NBA free agency opens at 5 p.m. CT Tuesday, and the Dallas Mavericks have two of their own free agents drawing interest from rival teams. Guard Brandon Williams and big man Marvin Bagley III are each unrestricted, each coming off a productive run in Dallas, and each has surfaced as a target elsewhere.
How the front office handles the two will be among its first orders of business once negotiating begins.
Brandon Williams’ Market
Williams is the first. After beginning his career in Portland (where current Mavericks general manager Mike Schmitz was serving as an assistant GM), Williams has played three seasons in Dallas.
Williams is coming off a career-best season in which he averaged 13 points and 3.9 assists across 66 games and 15 starts. That production has earned him interest from myriad teams, according to Michael Scotto of HoopsHype.
An unrestricted free agent, Williams is expected to receive attention from the Phoenix Suns, Golden State Warriors and Boston Celtics. The Mavericks have also signalled that they’d like to retain Williams, holding Early Bird Rights on the 6-foot-1 guard.
Dallas is relatively thin at guard, with Kyrie Irving returning from a torn ACL he sustained in March of 2025. Behind Irving, the Mavericks have incoming sophomore Ryan Nembhard, AJ Johnson and new rookie Sergio De Larrea. With that rotation, Williams’ experience could be valuable.
Marvin Bagley III’s Market
Bagley is Dallas’ other free agent receiving interest from other teams. The 27-year-old big man played 22 games with the Mavericks after being acquired in February’s Anthony Davis trade with the Washington Wizards.
In those games, Bagley averaged 11 points and 6.8 rebounds on 60.6% field goal shooting and 48.5% from three, although the latter was on just 1.5 attempts per game. No specific teams were mentioned in Scotto’s report, but he did note that Bagley “is expected to draw interest from several teams and command an average annual salary in the taxpayer mid-level exception range or slightly higher”.
At that price, Dallas may be interested in retaining Bagley. The Mavericks drafted more frontcourt depth in Morez Johnson Jr., which would theoretically make Bagley replaceable, but with questions looming over Dereck Lively II and Daniel Gafford, he could be worth a cheap gamble.
Lively has only played 43 games over the past two seasons and is still recovering from his latest injury. As for Gafford, injuries limited him to just 55 games last season and he has been linked to trade rumors throughout the offseason.
Time will tell whether Dallas chooses to retain Williams and Bagley or let the two walk to reshape the roster.
