Mavs pick up Option on Williams

[Basketballmania]

Good day for Williams:
Shawne Williams will have the option year of his rookie contract picked up by the Mavericks.

Entering his third season, Williams could have become a restricted free agent next year if the Mavericks had not exercised their right for the fourth season. Williams will earn slightly over $2.4 million next season.

LINK

[dirkforpres]

I guess its not too bad, but he hasnt really shown anything in the preseason.

[JES12]

Has he had much playing time in the preseason?

I think he will pick it up, but I give him some slack because he was the last one in Mavs camp. This decision does not bother me because of the contract size and it was expected because of the picks we gave to get him.

[from_ro_to_dirk]

For those of you fretting about losing the first round picks to new jersey in the Kidd deal you have to look at it like this. Green, Wright, Williams..they ARE the first round picks except we have them now and they have a little bit of experience and will hopefully get more and make a leap kind of like what Diop did his first year with us when he was night and day vs what he was for Cleveland. Those first rounders i'm pretty sure would not have been lottery picks and you'd basically end up with these same kind of players i just mentioned but at least now they will be further along. Just look at who the Mavs have hit on in the first round going back forever..Josh Howard, anyone else? Nothing of the top of my head.

Getting these guys makes up for not having those picks because basically we have the young guys we'd draft but we have them now. I wish the Mavs went down this route the past few years and now we'd have some young guys who are ready to play rather than having signed the Hassells, Georges, Joneses, the Sac guy wth the crazy wife, etc

[Teffer10]

frtd - That is a very good point you make about these guys being virtual 1st rounders for the mavs.

Perhaps one of them will emerge as a huge contributer like Bass did last season. This team has very little margin for error so there would be no tolerance for pure rookies and their rookie mistakes. Green, Wright, and Williams actually have an opportunity to develop into core players this season.

[JES12]

Good point from_ro_to_dirk and well noted, though I do see it a little differently.

I see Wright as our 2008 1st round pick.

Williams is a mid-1st that we consolodated 2 mid to late 2nd round picks...that is a posative in my book no matter how you spell it.

Green is on a 1 year contract and can be on any of 30 teams next year...he is NOT on a rookie scale contract and we have no rights to him after this year. He is as good as a FA signee, not a draft pick at all! Now if Cuabn signed him to a 2-3 year deal with one year unguaranteed, I may see it differently as we would have Bird or Early Bird rights to him.

Our unprotected 2010 1st can never be equated here because that pick locks us into mediocracy as we can neither rebuild as there would be no benifit to losing and we no longer have the pick to package with Stack for a Mike Miller type player.

[Realmavsman]

Excellent post from_ro_to_dirk. I was thinking that same thing. I know I was very unhappy about giving away our first round picks. But if you look at Wright, Green, and Williams they were all drafted in the teens. The Mavs would not have had a chance at these guys even if they had 1st rounders in those drafts because our picks are always well into the 20's. Bass was a very early 2nd rounder. That is is 4 guys who are young and give us exactly what we want in drafted players. I am really happy to see these type of guys on our team instead of the old farts that this team seemed to be in love with previously.

Now if we completely tank and our 2010 pick is a lottery pick then I will be a little unhappy about giving it up but if we end up keeping Green next year and beyond I will get over it quickly.