Nets take flier on former top-10 pick Ziaire Williams in trade with Grizzlies

The Nets are adding a former lottery pick to their rebuilding squad.

In a cost-cutting move by the Grizzlies, the Nets are acquiring small forward Ziaire Williams, the 10th overall pick in the 2021 draft.

Brooklyn also will receive a 2030 second-round pick via Dallas in the deal, while sending forward/center Mamadi Diakite and the draft rights to 31-year-old Serbian forward Nemanja Dangubic to Memphis.

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Diakite had been included as salary filler from the Knicks in the Mikal Bridges blockbuster trade earlier this month.

Williams, who will earn $6.1 million in the final season of his rookie contract in 2024-25, averaged 8.2 points and shot just 30.7 percent from 3-point range in 20.4 minutes per game over 51 appearances last year for the Grizzlies.

The 22-year-old Stanford product is eligible for a rookie extension until Oct. 21.

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Williams didn’t play after March 2 because of a lower back injury and a hip flexor strain, and he also missed time earlier in the year with a hand issue.

Memphis was looking to shed salary to stay under the first luxury-tax apron of the salary cap; Diakite is slated to make $2.27 million this season after appearing in just six NBA games in 2023-24 — three apiece with the Spurs and the Knicks.

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The Nets had a $9.5 million trade exception available after sending veteran Royce O’Neale to the Suns in February.

The Nets also took back Bojan Bogdanovic and Shake Milton in the Bridges deal for salary-matching purposes, along with five first-round picks (four unprotected) and a future unprotected first-round swap from the Knicks.

Speaking after the Bridges deal was announced, Nets general manager Sean Marks said he doesn’t believe the team’s rebuilding phase will be a lengthy one.

“This build, do I think it’s going to take time? I mean, I think we’ll be strategic in it,” Marks said July 8. “But I do think being in this market, with this amount of draft assets, we’ve done it before.

“And so again, I think, not that it’s going to be expedited by any means, but I don’t think it’s a long process, either.”

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