The Brooklyn Nets filled 1 of their 2 remaining roster spots on Friday, with former Phoenix Suns big man Alan Williams reportedly agreeing to a 2-way deal.
The Brooklyn Nets on Friday reportedly agreed to terms with former Phoenix Suns power forward Alan Williams to a two-way deal.
Williams played three years in Phoenix after signing with the Suns on a 10-day contract as an undrafted free agent in March 2016, playing well enough to earn a full contract 10-days later.
He missed most of last season with a partially torn meniscus sustained in workouts prior to training camp, per Greg Logan of Newsday and appeared in only five games.
Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN was the first to report the deal between Williams and the Nets.
Former Sun Alan Williams has agreed to a two-way deal with the Nets, league source tells ESPN.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) September 14, 2018
Williams played in the Chinese Basketball Association for the Qingdao Double Star Eagles after going undrafted out of UC Santa Barbara in 2015 and turned heads with his work on the boards. The 6-foot-8, 260-pounder averaged 20 points and 15.4 rebounds in 29.9 minutes per game.
He had played for both Charlotte and Houston in Summer League action in 2015 and put up big numbers for the Rockets in Las Vegas, averaging 20.5 points and 11.8 rebounds in 27.8 minutes per game, but didn’t get a contract offer from an NBA club.
In 2016-17, Williams appeared in 47 games and averaged 7,4 points and 6.2 rebounds in just 15.1 minutes per game — impressive per 36 minute averages of 17.6 points and 14.8 rebounds (insert usual warning about per 36 minutes numbers for guys averaging less than 20 minutes a game).
More telling were his advanced numbers for 2016-17, which show Williams grabbed 14 percent of available offensive rebounds and 31.2 percent of available defensive boards.
The total 22.4 percent rebounding rate for Williams that season compared to the NBA leader, Andre Drummond of the Pistons, who was at 25.2 percent.
The 25-year-old played only 70 minutes last season, averaging 4.0 points and 4.4 rebounds in 14 minutes a game.
Most notable in his short stint last season was his rusty inside offensive game, where he was just 7-for-18 shooting — all inside of 10 feet — after hitting 51.7 percent the previous season.
Being on a two-way deal limits Williams to 45 days with the Brooklyn Nets once the G League season begins. But his rebounding might be enough to earn him a full deal with the NBA Nets.
It’s a solid move for Brooklyn — a potential low-risk, high-reward signing that adds more frontcourt bulk to a club that was often bullied inside last season.