Mavs GM: Grant Williams ‘Doesn’t Deserve’ Negativity amid Rumors About Dallas Tenure

ESPN’s Tim MacMahon said during Friday’s The Hoop Collective Podcast (15:30 mark) that Grant Williams “rubbed a lot of people the wrong way” during his time with the Dallas Mavericks before the team traded him, Seth Curry and a protected first-round pick in 2027 to the Charlotte Hornets for P.J. Washington.

But Mavericks president of basketball operations and general manager Nico Harrison told NBA reporter Marc Stein on Saturday that the scorn Williams has received from fans around Dallas in the aftermath of that deal is unfair.

“Grant doesn’t deserve the negativity he’s getting on social media…” he said. “He was a good teammate.”

Acquiring the 25-year-old Williams this offseason was the Mavericks’ biggest move of the summer outside of signing Kyrie Irving to a contract extension, and the team gave up Reggie Bullock, a 2030 first-round pick swap, a 2025 second-round pick swap and a 2030 second-round selection to land him and two second-round picks in a three-team deal with the Boston Celtics and San Antonio Spurs.

The Mavs then immediately signed him to a four-year, $54 million deal.

But it didn’t pan out. In 47 games (33 starts) he averaged just 8.1 points and 3.6 rebounds per game, shooting 37.6 percent from three. Those were all around his recent career averages, but he certainly didn’t take the sort of jump Dallas was anticipating.

“The fact that they gave up a 2030 swap for Williams and then dumped him as soon as they possibly could—they were determined to dump him,” MacMahon noted on Friday’s pod. “It’s not just getting Washington. They wanted to be out of the Williams business.”

The Mavericks, in turn, are 29-23 and clearly felt moves needed to be made ahead of Thursday’s NBA trade deadline.

“When you’re not playing up [to] the expectations you had coming into the season, then you have to make those types of changes,” Harrison told Stein.

Washington, 25, should be a better fit in Dallas. He’s averaging 13.6 points and 5.3 rebounds per game, though his perimeter shooting (32.4 percent from three) this season has left something to be desired. A lot of those looks will be far more open for Washington in Dallas, however, given the gravity that Luka Dončić has.

He’ll be an offensive upgrade, and if the Mavs can get him to up his defensive intensity, he should address losing Williams’ activity on that end as well. All in all, it sounds like the Mavericks and Williams weren’t a good fit, if if Harrison downplayed that notion.