Nuggets acquire, waive Mo Williams, get closer to salary floor

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In a financially motivated move to get closer to the salary cap floor, the Denver Nuggets acquired and then waived guard Mo Williams from the Atlanta Hawks, in exchange for the rights to 2005 second-round draft pick Cenk Akyol, according to The Vertical’s Adrian Wojnarowski.

Williams, 34, had surgery to remove bone spurs from the joint of the tibia and fibula in his left leg on Oct. 12 and has yet to appear in a game this season. The Cleveland Cavaliers, who Williams started the season with, announced on the first day of training camp this fall that Williams was retired but the veteran never filed his retirement paperwork. Williams was traded from the Cavaliers to the Atlanta Hawks in the deal that sent Kyle Korver to Cleveland earlier this month.

The Nuggets, who sat approximately $10 million below the NBA’s salary cap floor before the move, now take on Williams’ $2.2 million salary for this season. Denver now has $7.66 million to shed to get to the salary cap floor. If a team is not at the floor by the end of the season, they pay out the difference to their players. The deal reportedly netted the Nuggets approximately $1 million in savings and undisclosed cash considerations that Atlanta sent as a sweetener in the deal, according to Wojnarowski.

With Williams accounted for, Denver has approximately $77 million committed in salary this season. The salary cap for the 2016-17 season is $94.1 million, meaning the floor, which is 90 percent of the cap, is $84.7 million. Expect another financial motivated move or two, similar to the Williams transaction unless the Nuggets are able to take on a larger contract and a player they want to keep, before season’s end.