Deron Williams Rumors | Hoops Rumors

Western Notes: Williams, Asik, Rondo

August 9th, 2015 at 11:18am CST by Arthur Hill

Devin Harris hopes to have a “rejuvenated” Deron Williams with the Mavericks next season, according to Earl K. Sneed of Mavs.com. Williams signed a two-year deal with Dallas last month after being waived by the Nets.

“I know what kind of player he is,” Harris said of Williams, whom he was once traded for. “I know he’s excited to be rejuvenated here, especially coming back home. And you know, hopefully he can kind of rejuvenate what he’s been doing, play at a high level and get us to where we need to be.”

Here’s more from the Western Conference:

The Pelicans signed Omer Asik to a five-year, $58MM contract this offseason and Ben Dowsett of Basketball Insiders believes it is one of the worst contracts handed out this offseason. The writer cites Asik’s age as well as the declining value of the traditional center as reason for the pessimism. Only $44MM of the center’s deal is fully guaranteed, so the team could get out from the contract if needed after only four years.
Dowsett also lists Rajon Rondo‘s new pact with Sacramento as a deal that the team will ultimately regret. Rondo’s deal is for $9.5MM over one season, but Dowsett believes the Kings could have signed the point guard for less due to the lack of suitors, which would have allowed the team to spend elsewhere.

Chris Crouse contributed to this post.

Atlantic Notes: Nets, Knicks, Celtics

August 1st, 2015 at 10:48am CST by Will Joseph

Nets coach Lionel Hollins, in a Q&A with Mike Mazzeo of ESPNNewYork.com, likes that Brooklyn was able to get younger and more versatile this offseason. The coach also believes Deron Williams did not play as well as the franchise would have liked him to. Hollins said he also thinks Williams, who signed with the Mavs, will bounce back, though. Without Williams in the fold, Hollins is confident Jarrett Jack can handle the duties of starting point guard for the Nets. In addition, Joe Johnson, who was the subject of trade rumors earlier this summer, will likely start at shooting guard, according to Hollins.

Here’s more from the Atlantic Division:

The search for the Knicks‘ new D-League coach is down to Mike Miller, a former associate head coach at Kansas State, Frank Isola of the New York Daily News reports (Twitter links). Miller also worked for the Spurs’ D-League team, Isola notes.
Thomas Robinson, who the Nets signed to a two-year deal, wants a “long-term relationship” with Brooklyn after the forward has bounced around in the league, Robert Windrem of NetsDaily writes.
Celtics president of basketball operations Danny Ainge believes that Boston coach Brad Stevens will be viewed as one of the all-time coaching greats in the future. “I wouldn’t have brought him in and given him a six-year contract if I didn’t think he was really good and special,” Ainge said during an on-camera interview with Comcast SportsNet (relayed by Chris Forsberg of ESPN.com).

Atlantic Notes: Biyombo, Nets, Jones, Ledo

July 31st, 2015 at 11:01am CST by Chuck Myron

A relationship that goes back a while and a shared cultural heritage with GM Masai Ujiri paved the way for Bismack Biyombo to accept an offer from the Raptors after Ujiri called him three minutes into the free agent negotiating period, as Ryan Wolstat of the Toronto Sun details. Both Biyombo and Ujiri are natives of Africa. Ujiri is excited about the center he signed using the room exception, citing Biyombo’s passion for the game, offensive rebounding, shot blocking, defense, physicality and more, Wolstat relays. Here’s more from the Atlantic Division:

Nets insiders tell NetsDaily that the team would be OK with paying a small amount of luxury tax, but one source says it’ll be a long time before Brooklyn becomes a taxpayer again, if it ever does. The guaranteed salaries for the Nets this season total less than the $84.74MM tax threshold, though taxes are based on the roster as of the final day of the regular season.
The Nets had long preferred to rid themselves of Deron Williams instead of Joe Johnson, in part because of Johnson’s veteran presence and knack for scoring, as NetsDaily examines in a separate piece, hearing from sources who suggest Williams’ departure will ease Johnson’s mind, since they didn’t get along.
It’s not certain that Perry Jones III will be on the Celtics roster come opening night, as the team has 17 fully guaranteed contracts, but Boston intends to give the former 28th overall pick every opportunity to stick, writes Chris Forsberg of ESPNBoston.com. “With OKC, there hasn’t been as much of an opportunity for him to play as much as he would like as a youngster on a team trying to compete for a championship,” Celtics president of basketball operations Danny Ainge said earlier this week. “But [he is] very athletic, a different type of player than we have in the frontcourt right now with his athleticism and length.”
The Knicks front office was higher on Ricky Ledo than the coaching staff was, sources indicated to Marc Berman of the New York Post. The team waived Ledo on Thursday rather than guarantee a portion of his salary.
It’s been nearly three weeks since the Sixers said Joel Embiid would have surgery on his foot within seven to 10 days, and the team’s silence in that time raises no shortage of questions, as Tom Moore of Calkins Media examines.

