Hawks general manager Rick Sund wouldn’t comment on the negotiations Wednesday, but Williams told the AJC via text he would be in Atlanta next week for face-to-face talks.
The Hawks are believed to have offered a contract worth $37.5 million over five seasons, with incentives that could push the package as high as $40 million. As a restricted free agent, Williams could have accepted the Hawks’ qualifying offer of $7.5 million and become an unrestricted free agent in July 2010.
The Hawks are believed to have offered a contract worth $37.5 million over five seasons, with incentives that could push the package as high as $40 million. As a restricted free agent, Williams could have accepted the Hawks’ qualifying offer of $7.5 million and become an unrestricted free agent in July 2010.
Should Williams re-sign, the Hawks will have locked up a 23-year-old who averaged 13.9 points last season and is still regarded as a developing talent. They would also have retained three of their four key free agents — Mike Bibby and Zaza Pachulia have re-signed; Flip Murray hasn’t — and added guard Jamal Crawford in the same offseason.
With Williams back in the fold, the Hawks would enter the 2009-10 season having kept seven of the top eight players from a team that won 47 games, finished fourth in the NBA’s Eastern Conference and advanced to the second round of the playoffs for the first time in 10 years.
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