Reports Are Swirling That The Mavs Traded Grant Williams In Part Because He Switched From Wearing Luka's Signature Shoe To Jayson Tatum's

Eric Espada. Getty Images.

When the Mavs forked over a 4/53M contract to bring in Grant Williams this summer, my guess is they figured he would be the perfect type of stretch 4 to play next to Luka. A guy who had shown the ability to space the floor, especially from the corners, and someone who has had his moments guarding a wide variety of positions to a certain degree of success.

Unfortunately, the signing was a disaster. The shooting didn't exactly carry over (41/37%), the defense looked a whole lot more like 2022-23 Grant who was objectively terrible on that end, and yesterday the Mavs pulled the plug on this experiment, shipping Grant to the Charlotte Hornets in favor of PJ Washington.

As is the case with most trades, now that a guy is gone we start to get all these little nuggets of how their team truly felt about them and I have to say, the nuggets around Grant are very funny

What's surprising here is did the Mavs not watch a single second of Grant while he was on the Celtics? There's a reason everyone from Jaylen to Tatum to Deuce bullied this guy

It's all in good fun, but Grant is talkative guy. It takes some time to get used to if we're being honest, and it's clear the Mavs had no idea who he was as a player or person before bringing him in. So to hear he "rubbed people the wrong way", I mean what even is that? So he complains a lot to officials and jokes around. Last time I checked, nobody complains to the officials more than Luka. 

That part is mostly whatever though. I'm sure the same could be said about his time in Boston too. What makes this reporting funny is the sneaker tidbit.

It's notable that Grant switched from Luka's shoe back to Tatum's shoe? And THAT played a role in trading a player? Woof. Is Luka really that sensitive? Is the franchise really that sensitive? It's perfectly OK to trade and move on from Grant William for basketball reasons, there's plenty of evidence that suggests the Mavs are better for it. But to cry about what shoes he wears because it's the Tatum's is very funny. 

I had to check that tweet a few times to make sure it was actually real because honestly, it feels more like a troll account tweet than anything else. It's so random that the more I think about it, the more I feel like it has to be true. Given the whole Luka vs Tatum discourse that exists, it's very believable that Luka and the team would get all bent out of shape about something like this. It's pathetic and extremely embarrassing if true, but it's not a crazy idea. 

The best part is, Grant isn't the only Mav who wears Tatum's shoe! Tim Hardaway Jr also rocks Tatum's shoes as well, but maybe because he's not as bad as Grant at basketball it's OK? The whole thing is very confusing.

Now, to be fair, we also have to consider the source. It's no secret that Tim MacMahon and the Mavs have their issues, especially Luka, and these two did just have a little back and forth about a week ago after MacMahon tweeted that Luka got a Suns fan tossed for chirping

Advertisement

So with that in mind, maybe that shoe comment is actually a little bit of bullshit, but I'm choosing to believe it because I could absolutely see Luka crying over something so ridiculous as what shoes a teammate is wearing. 

I dunno man, maybe make a better shoe?