Atlantic Notes: Pressey, Prokhorov, Williams

July 15th, 2015 at 2:32pm CST by Chuck Myron

Phil Pressey, whom the Celtics waived today, is already drawing interest from other teams, according to agent Aaron Mintz, as Adam Himmelsbach of the Boston Globe reports, though he’d have to clear waivers before he could sign. In any case, Celtics president of basketball operations Danny Ainge had no shortage of praise for the point guard, as Himmelsbach relays.

“Phil may be my favorite player I’ve ever been around in the NBA, as a player, a coach or as an executive,” Ainge said. “It was a very difficult morning for me today. He’s a player I’d want on my team all the time. Unfortunately, we just have an abundance of small guards already. It’s unfortunate. He’s helped us a lot in the last two years, and he’s a classy and hardworking player.”

Here’s more from around the Atlantic Division:

An announcement could come within the next two weeks that Nets owner Mikhail Prokhorov has bought Bruce Ratner’s 20% stake in the Nets, a move that would give Prokhorov 100% of the team, Bleacher Report’s Ric Bucher says (video link). The possibility still exists that Prokhorov will move in the other direction and sell off his majority interest, but the indications are strong that he’ll indeed buy the remaining shares of the team, Bucher says. Such a deal would also see Prokhorov’s interest in the Barclays Center rise from 45% to 100%, according to Bucher. Still, the move may well have more to do with debt that Ratner’s company owes Prokhorov and his partners than Prokhorov’s desire to own all of the team and the arena, since according to NetsDaily, Ratner faces a deadline to resolve that debt.
The precise amount of money the Nets will have on their cap each of the next five years as a result of the buyout and stretch of Deron Williams‘ contract is $5,474,787, reports Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders (All Twitter links). That means he gave up exactly $16MM in the buyout. His new contract with the Mavericks is worth $5.4MM this year and $5.6MM next season, according to Pincus, so assuming he remains on that contract through the end of 2015/16, and assuming he and the Nets didn’t waive set off rights, Brooklyn’s obligation for 2015/16 will be further reduced to about $3.197MM.
Shooting guard Daniel Hackett, who worked out for the Knicks, has a verbal agreement to sign with Olympiacos of Greece, sources tell Sportando Emiliano Carchia. New York was willing to sign Hackett for training camp, Carchia adds, but it looks like he’ll stay overseas.
Fenerbahce Ulker said the contract that former Celtics forward Gigi Datome signed with them covered two years, but it includes a player option for a third, according to Mark Murphy of the Boston Herald.

Southwest Notes: Mavs, Williams, Calathes

July 15th, 2015 at 1:17pm CST by Chuck Myron

Mavericks owner Mark Cuban spoke Tuesday with Clippers owner Steve Ballmer and “it started off more than a little frigid,” as Cuban recounted via Cyber Dust, his social media app, and as the Dallas Morning News relays. That’s not surprising, given the DeAndre Jordan saga, but Cuban said he and Ballmer cleared the air.

“I told him exactly what I told other owners, I didn’t have a problem with his hail Mary approach to keeping a player,” Cuban wrote. “I understood why they did it. And even how they did it. They got their player back. End of story.”

Cuban said he doesn’t have a problem with the July Moratorium, which seemingly helped facilitate Jordan’s reversal, but even if he did, the moratorium doesn’t look like it’s going away anytime soon. Here’s more from around the Southwest:

