Two former Tennessee basketball players were dealt at the NBA trade deadline on Thursday afternoon.
After buzz continued to build over the last week, the Dallas Mavericks executed a trade on Thursday that will send VFL Grant Williams, guard Seth Curry, and a first-round draft pick to the Charlotte Hornets in exchange for former Kentucky forward P.J. Washington, according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski.
Williams will be the fifth SEC player on the Hornets’ squad alongside Kentucky’s Nick Richards, Alabama’s Brandon Miller, Arkansas’ Nick Smith Jr., and Auburn’s J.T. Thor.
In his first season with the Mavericks, Williams is averaging 8.1 points per game in 47 games played this season. While Williams hasn’t necessarily regressed from a statistical standpoint going from Boston to Dallas, those around the Mavericks had a belief that Williams would take a significant step forward playing alongside Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving. The former Vol standout is also averaging 3.6 rebounds per game and 1.7 assists per game this season.
Though he was born in Houston, TX, Williams will return to his hometown of Charlotte, N.C., to play for the Hornets.
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The Boston Celtics, Williams’ previous team before the Mavericks, are bringing another Tennessee Vol into the organization. According to Wojnarowski on Thursday, the Celtics acquired former Vol Jaden Springer from the Philadephia 76ers in exchange for a second-round pick.
Springer leaves Tobias Harris as the only former Tennessee player on the Sixers’ roster but joins Florida’s Al Horford, Vanderbilt’s Luke Kornet, and Arkansas’ Jordan Walsh as former SEC players in Boston.
After being selected with the 28th overall pick in the 2021 NBA Draft, the former one-and-done Volunteer only played a handful of minutes in 18 games across his first two seasons, mainly coming as an injury replacement or rotational piece for resting players. The young guard has had more time to shine in 2023-2024, though. Springer is averaging 4.0 points per game this season over 32 contests with an average of 11.8 minutes played per game.
The 6-foot-4 guard has been looking for an offensive spark to his game here in year three but has kept himself afloat in the league thanks to a solid defensive presence on the court.
