The Nets are adding a former lottery pick to their rebuilding squad.
In a cost-cutting move by the Grizzlies, the Nets are acquiring small forward Ziaire Williams, the 10th overall pick in the 2021 draft.
Ziaire Williams was drafted in the first round. Getty ImagesBrooklyn also will receive a 2030 second-round pick via Dallas in the deal, while sending forward/center Mamadi Diakite and the draft rights to 31-year-old Serbian forward Nemanja Dangubic to Memphis.
Diakite had been included as salary filler from the Knicks in the Mikal Bridges blockbuster trade earlier this month.
Williams, who will earn $6.1 million in the final season of his rookie contract in 2024-25, averaged 8.2 points and shot just 30.7 percent from 3-point range in 20.4 minutes per game over 51 appearances last year for the Grizzlies.
The 22-year-old Stanford product is eligible for a rookie extension until Oct. 21.
Williams didn’t play after March 2 because of a lower back injury and a hip flexor strain, and he also missed time earlier in the year with a hand issue.
Mamadi Diakite played in six games for the Knicks and Spurs last season. NBAE via Getty ImagesMemphis was looking to shed salary to stay under the first luxury-tax apron of the salary cap; Diakite is slated to make $2.27 million this season after appearing in just six NBA games in 2023-24 — three apiece with the Spurs and the Knicks.
The Nets had a $9.5 million trade exception available after sending veteran Royce O’Neale to the Suns in February.
Sean Marks is retooling the Nets’ roster. Noah K. Murray-NY PostThe Nets also took back Bojan Bogdanovic and Shake Milton in the Bridges deal for salary-matching purposes, along with five first-round picks (four unprotected) and a future unprotected first-round swap from the Knicks.
Speaking after the Bridges deal was announced, Nets general manager Sean Marks said he doesn’t believe the team’s rebuilding phase will be a lengthy one.
“This build, do I think it’s going to take time? I mean, I think we’ll be strategic in it,” Marks said July 8. “But I do think being in this market, with this amount of draft assets, we’ve done it before.
“And so again, I think, not that it’s going to be expedited by any means, but I don’t think it’s a long process, either.”