Deron Williams‘ two-year deal with the Mavs is worth $10MM and includes a player option, according to Marc Stein of ESPN.com (Twitter link).
The clock appears to be ticking on an NBA future for Grizzlies restricted free agent Nick Calathes. The point guard denied to Ronald Tillery of The Commercial Appeal that he has signed with Panathinaikos of Greece, but he’ll commit to that team if he doesn’t find an NBA deal today, according to David Pick of Eurobasket.com (Twitter link). Calathes is drawing NBA interest, but he’s hesitant to continue as a backup, Pick hears. The Mavericks have reportedly contacted him, though that was two weeks ago. Memphis has the power to match all competing bids from NBA teams, but not from overseas clubs.
Panathinaikos is close to a deal with center Nikola Milutinov, this year’s 26th overall pick, Sportando’s Enea Trapani writes. Regardless, Milutinov won’t soon be joining the Spurs, the team that drafted him, as San Antonio has informed the NBA that it won’t sign him or 2013 No. 28 pick Livio Jean-Charles during 2015/16, allowing San Antonio to remove their cap hits, notes Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders (Twitter links).
The Rockets reportedly had hopes of signing draft-and-stash prospect Marko Todorovic this summer, but that won’t be happening, as the big man has signed a three-year deal with Khimki Moscow, the Russian club announced (Twitter link; hat tip to Sportando’s Emiliano Carchia).
Spurs GM R.C. Buford said he and the front office didn’t think that they would have been able to snag Ray McCallum if he’d have been a free agent on the open market, so they were pleased to pull off the trade with the Kings that brought him in, as Dan McCarney of the San Antonio Express-News chronicles. McCallum, who’s excited about the deal, earned a $200K partial guarantee on his salary when the Spurs didn’t waive him Sunday.
A $390,089 sliver of Houston’s Jeremy Lin trade exception expired Monday, though it was essentially too small to use. The Rockets had already used the majority of the exception, once worth $8,374,646, to trade for Corey Brewer and Alexey Shved in December.
Brewer’s new three-year deal with the Rockets is worth precisely $23,420,913, as Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders shows.

Mavs Sign Deron Williams

July 14th, 2015 at 6:57pm CST by Chuck Myron

Courtesy of USA Today Sports Images

The Mavericks have signed unrestricted free agent Deron Williams, the team announced in a press release. Williams became a free agent Monday when he cleared waivers from the Nets as part of a much-publicized buyout deal. Marc Stein of ESPN.com reported Friday that Williams, a Dallas-area native, was expected to sign a two-year contract worth about $10MM, though Stein later said the deal would be worth between $10MM and $12MM (Twitter link).

The deal with the Mavs will set off a portion of the money that Brooklyn still owes the Jeff Schwartz client. Set-off rights absolve Brooklyn from paying half the difference between what Williams will make each year with Dallas and the one-year veteran’s minimum salary each of those years. The terms of Williams’ buyout, in which he forfeited all but about $27.5MM of the nearly $43.374MM left on his contract, call for the Nets to pay him about $5.5MM a year for the next five seasons. The contract only covered this season and next, but Brooklyn used the stretch provision to spread out its remaining commitment to him.

Nets coach Lionel Hollins denies that Williams’ failure to see eye-to-eye with him, which reportedly led to an altercation in which the point guard had to be restrained from going after his coach, was the reason Brooklyn saw fit to move on. Williams doesn’t figure to find a more sympathetic coach in Dallas, where Rick Carlisle clashed with Rajon Rondo this past season. The deal with Williams helps offset the void at point guard that Rondo left when he and the team essentially parted ways during the playoffs during the playoffs, and it also helps salve some of the wounds from DeAndre Jordan‘s reversal of his decision to sign with the Mavs.

Yet Williams is no longer the top-flight point guard he was when the Mavs courted him in free agency during the summer of 2012, when he spurned Dallas to instead re-sign with the Nets. The now 31-year-old Williams scored fewer points per game and saw fewer minutes per game this past season than any year since he was a rookie. Still, he was more efficient in his time on the floor than fellow former Nets All-Star Devin Harris, who’d otherwise be in line for the starting job in Dallas, and Williams comes without the cost of assets that trading for Ty Lawson or Brandon Jennings probably would.

Atlantic Notes: Johnson, Afflalo, Nets

July 12th, 2015 at 6:30pm CST by Will Joseph

Amir Johnson signed a two-year, $24MM deal with the Celtics because Boston president of basketball operations Danny Ainge was the first person to phone him at midnight on July 1st. Johnson also was lured because he learned how much of a good fit the team believes he will be in the offense, Chris Forsberg of ESPNBoston.com writes.

“I love the way they approached me during [free agency],” Johnson said. “Nine o’clock, Pacific Time, Boston was the first one to call. Danny Ainge called me first then coach [Brad] Stevens. They approached me well. They respect the type of player I am. And they gave me a number and it was a no-brainer from there.”

