Atlanta Hawks

Nuggets Acquire, Waive Mo Williams in Financially Motivated Deal

Updated Mar. 4, 2020 5:39 p.m. ET

Fansided, Kyle Standfield/FanSided via Nugg Love

According to Adrian Wojnarowski of The Vertical, the Denver Nuggets will acquire then immediately waive Atlanta Hawks guard Mo Williams in an astute financial deal for the franchise.

In the trade, the Nuggets will send the rights to Cenk Akyol to the Hawks and in return will receive Williams and cash.

Denver is then expected to waive Williams’ $2.2 million dollar contract in an effort to get closer to the NBA’s salary floor of $84.7 million.

Before the deal, the Nuggets were about $10 million below the leagues minimum spending requirements.

By rule, each NBA team must spend 90% of the total cap and failing to do so means the organisation must pay the difference to the players currently on its roster. In this case, if the Nuggets are to stay put and not make any more deals, they then must equally distribute approximately $7.8 million dollars amongst the 15 players on the roster.

Basically, the Nuggets must find a way to spend $84.7 million dollars on player salaries this season, be it by trading for contracts like the Nuggets have done in this instance with Williams, or by distributing the remaining amount owed amongst the players on the roster at season end.

The deal can be looked at as a win-win for everyone involved. Denver gets closer to the salary floor, Atlanta get to shed Mo Williams’ contract and the veteran point guard can now sign as a free agent (assuming he clears waivers), with a team that requires his services.

Overall, this trade won’t impact have any major impact on the team. It was a financially motivated deal that assists the Nuggets behind-the-scenes rather than on the court.

God luck, Mo Williams. We hardly knew you.