Mavs, Nets have different routes to staying competitive

“Deron Williams is in talks with the Brooklyne Nets about securing his potential release this offseason to clear the way for Williams to sign with his hometown Dallas Mavericks, according to league sources…”

Because of Williams’s salary, the Nets do not want to just release him, even though it would allow them to pay what is owed to Williams over the next five seasons.

A buyout would be Brooklyn’s preference, compared to simply waiving Williams. The Nets have been aiming to trade the point guard for most of the season thanks to his contract that still has two years and $43.3 million on it, but there are no buyers for Williams who has struggled with disappointing numbers and injuries for the past two seasons.

The Mavericks, sources said, are not pursuing a trade for Williams because of salary-cap space such a move would eat up.

The 10-year veteran averaged 13 points and 6.6 assists last season.

Then he would go home and sign with the Dallas Mavericks. He chased after the point guard when he was getting ready to leave the Utah Jazz, but couldn’t work out a deal to bring him down to Texas.

Other than saving money, that would give the Nets some flexibiity going forward, for the rest of this year, but particularly next summer when they want to be part of the 2015 free agent sweepstakes, having already traded away their first round pick to Boston in the Kevin Garnett-Paul Pierce trade.

For Williams to end up in Dallas, the Nets would have to execute a buyout of his contract, which has two years left at more than $43-million.

Now 31 years old, Williams played his high school ball in the North Dallas suburb of The Colony.

Wayne Ellington has accepted a 1-year deal with the Brooklyn Nets worth $1.5 million, according to a report by Tim Bontemps of the New York Post and Fox Sports. The Mavs are motivated to make a move in the aftermath of being spurned by DeAndre Jordan and now have some money to spend. But the Nets have to explore every avenue they can to avoid paying luxury tax at the end of the coming season and thus dodge the dreaded “repeater tax”. The Mavericks can be a little better, more respectable and maybe a playoff team in the West (maybe, the West remains stacked).

It’s far too soon to tell what the Nets might be able to do in the future, but in the short term it would seem that parting ways with Williams would be a step back, which is great news for Celtics fans.