Here’s more from the Atlantic Division:

Johnson also told Forsberg how much he liked the idea of the Celtics adding David Lee, who the team is set to acquire. “Very versatile big, kind of like me, runs the floor, great pick-and-roll guy,” said Johnson. “I definitely think he’ll fit into the system, just like me. I think it’ll be a more fast-paced team.”
Arron Afflalo made it clear to the Nuggets at the trade deadline that he preferred to play with the Knicks and is very happy to be with New York now, Marc Berman of the New York Post writes. Despite his preference, Afflalo was dealt to the Blazers. He opted out from the Blazers in June and later signed a two-year, $16MM deal with the Knicks. “We told Denver the Knicks were where he wanted to be,’’ said Afflalo’s agent Sam Goldfeder. “Portland was never mentioned.’’
Deron Williams leaves the Nets as perhaps the single-most forgettable would-be superstar in the history of New York sports, Mike Vaccaro of The New York Post opines. Brooklyn waived the former All-Star Saturday after years of declining performance. Williams differs from other failed stars, Vaccaro writes, because it seemed like the Dallas-native never truly wanted to play for the Nets, even when the team signed him to a $99MM max extension in July 2012.
Nets guard Jarrett Jack told reporters, including Mitch Abramson of the New York Daily News, that he is ready to step in and start at point guard in place of Williams. “If that’s the position they want me to fill, I’m definitely very ready to do so,” Jack said. “It’s not my first rodeo as far as being thrust into the [starter’s] role if that were to be the case. So it’s something that’s not foreign to me and [I’m] definitely ready for the challenge.”

Eastern Rumors: Williams, Knicks, Dragic

July 12th, 2015 at 11:25am CST by Dana Gauruder

Lionel Hollins denies that his sometimes stormy relationship with Deron Williams led to the Nets waiving the veteran guard in a buyout deal, according to Tim Bontemps of the New York Post. Though sources confirmed to Bontemps that the head coach and Williams had a heated meeting in Memphis earlier this year, Hollins said the Nets didn’t part ways with Williams because of their disagreements. “Everything is not peaches and cream, but there’s not one shred of evidence that our relationship is the reason that he had to go,” Hollins told the team’s beat writers. “I would have coached Deron this upcoming year just like I coached him last year, and we would have went forward just like everybody else on the team.” The Nets saved more than $50MM this season in payroll and luxury-tax payments by agreeing to give Williams $27.5MM of the $43.5MM he was owed over the next two years, Bontemps adds. The Nets used the stretch provision on the buyout.

In other news around the Eastern Conference:

Carmelo Anthony‘s decision to take slightly less than the max last summer helped the Knicks to re-sign Lou Amundson and Lance Thomas to more than the league minimum this month, Marc Berman of the New York Post reports. Anthony’s deal opened up $1.4MM in cap space this summer and that, combined with the NBA’s cap increase to $70MM, allowed the Knicks to secure Amundson for $1.65MM and Thomas for $1.63MM instead of the roughly $1MM minimum, Berman continues. If Anthony didn’t take less, the Knicks could have re-signed only one of them above the league minimum, Berman adds.
Goran Dragic‘s deal with the Heat is only worth a total of $85MM and has a starting salary of $14.783MM, Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders relays (on Twitter). Earlier reports estimated the deal at $90MM.
Paul George is pleased with the backcourt moves the Pacers have made this offseason, he told Scott Agness of the VigilantSports.com in a Q&A session. The pending addition of Monta Ellis and re-signing of Rodney Stuckey gives the team numerous playmakers, George told Agness. “One of the biggest things we needed to get better at was pushing the tempo and playing a little faster,” George said. “I didn’t know it was going to be a drastic roster change but I knew that was the direction this team needed to go to give ourselves a better chance of winning.”

Nets Rumors: Williams, Luxury Tax, Robinson

July 11th, 2015 at 7:31pm CST by Arthur Hill

The Nets and Deron Williams had run out of reasons to try to save their relationship, writes Stefan Bondy of The New York Daily News. Brooklyn waived the former All-Star today after years of declining performance blamed on injuries, the pressure of playing in a major market, emotional fragility and numerous other causes. Williams lost confidence in his abilities, Bondy writes, and grew increasingly sullen at the idea of playing out his contract with the Nets. He also had an altercation with Lionel Hollins this past season in which he had to be physically restrained from going after the coach, sources tell Bondy. Even if Williams rediscovers his talents in Dallas, where he is expected to land after clearing waivers, Bondy argues it will reinforce the image that he wasn’t mentally strong enough for New York.

