing to see all these changes in Houston.
Now, they just need to all get acclimated with one another, build a bond with eachother working on their communication on and off the court.
You could really see a change in Houston this season. Yes, they’ll have added some exciting young and veteran depth, but I’m also thinking with Udoka at the helm, you could really begin to see a stronger emphasis on the defensive side of the ball.
Udoka is going to hold ALL OF these guys accountable on both ends of the floor, and I think that could truly help them all as a collective team.
Unlike in the last couple seasons,nowhere it just seems like they had guys that were alot more active on offense, but they’d coast on defense and vice versa…
It’s gone be a good season for the rockets
Gone be a good season
@richard I will be interested to see how much of an improvement this team will be on defense. Last few years, they tried to out shoot everyone. So I am on the fence right now about this team making a major turn defensively
So, since the Mavs switched Curry’s contract to the MLE from the BAE, are they still hard-capped at the first tax apron due to the sign-and-trade? I get mixed up if the receiving team or the sending team or both get hard-capped.
Have the Mavs made enough moves to convince Doncic to stay long term?
Nope. Luca NYK 2024
They’re hard-capped, yeah. The team receiving a player via sign-and-trade is hard-capped (they’ve also used more than the taxpayer portion of the mid-level exception, which would hard-cap them too).
Sounds like he hated the fa t he could have ended back in Boston. Not surprised
Zion will be going for the lead role ……
“The Whale” part2