Brandon Williams turned in the best season of his career for the Dallas Mavericks, and somehow it still hasn’t translated into a busy free-agency market.
A year that should have put the 26-year-old guard on more radars instead has left him unsigned nearly a month into free agency. That’s a strange outcome for a player who went from undrafted long shot to a nightly NBA contributor, then backed it up with a 13.0-point average and 15 starts last season.
Williams’ path has been anything but straightforward. After a solid but unspectacular freshman year at Arizona, he had surgery to address osteochondritis dissecans, a knee condition that wiped out his entire sophomore season. That setback pushed him out of school and into the pro ranks.
He started with the G League’s Westchester Knicks, where he impressed enough in his rookie year to earn a call-up from the Portland Trail Blazers. He flashed there too, averaging 12.9 points in 24 appearances, though the efficiency never quite matched the production, with shooting splits of 37.2 percent from the field and 29.2 percent from 3.
Portland didn’t keep him on a two-way deal after that, sending him back to the G League. For a 6-foot-1 guard who had finally made it to the NBA, that could have been the end of the road. Instead, Williams kept pushing, earned a two-way contract with Dallas in 2023, and kept building until last season’s breakout.
The numbers from that campaign tell the story. Williams averaged 13.0 points, 2.9 rebounds, 3.9 assists and 0.9 steals while shooting 47.2 percent from the field. He also got to the line 4.6 times per game, and his free-throw rate ranked 10th in the league among qualified players.
By the broader impact metrics, he mattered a lot more than his current market suggests. Williams ranked second on the Mavericks in Value over Replacement Player, and he finished fifth on the team in Box Plus/Minus, Player Efficiency Rating and Win Shares.
And yet the phone hasn’t exactly been ringing. Dallas doesn’t appear likely to bring him back, and the rest of the league has been just as quiet. He hasn’t been linked to many teams as rosters around the NBA continue to fill out.
There are obvious reasons teams may be hesitating. Williams has been a career 28.0 percent 3-point shooter, and his perimeter defense has been inconsistent. But he also brings clear value in the areas where he does shine.
He attacks downhill with force, averaging 10.8 drives per game and scoring 6.8 points per game on those possessions while shooting 51.8 percent. On drives, he drew fouls on about 11.1 percent of his attempts, which put him in the top 10 among qualified players. He also gave Dallas a real spark in transition, averaging 3.5 transition points per game.
So while the market has treated him like an afterthought, Williams just finished a season that suggested there’s still more in the tank. At 26 and with only 140 career appearances, he’s already beaten the odds once. The surprising part now is how little attention that breakout has received.
In Other News...
LeBron Rumors Just Put Kyrie At Center Of A Mavericks Storm
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For the Mavericks, Kyrie Irving is right back at the center of it all, even if there is no sign Dallas is eager to move him. The broader picture is what makes the rumor mill hum: any team trying to clear a path for James would have to weigh the cost of chasing a star against the value of keeping its own core intact, and Dallas has its own reasons to believe Irving still fits into what it wants to build next. [Read more 🡒]
Mavericks Rookie Morez Johnson Jr. Just Drew A Concerning Summer Label
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The uneven showing was enough for one national evaluation to put a concerning label on his Summer League run, which is a reminder of how quickly perceptions can shift in July. For Dallas, though, the broader picture still matters more than the shorthand, because Johnsons path this season appears tied to how well he fits next to Cooper Flagg and Kyrie Irving when the games count for real. [Read more 🡒]
Mavericks Shooting Problem May Finally Have The Answer Fans Wanted
The Mavericks 3-point issues were hard to miss last season, when the offense spent too much time fighting for clean looks and too often settled for the wrong ones. Dallas finished in the bottom five in both accuracy and volume from deep, a problem that lingered even as the roster tried to find a more reliable rhythm around its core.
Kyrie Irvings expected return gives the Mavericks a different kind of answer, one built on shot-making that has long been part of his reputation. Bleacher Report recently put him No. 12 on its list of the NBAs best shooters of all time, and Dallas has also spent the offseason adding more shooting around Irving and Cooper Flagg, hoping the combination finally gives the team the spacing it lacked. [Read more 🡒]