{"id":280888,"date":"2026-06-29T08:59:18","date_gmt":"2026-06-29T08:59:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/280888\/"},"modified":"2026-06-29T08:59:18","modified_gmt":"2026-06-29T08:59:18","slug":"nets-make-surprising-decision-on-former-top-10-pick","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/280888\/","title":{"rendered":"Nets make surprising decision on former top-10 pick"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Brooklyn Nets<\/a> have been stockpiling young, switchable wings, but have apparently hit their limit.<\/p>\n

The Nets are reportedly choosing to decline the $6.25 million team option on Ziaire Williams<\/a>\u2019 contract for next season. According to the New York Post\u2019s Brian Lewis, the 10th overall pick in the 2021 NBA draft is set to become an unrestricted<\/a> free agent despite his second straight season averaging double figures for Brooklyn.<\/p>\n

The Nets acquired Williams from the Memphis Grizzlies<\/a> in 2024 and signed him to a 2-year, $12.5 million contract with the aforementioned club option that the team did not pick up. In two seasons, Williams averaged 10.1 points, 3.5 rebounds, and 1.2 steals on a 41.8 percent shooting clip and 34.2 percent rate from beyond the arc.<\/p>\n

Despite his production, the 6\u20199\u2033 Stanford Cardinal alum was the casualty of a more crowded frontcourt that now adds Julius Randle<\/a> and first-round pick Joshua Jefferson<\/a>. With Mikel Brown Jr. also joining the team\u2019s slew of lengthy wings and ball-handlers, the rebuilding Nets probably won\u2019t have as many minutes to give a decent, if unspectacular player like Williams next season.<\/p>\n

But with Williams\u2019 size and decent shooting ability, teams looking for role players rather than prospect lottery tickets may come calling soon enough. At least one salary cap-strapped team<\/a> has already been linked to his services<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Brooklyn Nets have been stockpiling young, switchable wings, but have apparently hit their limit. The Nets are…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":280889,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[98,100,355,99,9,24,63,4607],"class_list":["post-280888","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn-headlines","tag-brooklyn-nets","tag-brooklyn-news","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-ziaire-williams"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/280888","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=280888"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/280888\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/280889"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=280888"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=280888"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=280888"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}