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Utah Jazz general manager Kevin O’Connor announced today that the team has acquired forward Marvin Williams from the Atlanta Hawks in exchange for guard Devin Harris, pending the outcome of physicals.
Williams (6-9, 245, North Carolina) is entering his eighth NBA season and has played in 487 career games (379 starts), all with Atlanta, owning career averages of 11.5 points, 5.3 rebounds and 1.3 assists in 30.4 minutes. He helped the Hawks advance to the playoffs for the last five seasons, appearing in 42 playoff games (27 starts), after the franchise had failed to make the postseason the previous eight years. Williams saw action in 57 games (37 starts) for the Hawks in 2011-12, averaging 10.2 points, 5.2 rebounds and 1.2 assists in 26.3 minutes while shooting a career-high .389 (58-149) from three-point range. He averaged double-figure scoring for the sixth straight season, posting 32 games with 10-plus points including 20-plus twice, and registered two double-doubles.
Originally selected by the Hawks in the first-round (second overall) of the 2005 NBA Draft, Williams was selected to the NBA’s 2006 All-Rookie Second Team. He was also a two-time recipient (2008, 2011) of the Hawks’ Jason Collier Memorial Trophy for his work as a community ambassador.
Prior to the NBA, the 26-year-old Bremerton, Wash., native played one season at the University of North Carolina (2004-05), where he was a member of the Tar Heels’ 2005 NCAA Championship team. Williams’ tip-in with 1:26 remaining in the 2005 NCAA title game vs. Illinois broke a 70-70 tie, propelling UNC to a 75-70 victory. He earned ACC Rookie of the Year honors and was a unanimous selection to the ACC All-Freshman Team in his lone college season.
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An eight-year veteran, Harris’ tenure in Utah consisted of 80 games after he was traded by the Nets (along with Derrick Favors and other considerations) on February 23, 2011. He helped lead the Jazz to the first round of the playoffs before they were eliminated in four games by Dallas. In 63 games this year, Harris tallied 11.3 points and 5.0 assists, and made 44.5% of his FG attempts while shooting 75 percent from the free throw line.
Selected as a reserve on the Eastern Conference’s All-Star team in 2009, Atlanta will be Harris’ fourth team since coming into the NBA in 2004. Picked fifth overall by Washington, he was traded to Dallas on draft night and played three and a half seasons for the Mavericks before he was traded to New Jersey on February 19, 2008.
In three-plus seasons with the Nets, Harris’ career numbers continued to improve, topped by a personal-best 21.3 ppg average in 2008-09. It was the fifth straight season in which his scoring totals increased, to go along with career highs in rebounds (3.3 rpg) and steals (1.6 spg). Harris brings career averages of 13.1 points, 5.0 assists, 2.4 rebounds and 1.2 steals to Atlanta, and he has connected on .441 FG%, .315 3FG% and 80.1 percent of his FTs.
