Deron Williams Now Facing Last Chance to Revive Reputation and NBA Career

Deron Williams has work to do on two fronts as he leaves the Brooklyn Nets.

Following a buyout which David Aldridge of NBA.com first reported on Friday, the 31-year-old point guard must now restore a badly tarnished image and prove—at an age when most players are past their prime—that he still has something left on the court.

That's a lot to ask of Williams, whose history of clashing with coaches (even legendary ones) is well-documented and whose performance cratered in a disastrous 2014-15 campaign.

"I don’t think it was just, 'he had to go.' … I think it was just where we are as an organization," Nets general manager Billy King said Saturday, per Tim Bontemps of the New York Post. "We’re not in the same place we were before, so it was a chance to reshuffle the deck."

Fortunately for Williams, a buyout means he'll be dealt a new hand as well. He's headed someplace where a dual rehab of this magnitude might actually be possible.

According to ESPN.com's Marc Stein, D-Will is on his way home once he clears waivers Monday evening:

Here We Are Again

If any of this feels a little familiar, it's because a potential buyout has been a topic for some time. Devin Kharpertian of the Brooklyn Game broached it during the 2015 playoffs, and it's probably been at the back of Nets fans' minds for most of the past season—during which Williams' play declined dramatically.

The above chart shows Williams' player efficiency rating falling all the way to 15.7 last year, his lowest figure since his rookie campaign with the Utah Jazz.

Other data from Basketball-Reference.com shows Williams' shot profile has also undergone a change; declining athleticism has robbed Williams of his ability to get into the lane, and he finished a career-low 45.7 percent of his shots within three feet of the basket in 2014-15.

He shot 38.7 percent from the field overall, also a career worst.

No wonder the idea of paying Williams to go away has been floating around for months.

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The second reason this whole Williams-to-Dallas angle seems familiar is because it was a major topic in 2012.

That summer, Williams was the biggest free agent on the market, and he picked a five-year, $99 million deal with the Nets over a four-year, $75 million offer from the Mavericks largely because Dallas owner Mark Cuban didn't attend the pitch meeting.

The Mavs aren't getting a $100 million free agent now; Williams is far from the player he was three years ago. But they're also not paying nearly that much to get him. Even if we assume Williams plays like the hobbled, marginally effective version of himself we saw last year, Dallas is getting a major bargain at $5 million per season.

Hope for a Rebirth

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There's reason to believe Williams is capable of significantly outperforming his salary.

Consider the causes for his failure in Brooklyn.

First, there were the injuries: Williams' body gave out on him. Multiple sprains led to surgery on both ankles in 2014 and repeated platelet-rich-plasma injections over the past two years. There were calf strains, knee contusions and a bout of patellar tendinitis. Rib fractures and the lingering effects of a 2011 surgery on his right wrist didn't help either. The Brooklyn Game's Raya Lim undertook the task of cataloging all of Williams' physical troubles here.

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Admittedly, there's not much Williams or the Mavericks can do about those. But every other malady plaguing Williams should diminish with a trip to Dallas.

Williams wasn't happy in Brooklyn, and he wasn't cut out for the environment or the pressure, according to Stefan Bondy of the New York Daily News: "The poor response to the spotlight. The fragile psyche. The discomforts of city living. The alienation by teammates. The multiple personalities Williams projected. The issues accumulated, and they all boiled over."

Bondy continued: "Williams gets a fresh start in Dallas and that’s what’s best for everybody. A lot of smart basketball people are predicting a rejuvenated season from Williams, which would only further the notion that he just couldn’t handle New York."

In theory, Williams will be more comfortable in Dallas, where he's from and where he'll find a basketball scenario entirely different from the one he leaves behind in Brooklyn. For starters, he'll follow the disastrously brief tenure of point guard Rajon Rondo, who famously flamed out in less than half a season.

LM Otero/Associated Press

If Williams doesn't burn the practice facility down, he'll probably be remembered as a better fit than Rondo.

Head coach Rick Carlisle is demanding, but for the first time ever, Williams won't wield the leverage of franchise-player status against his coach. The Mavericks don't need Williams like the Jazz, and they're not paying him exorbitant amounts of money like the Nets. In Dallas, the dynamics that gave rise to Williams' difficult reputation will flip.

He's not in charge anymore.

Consider too what Carlisle has done for imperfect guards in the recent past.

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Monta Ellis played the best basketball of his career for the Mavs in 2013-14, and he was nearly as good before Rondo arrived last year. Before that, Carlisle's offense used an aging Jason Kidd to win a championship, got great production out of Jason Terry, made Jameer Nelson the leader of an elite offense (albeit briefly) and turned J.J. Barea into a valuable reserve.

Any point guard looking to rebuild his confidence should be clamoring to play for Carlisle—especially now that Wesley Matthews has joined a floor-stretching perimeter group that already included Dirk Nowitzki and Chandler Parsons. Williams, who struggled to get into the lane in Brooklyn, should expect to see unprotected paint more often than he has in years.

Salvation Through Proper Expectations

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We can't get ahead of ourselves. The Mavericks may not be a playoff team even if Williams plays closer to his 2013-14 levels. There's little depth on the roster, and the disappointment of losing out on DeAndre Jordan at the 11th hour may cast a pall over Dallas' entire season.

But maybe a modest, realistic outlook can help Williams.

Things really started to go south in Brooklyn because of the crazy spending spree that created artificially high expectations. Williams was part of that failed process to create an insta-contender, and he probably deserves criticism for coming up short.

But that entire situation was a hastily constructed mess designed to bypass the normal road to success. It was a shortcut to a dead end, and there probably isn't a point guard in the league who could have made it work.

So if the pressure, city and situation were the problems for Williams, Dallas will be different in all the best ways.

Williams will have to be different too.

He'll have to get healthy before anything else, and then he'll have to prove his attitude and difficult reputation are things of the past.

Dallas offers Williams a perfect chance to prove he has something left in the tank, which is a good thing because it may be the last one he gets.

Grant Hughes covers the NBA for Bleacher Report. Follow him on Twitter @gt_hughes.