It's official, Deron Williams bought out for 27.5 Mil!

The Brooklyn Nets and point guard Deron Williams, considered joined at the hip just three years ago in a marriage that announced Nets owner Mikhail Prokhorov's determination to spend whatever it took to build a contending team quickly, divorced for good on Friday, with the team and Williams reportedly reaching agreement on a buyout of the remaining two years of his contract. Williams will receive $27.5 million of the $43 million on his remaining on his deal.
The deal allows Williams, once he clears waivers, to sign a deal with his hometown Dallas Mavericks—the team he almost went to in free agency in 2012 before agreeing to stay in Brooklyn on a five-year, $98 million max deal. The Mavericks, spurned earlier in the week at the free agent altar by Clippers center DeAndre Jordan, need a starting point guard after last season's deal to bring in Rajon Rondo exploded in their faces. Rondo clashed with Coach Rick Carlisle and was sent home during the playoffs, never to return.
ESPN.com reported late Thursday that Williams and the Nets had opened buyout talks, and things moved rapidly Friday afternoon to a conclusion.
Williams and the Nets quickly grew tired of one another in the last two seasons. Often injured, Williams rarely recaptured the game that made many believe he was the equal of the Clippers' Chris Paul. The Nets hoped bringing in Jason Kidd to coach the team in 2013 would rejuvenate Williams' career, but by the end of the season Kidd had Williams off the ball frequently, with Shaun Livingston assuming ball-handling duties.
Things didn't get much better last season under new Coach Lionel Hollins. The New York Daily News reported Friday that the two had to be separated from one another during a heated argument last season. Hollins tried to protect Williams publicly, saying he received too much criticism from the New York media. But after the Nets were eliminated by Atlanta in the first round of the playoffs—a series in which Williams shot the ball terribly—Hollins said that Williams was "not a franchise player anymore."
The buyout was evidence of a new reality for Prokhorov, who has been rumored for most of the last year to be looking for a buyer for the team, which he purchased controlling interest of in 2010 from Bruce Ratner. Prokhorov promised to make a big splash immediately; the lifelong bachelor vowed to get married if the Nets weren't in the Finals in five years.
Williams was his team's big play. The guard was considered one of the top two or three players at his position when he became disenchanted with the Utah Jazz, the team that had drafted him with the third pick overall in the 2005 Draft out of the University of Illinois. Williams twice made the All-Star Game in Utah (he added a third appearance with the Nets in 2012), where he led the Jazz to the conference finals in 2007. He was second-team all-NBA in 2008 and 2010.
The Nets acquired Williams in 2011 from the Jazz for Derrick Favors, Devin Harris, first-round picks in 2011 and 2013 and cash. To make sure Williams stayed and didn't leave via free agency in 2012, the Nets traded for Joe Johnson from Atlanta, giving them one of the highest-paid backcourts in NBA history. The following summer, Brooklyn acquired Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett from the Celtics. But their first-round playoff win last year over the Raptors was the Nets only postseason success. Pierce left via free agency for Washington, and Garnett was traded to Minnesota at the trade deadline in February.
Pierce then told ESPNBoston.com's Jackie MacMullan just before the start of this season's playoffs that he didn't think Williams could handle playing in New York.

tjmakz wrote:If this works out where Deron goes to Dallas, it could go either way.
I don't think I need to tell anyone how poorly Deron has played over the last couple of years.
He has significant conditioning issues and is 31 years old.
He is a long way off from being the Utah version of Deron Williams.
Even at the veterans minimum, I would not want him as my teams point guard.
Dallas and Brooklyn could get a little better or a little worse, but I don't think this changes the needle very much for either team.
If Brooklyn felt it would be a big loss on the court, they wouldn't let him walk.