The Dallas Mavericks have taken a commanding 2-0 series lead over the Minnesota Timberwolves in their Western Conference Finals series, but for a point in time this season, things didn't look like they were going to work out all that well for them. In fact, you can make an argument that the team's decision to trade Grant Williams just months after signing him was the turning point of their season.
Williams landed a four-year, $53.3 million contract from the Mavs in a sign-and-trade deal with the Boston Celtics, but he ended up getting traded to the Charlotte Hornets at the trade deadline less than a year after signing that deal. Much has been made about Williams and the events that led to him getting traded, but he believes that much of that has been overblown, while also saying he still talks to many of his former Dallas teammates.
Via Harrison Faigen:
“‘I do talk a lot and I think all those guys would tell you we're still friends,' Williams says of his exit from the Mavs. He says the trash talk angle of his exit was ‘overblown.' ‘You can't control what's going to he said (about you) in this league,' he says.”
Mavericks have done just fine since trading Grant Williams
Williams was expected to be a versatile big man for the Mavs who could knock down his threes, but he struggled to find his fit with them on both sides of the ball. Williams' numbers were down across the board for Dallas (8.1 PPG, 3.6 RPG, 1.7 APG, 41.3 FG%), and it resulted in him getting traded alongside Seth Curry and a 2027 first-round pick for P.J. Washington and a pair of future second-round picks.
At the time, it seemed like a head-scratching move for the Mavericks, but Washington has been a perfect fit on both ends of the floor. Beyond his struggles, some of Williams' antics seemed to irritate the folks around Dallas. Everyone has come out and said otherwise since this trade, but it wouldn't exactly be a surprise if that ended up being the case.
Williams promptly found a bigger role on the Hornets, and ended up playing the best basketball of his career with them (13.9 PPG, 5.1 RPG, 3.2 APG, 50.3 FG%). Charlotte is rebuilding, so they have minutes available for Williams, and who knows, maybe he could end up becoming a key part of their future after he was practically tossed in the garbage bin by Dallas.
The Mavericks did what they had to in order to win more games, and while it was a rocky exit for the talented young big man, he seems to hold no ill will against them. In fact, he's probably rooting for them to go on and win the 2024 NBA Finals, because if they do, he will get his own ring since he played for them this season, which would be quite an ironic turn of events considering the way the season started for Williams and the Mavs.
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