- Has a $2,187,699 team option
While the days of him being a regular starter ended with Holmgren’s return to health, the other J-Will has been doing a fine job off the bench over the last two years. This past season, he averaged 5.9 points, 5.6 rebounds and 2.6 assists in 16.7 minutes per game off the bench, to go along with 0.6 blocks, a mere 0.7 turnovers and 39.9 percent three-point shooting on a .692 three-point rate. That is about as much as anyone can be expected to do in 16.7 minutes a game.
As a backup center who can stretch the floor on the offensive end and protect the paint on the other, Williams fits the prototype to a tee. His skill level is high, his size sufficient, and in time, perhaps he can become something akin to Isaiah Hartenstein before him. Williams does not quite have the size and physical tools of the German, perhaps, but he has enough to be a good NBA player in his own right. He is not in the playoff rotation, but he is good enough to be.
In all likelihood, the Thunder will exercise Williams’s team option for the minimum salary. It is a bargain price for his production, they will not do better in that salary slot, and they will be able to extend that deal via the new CBA’s more liberalized extension rules.
An extension for Williams would still be classified as a “veteran extension”, as described above with regards to Lu Dort, and while the 140 percent starting salary would be insufficient given that Williams currently earns the minimum, extensions can also begin at 140 percent of the NBA’s estimated average salary, if that amount is higher for a player than the 140 percent threshold. [NB: this is how Caruso was able to sign his extension in December.] Since this would be approximately $20 million, it is far, far more than enough to suffice here.
The other avenue available to the Thunder would be to decline Williams’s team option, a strategy with one advantage. As a three-year veteran, the Thunder could make Williams into a restricted free agent this summer if they decline the option, in a way that they cannot do next summer under any circumstances.
It is not likely to happen – the Thunder have enough work to do elsewhere, as above, and it would be counterintuitive for any team that hits the jackpot with such a team-friendly deal to then end it prematurely and pay a player who does not need paying yet. If they do not play him, they need not pay him. But if they see more upside in Williams’ future, cannot convince him to sign an extension and feel he might want to leave next summer in anticipation of a starting spot, the possibility exists.
