Former Clippers and Timberwolves guard C.J. Williams has reached an agreement to sign with the Nets, league sources tell Nicola Lupo of Sportando. Confirming the deal, Shams Charania of The Athletic tweets that Williams will receive a non-guaranteed contract.
Williams, 29, made his NBA debut with the Clippers in 2017-18, then spent last season on a two-way contract with Minnesota. In total, he has appeared in 53 regular-season games, averaging 4.7 points on .448/.287/.765 shooting in 15.8 minutes per game.
Charania identified Williams earlier this week as a candidate to sign with the Nets, who are looking to fill out their 20-man roster. In that report, Charania noted that forward Lance Thomas is in the mix to join Brooklyn’s roster too, and that idea appears to be gaining steam.
Marc Berman of The New York Post hears from a league source that the Nets are “seriously eyeing” Thomas, while Greg Logan of Newsday confirms (via Twitter) the veteran forward has worked out for the Nets. According to Charania, Brooklyn is making progress on a deal to sign Thomas.
Currently, the Nets have 17 players under contract, so if they make it official with Williams and sign Thomas as well, they’d have just one opening left on their 20-man offseason roster. It remains to be seen whether the team intends to bring unsigned second-round pick Jaylen Hands to camp.
Although Williams is unlikely to earn a spot on the Nets’ regular-season roster, since the club has 15 players with fully guaranteed salaries, he or another camp invitee could be re-signed five games into the regular season. At that point, Brooklyn will be able to open up an extra roster spot by moving Wilson Chandler to the suspended list for the next 20 games. Chandler will serve a 25-game suspension for testing positive for performance-enhancing drugs.
