Deron Williams: Why Re-Signing with Nets Would Be a Mammoth Mistake
Deron Williams can’t look back.
The Brooklyn Nets point guard is officially an unrestricted free agent. When the clock strikes midnight on July 1st, he must get out of town while he still can.
If all Williams cares about is money, he should re-sign with the Nets. If he actually cares about winning, though, he’d be insane to stick around.
Brooklyn is a joke.
Their second best player is Brook Lopez—a seven-footer that, when he isn’t putting the ball in the basket, is literally useless. Lopez is a defensive liability, a pitiful passer and despite being a giant, averages less than six boards per game.
Gerald Wallace and Kris Humphries are the Nets’ next best players. While they’re solid, both are unrestricted free agents, and like Williams, should bolt as soon as possible.
One player that showed flashes of brilliance in Brooklyn last season was MarShon Brooks, but his inconsistency overshadowed all of it. He shot just 40.3 percent from the field and 28.6 percent from downtown. The fact that he’s already 23 years old also doesn’t improve his odds of developing into a star.
Now, if Jordan Farmar opts out of his contract, Brooklyn will only have five players under contract next season, assuming the Nets overpay to keep Lopez. With all that cap room and so many roster spots to fill, who better to have so much flexibility to build a team than Mikhail Prokhorov, right?
Errrrr. Wrong.
Prokhorov is an absentee owner, he rarely attends Nets games. The amount of effort he gives to guarantee success pales in comparison to an owner like Mark Cuban. He’ll never be mistaken for a Jerry Buss, who always played a major role in the Los Angeles Lakers’ basketball decision making.
At least the Nets have Jay-Z, right? I mean, sure, he doesn't actually care about the team winning—he wrote in the song (Expletive) In Paris: "The Nets could go 0 for 82 and I'd look at you like this (expletive) gravy"—but at least he designed some sick uniforms.
On a serious note, GM Bill King pretty much runs the show in Brooklyn—that isn’t a good thing, though.
King wisely dealt what turned into the sixth overall pick for Gerald Wallace at the trade deadline this past season. Instead of being in position to select a promising prospect such as Andre Drummond or Harrison Barnes, they might be able to re-sign a 29-year-old wing with declining athleticism and a 31.8 career three-point percentage.
If Williams wants to avoid being part of a poorly run franchise for the rest of his career, he should either sign with the Dallas Mavericks or demand a sign-and-trade to the Lakers.
David Daniels is a featured columnist at Bleacher Report and a syndicated writer.
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