There’s more from Brooklyn:

Williams will leave Brooklyn as one of the biggest disappointments in Nets’ history, contends Ohm Youngmisuk of ESPNNewYork.com. He notes that the Nets tried to accommodate Williams by surrounding him with talent, which led them to trade a lottery pick for Gerald Wallace and to give up multiple assets for Joe Johnson. They also went through four coaches and sent three draft picks to Boston to bring in Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett, but no one was able to fully get through to Williams.
The Williams move puts the team under the luxury tax, which is where it plans to stay, tweets NetsDaily.com. That should become much easier with the expected rise in the salary cap next season.
Thomas Robinson, the fifth pick in the 2012 draft, is already on his fifth team and may be looking at his last NBA chance, writes William C. Rhoden of The New York Times. The Nets signed the 24-year-old as a free agent this week for the league minimum, and he hopes to put past failures behind him. “A lot of guys are not prepared for the what-ifs,” Robinson said. “I wasn’t prepared for, ‘What if I got traded?’ ‘What if I got hurt?’ ‘What if I don’t play this year?’ I didn’t handle it the correct way; I admit it.”

Nets Waive Deron Williams In Buyout

July 11th, 2015 at 2:33pm CST by Chuck Myron

SATURDAY, 2:33pm: The Nets have waived Williams, the team announced in a press release.

5:22pm: It appears that Brooklyn will waive Williams using the stretch provision, and he will receive $27.5MM spread out over five years from the team, Mike Mazzeo of ESPN.com tweets. This means that Williams will count as roughly $5.5MM against the salary cap through the 2019/20 season for the Nets.

4:13pm: The point guard’s buyout is expected to drop the value of his contract to the $25-$30MM range, Stein tweets.

4:05pm: Williams is expected to sign a two-year deal with the Mavericks in the $10MM range after he clears waivers, Marc Stein of ESPN.com tweets.

4:01pm: The Nets and Williams have reached an agreement on a buyout arrangement, David Aldridge of TNT reports (on Twitter). The details of the agreement are not yet known.

8:46am: Sources who spoke with Stefan Bondy of the New York Daily News this past season believed that he wanted to leave the Nets so much that he would opt out a year from now (Twitter link). The early termination option on Williams’ contract for 2016/17 is worth more than $22.331MM. Meanwhile, the Nets haven’t been pleased with the point guard’s attitude or declining production, notes Mike Mazzeo of ESPN.com (on Twitter).

2:44am: The Nets have opened buyout talks with Deron Williams, and the point guard holds a strong mutual interest in signing with the Mavericks if he becomes a free agent this summer, reports Marc Stein of ESPN.com. One source who spoke to Stein gave it a 60-70% chance that the Jeff Schwartz client ends up with Dallas.

Williams was the prime target of the Mavs three years ago, when he was a free agent, but the Dallas-area native eschewed a homecoming for a more lucrative contract with the Nets. The Mavs aren’t pursuing a trade for Williams because of the expense of the two years and nearly $43.374MM remaining on that deal, sources told Stein.

Brooklyn had been trying to trade Williams, notes Mike Mazzeo of ESPN.com (on Twitter), most notably to the Kings, but the Nets didn’t want to give up Mason Plumlee and no deal to came to fruition out of those talks this past season. Plumlee fell out of favor with the Nets later in the season, and Brooklyn traded him last month. The Kings are no longer believed to have interest in Williams now that they’re set to sign Rajon Rondo, Stein writes. As unsuccessful trade efforts persisted, higher-ups in the Nets organization had been giving thought to a buyout, as Mazzeo also writes in his tweet. The Nets don’t want to simply waive Williams and eat the entire contract, and even using the stretch provision to spread the money over five years doesn’t hold appeal, as GM Billy King has said and as Stein notes.

King said Thursday morning that his team would probably make moves designed to bring its payroll, which Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders estimates to have $95MM worth of guaranteed salary, beneath the $84.74MM tax line or to a smaller margin above it. Still, King said this morning that he expects Williams and Joe Johnson will be on the Nets roster when the season begins.

Stein has heard “steady rumblings” in recent weeks that a return to the Jazz is a possibility for Williams, but the 10-year veteran would prefer the Mavs, in part because of the presence of ex-Jazz teammate Wesley Matthews, Stein adds. Williams would fill the need at point guard in Dallas, though he’s not nearly the star that he was when the Mavs chased him three years ago.