Last updated: 9/30/2019
Last updated: 9/30/2019
Last updated: 9/30/2019
2025 Free Agents - Ziaire Williams
After being drafted 10th overall by the Grizzlies in 2021, Williams had a pretty good rookie year, starting a good chunk of games and looking like a solid wing. However, he has struggled to stay healthy since then, playing in just about half of his available games from 2022-2024, and wasn't very impactful when he did play. Williams has good size for a wing at 6'9". He is a fluid athlete that can move well and has some explosiveness. He uses his size to shoot over smaller defenders in the midrange, and has finished a good 73.5% of his shots at the rim, according to Cleaning the Glass. He has enough ball-handling ability to get to his midrange or making quick attacks against closeouts. However, his rim finishing has declined each year, from 82% as a rookie to 65% in '23-'24. Some of that might be small sample size or the types of looks he's getting inside, but with his health issues you worry it might be to him losing some pop at the rim. Williams hasn't quite developed as a shooter the way you would have hoped for him. He has only made 31% of his 3s, and that number simply needs to improve in order for him to be a real threat from there. While he has finished well at the rim, he doesn't have a ton of strength on drives, which limits his ability to get to the rim more often. He also struggles with turning the ball over too much. Defensively, Williams has contributed to some very successful Grizzlies defenses, but hasn't shown anything particularly great as an individual defender. He has good size and length to guard multiple positions, but he isn't a lockdown defender, and isn't overly disruptive with steals or blocks. His skinny frame also allows stronger wings to drive through him and bump him off his spot. Williams will still only be 23 years old as a free agent in 2025, so he's still fairly young and it's not unreasonable to expect him to develop. He needs to stay healthy and improve as a shooter, but if he can do that I think there's a solid rotation player in there, even if he's not a starter like it seemed like he would become during his rookie season.
Summary
Williams will be a restricted free agent with an $18.4 million cap hold, $8 million Qualifying Offer, and full Bird Rights. I wouldn't expect Williams' QO to come into play, but I wouldn't completely rule it out considering it may not be that much lower than his market value starting salary. At this point, it's probably more likely the Nets don't even give him a QO, which would make him an unrestricted free agent. Depending on how close the Nets are to the luxury tax after free agency, or how much cap space they need after re-signing him, if Williams is brought back by the Nets on a multi-year contract they could benefit from frontloading his contract, as it could give them additional flexibility in the future. Other teams will have multiple ways to sign Williams as even teams without cap space could use the Non-Taxpayer MLE or Room MLE to sign him to an offer sheet or outright as an unrestricted free agent (it's unlikely that the Taxpayer MLE or B-Annual Exception would be enough since they are below his QO amount). However, Williams being a restricted free agent would lower his interest among teams, as they will worry that the only way to pry him away from Brooklyn would be to overpay him. There's also a chance that Williams is an unrestricted free agent with pretty low offers, including maybe just getting minimum offers.
Cap Considerations
Jalen McDaniels (2 years, $9 million, 2023) Trendon Watford (1 year, $3 million, 2024) Terance Mann (2 years, $22 million, 2021)