{"id":51556,"date":"2023-07-06T12:55:19","date_gmt":"2023-07-06T16:55:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=51556"},"modified":"2023-07-06T12:55:19","modified_gmt":"2023-07-06T16:55:19","slug":"grant-williams-is-a-maverick","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2023\/07\/06\/grant-williams-is-a-maverick\/","title":{"rendered":"Grant Williams is a Maverick"},"content":{"rendered":"

Grant Williams became a free agent, and instead of signing with the Celtics, the forward is now a member of the Dallas Mavericks. Williams <\/span>signed a four-year, $54 million deal<\/span><\/a>\u00a0with Dallas yesterday. The Mavericks\u00a0<\/span>have now acquired good role players<\/span><\/a> and have a three and D guy to help provide spacing.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Grant Williams is a Maverick<\/span><\/h2>\n

What Does He Bring to Dallas?\u00a0<\/span><\/h3>\n

Shooting\u00a0<\/span><\/h4>\n

Williams is an elite shooter from three-point range. In the Regular Season, Grant shot 39.5% from three-point range, and in the postseason, he shot 45%. Dallas was eighth in three-point percentage this past season at 37.1%, so Williams adds more to this area for Dallas. More importantly, <\/span>Luka Doncic<\/span><\/strong><\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0<\/span>Kyrie Irving<\/a><\/strong> will need shooters to surround them, and Williams is one of the best in the game.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Dallas also needs a reliable shooter in the clutch, and based on his postseason production, Williams will deserve trust as a player that will make threes in big spots. Therefore, Williams is an excellent get for a Dallas team that looks to improve their spacing on offense.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Defense\u00a0<\/span><\/h4>\n

However, the most important part Williams brings to Dallas is defense. The Mavericks’ defense was not good when they traded for Kyrie Irving. Dallas\u00a0<\/span>was 25th in Defensive Efficiency last season<\/span><\/a>, so they need a good defense. Luka and Kyrie are improved defensively but aren’t considered elite defenders. Williams was\u00a0<\/span>55th in Defensive Plus\/Minus and 57th in Defensive Win shares out of 539 players<\/span><\/a>. Furthermore, he showed glimpses of his elite defense by guarding multiple positions in Boston.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Dallas needs defense to compete in the Western Conference, and Williams is a great piece to make that happen.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Reliability\u00a0<\/span><\/h4>\n

Williams is a reliable player in the NBA. The forward\u00a0<\/span>played 77 games<\/span><\/a>\u00a0in 2022 in Boston, so he is dependable to be there for the Mavericks this upcoming season. In 2022-2023,\u00a0<\/span>he played 79 games<\/span><\/a>, so he has improved his reliability each season. Moreover, Luka and Kyrie have had issues\u00a0<\/span>with being healthy<\/span><\/a>. Therefore, the Mavericks need reliable and experienced players to be there on a nightly basis.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The Mavericks get a reliable player, and he will produce when his number gets called. Dallas can trust Grant’s health this season.<\/span><\/p>\n

Last Word on Grant Williams to the Mavericks<\/span><\/h3>\n

Grant Williams is a fantastic acquisition for the Mavericks. He has Finals experience, great defensive instincts, and is a good shooter. Dallas made strides this off-season and now possesses role players with excellent skillsets to complement Luka and Kyrie this season. Williams is one of these players and will see a larger role with Dallas this season. This move is a great job by Dallas.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Grant Williams became a free agent, and instead of signing with the Celtics, the forward is now a member of the Dallas Mavericks. Williams signed a four-year, $54 million deal\u00a0with Dallas yesterday. The Mavericks\u00a0have now acquired good role players and have a three and D guy to help provide spacing.\u00a0 Grant Williams is a Maverick […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4688,"featured_media":51563,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4721,1608,5,30,62],"tags":[1491],"class_list":["post-51556","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-trade-rumors","category-basketball","category-celtics","category-mavericks","category-nba","tag-grant-williams"],"modified_by":"Kevin Nivek","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51556","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4688"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=51556"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51556\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/51563"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=51556"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=51556"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=51556"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}