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GM Billy King: Buying out Deron Williams lets Nets ‘reshuffle the deck’

LAS VEGAS — The Nets traded for Deron Williams in 2011, then re-signed him in 2012, with the expectation he would be the face of a championship contending team.

The decision to buyout the final two years of the point guard’s contract was an admission that plan had run its course, and a new direction was necessary.

“I don’t think it was just, ‘he had to go.’ … I think it was just where we are as an organization,” Nets general manager Billy King said Saturday before a 76-75 summer league victory over the Cavaliers. “We’re not in the same place we were before, so it was a chance to reshuffle the deck.