Grant Williams is going to Dallas as part of a sign-and-trade deal to clear cap space. Williams is reportedly getting a four-year, $54 million deal from the Mavericks. Per Shams Charania, the Spurs are getting Reggie Bullock and an unprotected pick swap from Dallas in 2030. Boston is getting multiple second round picks (2024, 2025 pick swap, 2028, per Adrian Wojnarowski) and they’ll create a traded player exception, reportedly in the $6 million range.
Karalis’ analysis:
This has to be part of a bigger plan by Brad Stevens. I advocated for biting the bullet for a year and keeping a very good role player on the bench despite the new CBA making this an expensive roster. Stevens did not agree.
So let’s break it down.
- The move gives the Celtics a fair amount of breathing room below the second apron and the luxury tax. Signing Williams to this deal would have cost them about $40 million in salary and taxes. Considering Joe Mazzulla’s hesitance when it came to playing him, it clearly was too costly for the team.
- Boston is loading up on those second round picks. As I’ve noted from the first release of CBA details, second round picks were going to only grow in value. They’ve been used to facilitate a lot of trades since the last trade deadline, so there's some value there as well.
- The TPE will help the Celtics make another move. The way they're calculated is different now, so the most they can take back in a TPE deal is a little more than $6 million. Consider it the taxpayer mid-level without actually using the taxpayer mid-level.
I can’t help but think Mazzulla had a role in this decision. He was clearly not happy with how Williams performed for him as the season wore on. Something was off there, and I feel like that had to play into the decision of where to spend their money. If there was no guarantee that he would be part of the rotation, then going that deep into the tax would be foolish.
At the same time, Williams is a versatile guy and this contract was more than reasonable. If Mazzulla and his staff couldn't figure out how to make Williams a part of the plan, it feels like it would be more on them.
There has to be a bigger plan at play. Patrick Beverley kind of pulled back the curtain on Boston’s plan on his podcast, The Pat Bev Podcast, by explaining that he chose to take a deal with Philadelphia but he could have gotten more from Boston if he chose to wait.
“I talked to representatives of mine, it might be Philly, it might be Boston, it might be Washington,” he said. “I might get a little bit more money in Boston or Washington, let’s wait on it, let’s wait on it. I tell my agent f--- it, pull the trigger, ain’t no waiting.”
He mentions in other sections of the podcast that Boston wanted him to wait before making a deal. Presumably, this was the deal Boston was waiting to pull off before giving Beverley a tick more than the minimum.
It feels like Stevens would like to add another ball handler to the mix, which would bring the roster to its minimum of 14. From there, he has accumulated six future second round picks with the draft and this deal, and a seventh pick swap to add to the pile of future assets that can be used in a trade.
Boston also has all of their own first round picks, minus a swap in 2028 with San Antonio as part of the Derrick White trade, to also throw into any future trades.
Losing Williams hurts the Celtics significantly if there's no follow-up here. If this is it for Boston this summer, then it feels like a bit of a miss. But if there's more coming, then this move might be alright.
I’ve long said Williams is going to have a long NBA career with multiple NBA teams. He’s good enough for teams to want him, but not so good that he’s a deal breaker when it comes to his current team doing whatever business they need to do.