Deron Williams Buyout Makes Sense for Nets, Mavs, Everyone
Deron Williams, the Brooklyn Nets and the Dallas Mavericks are helping each other out.
There's a sentence you probably didn't think you'd read this side of 2012.
David Aldridge of NBA.com reported Friday that Williams agreed to a buyout with the Nets, a move that allows him to enter free agency (assuming he clears waivers) and sign with the Mavericks.
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Marc Stein of ESPN.com, who first brought the buyout possibility to our attention, provided some additional details on Williams' deal with the Mavs:
Talk about coming full circle. Williams nearly left Brooklyn for Dallas in 2012 as a free agent. Three years later, he's getting a do-over that makes a mountain of sense not just for him, but everyone involved.
Savings for Brooklyn
Buying out Williams is a shrewd move for the Nets.
Injuries and a subsequent on-court decline have turned the 31-year-old point guard into a contractual albatross. Assuming he would have exercised his player option for 2016-17 (likely), Williams was slated to earn $43.4 million over the next two seasons, rendering him immovable.
Waiving him via the stretch provision is an idea that's been floated around every so often, but it's not one that was considered especially appetizing. In that scenario, the Nets would just be spreading out the entirety of Williams' remaining salary over the next five seasons.
And that means they would be stuck paying Williams $8.7 million annually through the 2019-20 campaign. Even with the cap set to hit $89 million for 2016-17 and then $108 million for 2017-18, it's financially irresponsible to dole out that much cash to a player you don't actually employ.
Brokering a buyout doesn't compromise the Nets' books beyond the life of Williams' deal. It merely entails him accepting a lower percentage of the $43.4 million he's owed—which, in this case, is between $25 and $30 million.
Any money the Nets can save at the moment goes a long way. They have more than $94.6 million in guaranteed salary on the ledger for 2015-16 with Williams, putting them in line to exceed next season's luxury-tax threshold ($84.7 million) by more than $10 million.
Getting a break on Williams' cap hit, however substantial or slight, saves the Nets a boatload in tax payments. They're on track to pay the NBA's dreaded repeater rate—which exponentially increases their penalty per dollar over the luxury line—after paying the tax in each of the last three seasons.
Altogether, Brooklyn could save around $40 million with this buyout, according to Bleacher Report's Howard Beck:
Now, the stretch provision isn't any less of a last resort simply because it won't cost as much. The notion of throwing millions of dollars Williams' way over the next half-decade is still unsettling.
But, as first reported by ESPN.com's Brian Windhorst, the Nets were previously engaged in trade talks that would have sent Joe Johnson to the Cleveland Cavaliers for a package built around Brendan Haywood's non-guaranteed $10.5 million salary.
Acquiring Haywood and waiving him before August 2, in conjunction with buying out Williams, lets the Nets eschew the tax without also having to enact the stretch provision on whatever they still owe Williams.
Regardless of how they actually play a post-Williams buyout, though, the Nets are creating additional spending power for next summer. Johnson will be gone and Williams will be due a fraction of the $23.3 he's supposed to bring home.
Against a soon-to-be $89 million cap, that's flexibility they can use to reinvest in a better on-court product than they have now.
Contingency Comfort in Dallas
This isn't complicated for the Mavericks. The NBA offseason is swift and unforgiving, and they don't have time to wallow in the pained aftermath of almost signing DeAndre Jordan.
"There's nothing you can do about it," Mavericks owner Mark Cuban said after the Jordan situation, per ESPN.com's Tim MacMahon. "You think for a second, 'Is there anything I could change?' You think for another second, 'What have I learned so I can do it differently next time?' And then you move forward and say, 'What are our options?'"
Unless the Mavericks are content with tanking away next season in hopes of retaining the top-seven protected pick they owe to the Boston Celtics, they have only one option: Find talent.
Impact players, of course, aren't readily available this deep into free agency. Case in point: As a response to losing Jordan, the Mavericks struck a trade with the Milwaukee Bucks for Zaza Pachulia, according to Yahoo Sports' Marc J. Spears.
Someone like Williams, then, is as good as it gets. He's three seasons removed from his last All-Star selection and nowhere near the player he once was, but when healthy, he can still be a valuable piece to a bigger puzzle.
Especially when the Mavericks won't be paying him $20 million-plus every year. And especially when they still need to figure out their point guard situation.
On the heels of the Rajon Rondo debacle, the Mavericks are left with J.J. Barea, Raymond Felton and Devin Harris. Barea and Harris move the needle in Dallas' system—just not to the extent that they can be focal points of a Western Conference playoff team.
And that's what the Mavericks need.
Dirk Nowitzki is 37 years old, while Wesley Matthews and Chandler Parsons are coming off major surgeries. Tyson Chandler and Monta Ellis are gone. The Mavericks need another player with star-level mystique.
Williams, at least by reputation, qualifies as that player.
Redemption for Deron
At this point, it's fair to say Williams will never be a superstar again. He's missed fewer than 10 games just once over the last five campaigns, and last season's 38.7 percent clip from the field was the worst of his career.
But a change of scenery will do him well. The relationship between him and the Nets had been tenuous at best over the last two years, and he's from Texas. Going "home" could bring out something in him—some renewed sense of purpose and energy he's yet to channel in Brooklyn.
It also helps that Dallas coach Rick Carlisle runs an offensive system within which Williams can thrive.
The Mavericks like to get out in transition when the situation allows, but not to the degree that Williams' ankle will take a beating. They ranked a fragile-veteran-friendly ninth in possessions used per 48 minutes last season, per NBA.com.
They also still have a host of shooters, right down to the aging Nowitzki, inviting a steady dose of drive-and-kicks from their ball-handlers. The Nets offense doesn't allow for the open lanes that come with spacing the floor.
Nor does it include as many pick-and-rolls. The Nets ranked a pedestrian 12th in plays run for the ball-handler specifically. The Mavericks, by comparison, finished first in that department. More than 21 percent of their offensive plays ended with the pick-and-roll ball-handler.
Williams can still exploit defenses in those situations. He barely cracked the 40th percentile in individual pick-and-roll efficiency last season, but that's the danger of trying to execute alongside a dearth of shooters.
In addition to a slashing big—someone the Nets don't have with Mason Plumlee gone—you need guys who can score off the catch to maximize any potential of pick-and-rolls and drive-and-kicks. But the Nets were just 16th in catch-and-shoot efficiency last season, while the Mavericks checked in at 10th.
Increased ball movement, meanwhile, will create easier scoring opportunities for the aging floor general. Dallas' point men don't dominate the ball 100 percent of the time. They work off it, orbiting the three-point line whenever Nowitzki and Parsons are attacking or working with their backs to the basket.
Playing away from the action will invariably be easier on Williams' ankles and, as a bonus, let him showcase his deadly standstill stroke. He drilled a blistering 42.2 percent of his spot-up treys in 2014-15.
Those differences matter. They suggest that Dallas is more conducive to a Williams revival than Brooklyn would have been.
To be sure, his rebirth is not definite. But, as Bleacher Report's Andy Bailey entertains, there's at least a chance this move could jump-start his stalled career:
Williams will take those odds.
Right now, the Mavericks are his best—and frankly, only—shot at redemption.
Stats courtesy of Basketball-Reference.com and NBA.com unless otherwise cited. Salary information via Basketball Insiders.
Dan Favale covers the NBA for Bleacher Report. Follow him on Twitter: @danfavale.
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