Dallas Mavericks: Shedding Williams and Bogut Continues to Look Good

The Dallas Mavericks unloaded Deron Williams and Andrew Bogut around the trade deadline and it continues to look like the right move.

Last offseason, Dallas decided to bring back Deron Williams after striking out at the likes of Mike Conley. Williams was brought back on another one-year deal worth around $10 million.

When Kevin Durant picked Golden State, the Warriors notably renounced the rights to Harrison Barnes and had to find a taker for the last year of Andrew Bogut’s contract for a little over $10 million.

Dallas, after missing out on Hassan Whiteside, swooped in a took on Bogut for nothing.

Suddenly, instead of getting younger with rising players, Dallas had a pair of 32 year olds in Bogut and Williams in the starting lineup.

As the season went along and Dallas’ playoff hopes were dwindling, a decision had to be made with the expiring veterans. Keep them around or try to get some sort of value around the trade deadline.

On February 23rd, Dallas used the expiring contract of Andrew Bogut for salary purposes to send to Philadelphia in the deal that would bring back Nerlens Noel to Dallas. Philadelphia would immediately waive Bogut as he would go on to sign with the Cleveland Cavaliers.

Andrew Bogut would appear in one game and play one minute for Cleveland before breaking his leg.

Deron Williams was a different situation as Dallas “technically” didn’t get anything back for the veteran point guard.

Later in the day, on February 23rd, Dallas decided to waive Deron Williams in order for him to join a contender and to open up playing time for the younger Yogi Ferrell.

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Williams would sign with the Cleveland Cavaliers and appear in the next 24 regular season games for the Cavs. Looking for scoring help off the bench, Cleveland thought they had their answer in Deron Williams backing up Kyrie Irving.

Now, in Williams’ first Finals, he isn’t really doing what Cleveland thought he would be doing.

In the Finals, Williams has played 36 minutes with 0 points on 0-11 from the field as the Cavs are down 0-3 in the series.

The day after Williams was waived, Ferrell was inserted into the starting lineup and was the starter for the next 21 of 25 games to close out the regular season. If Ferrell’s status on the team was uncertain moving forward after this season, he used those last 25 games to prove that he can be a valuable piece moving forward.

In a nutshell, shedding both Bogut and Williams opened up more playing time for Yogi Ferrell and helped facilitate the trade to land Noel in Dallas.

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I think it is safe to say that Dallas made the right decision with the both of them and hats off to Donnie Nelson for pulling it off.