After the 2011 championship, the Dallas Mavericks tried for years to find another star alongside Dirk Nowitzki. In free agency, however, they always got nothing. In 2012 it almost worked out with Deron Williams, but owner Mark Cuban made a fatal mistake.
Every free agency class has at least one grand prize, although the significance of July 1st has diminished somewhat with numerous early extensions. But ten years ago it was different.
It had been just two seasons since LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh formed a super team in Miami and shook the NBA to its foundations. The 2012 class was less attractive, but in Deron Williams there was at least one All-Star up for grabs in its prime.
D-WIll, at the height of his career at 28, languished with New Jersey in the insignificance of the Eastern Conference, but the Nets were already a sleeping giant by then. At the same time, the Barclays Center in Brooklyn was built, and the Nets were to move there twelve months later.
That was Williams’ perspective with the Nets, but the guard’s ultimate goal was to finally play for a title again after reaching the Conference Finals with Utah at least in 2007. Besides Brooklyn, only one other team came into question for Williams – the Dallas Mavericks, the franchise from his hometown.
Deron Williams: Dirk Nowitzki wanted to give him the keys
Among other things, the Mavs had decided a year ago for Williams (and Dwight Howard, who surprisingly pulled his player option) to break up the master core and, among other things, not to extend it with Tyson Chandler in order to have the opportunity in 2012 to D- Will oblige with Cap Space.
The plan was to give the aging Dirk Nowitzki a co-star at the peak of his career and relieve the Würzburger. “I’m really jittery. We want D-Will, that’s no secret,” Nowitzki said in a radio interview a few days before the start of Free Agency.
“If you take a closer look at the NBA and their top teams, they all have two or three playmakers who can dribble the ball and create for themselves. (…) It would be great if D-Will opened the shop here would throw,” explained Dirk. Last year, 39-year-old Jason Kidd and Delonte West took over. However, as the reigning champion, Dallas was knocked out in round one by the OKC Thunder.
However, Williams remained a fever dream and instead signed for almost $ 100 million and five years with the Nets. Williams’ decision leaked out on July 4, and a few days later Williams, who was in London for the Olympic Games, signed the new deal on his iPad.
Deron Williams: Cuban missed meeting because of “Shark Tank”
The Mavs went empty – as so often in this decade. With Williams, however, they screwed it up themselves. Williams revealed on a podcast nine years later, that he had already committed to Dallas and made an offer for a house in Texas. However, Mavs owner Mark Cuban and his priorities caused a rethink. He didn’t show up for the meeting with the point guard because he was recording an episode of his reality show “Shark Tank” in Los Angeles at the same time and didn’t take part in the meeting virtually.
A few months later, Williams openly admitted that this had a big impact on his decision to go with New Jersey. “Many questions that I and my advisor had could not be answered that day,” said the Nets Guard. Instead of Cuban, only GM Donnie Nelson, coach Rick Carlisle and ex-player Michael Finley came.
According to his own statements, Williams was primarily interested in how things would continue in Dallas if Nowitzki would one day hang up his sneakers. Nelson and Carlisle referred to their reputation, but that didn’t convince the free agent: “I can understand that because they did a really good job, but it’s not enough for me to make such a big decision and the team switch.”
Williams’ extension was the Nets’ first step towards their own super team, which failed with drums and trumpets after trades for Joe Johnson, Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce.
Deron Williams and the Mavs: It still works in late autumn
The aging Pierce justified this primarily with the achievements of Williams, who could never justify his maximum contract. “Before I came to Brooklyn, I saw Deron as an MVP candidate. Then I was there and realized that he didn’t want to be one. It wasn’t in his nature.”
That was grist for the Mavs’ mill, especially for Cuban, who didn’t take the buck in the Williams case. “We’re in a better position now than if we had gotten him,” said the owner defiantly ahead of the season opener. Instead, Dallas paid Chris Kaman, Elton Brand, OJ Mayo, Darren Collison and Dahntay Jones with the Williams money, but none of them could convince – and the Mavs missed the playoffs again after twelve years.
But even with D-Will, the Mavs probably wouldn’t have been a serious contender. As a reminder, OKC still had Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook, the San Antonio Spurs gave the Miami Heat’s Big Three massive problems two years in a row, and even the Lob City Clippers were an elite team when they used their full roster had available.
At least it would have made Dallas more competitive, although Cuban didn’t want to admit it. In retrospect, Williams lost (apart from the money) and Dallas, but three years later the man from Big D wore the Mavs jersey: The Nets had fired Williams two years before the contract expired because they had a radical after the failed Superteam project cut done. In just under two years, D-Will played over 100 games for Dallas, but he was far from All-Star level at that point.
