Coveted sharpshooter and breakout star of the Dallas Mavericks: Golden State Warriors pull off double coup

The Golden State Warriors have completed their squad planning and have struck twice again in terms of arrivals.

The Warriors handed Brandon Williams and Georges Niang one-year deals in quick succession. Williams is set to earn $2.6 million with the Warriors going forward. That looks a bargain after his breakout 2025/26 season with the Dallas Mavericks.

The 26-year-old averaged 13.0 points, 3.9 assists and 2.9 rebounds across 66 games in 22.2 minutes, while shooting 47.2 per cent from the field. The previous season, he had managed only 8.3 points and 2.3 assists in 33 games.

After entering the league in 2021 as an undrafted free agent, Williams found a new home with the New York Knicks' G League team. He then made his case for a bigger role with an average of 17.7 points before joining the Portland Trail Blazers, where he played 24 games in the 2021/22 season and impressed with 12.9 points, 37.2 FG%, 3.1 rebounds and 3.9 assists.

Coveted sharpshooter: Niang missed the entire NBA season

Even so, after his release in October 2022, more than a year passed before the Mavs spotted him and gave him a two-way contract. After setting a new career-high of 31 points against the Memphis Grizzlies in March 2025, he landed his first longer-term NBA deal. Once he became a free agent, the Warriors moved quickly and wrapped up the next deal with Niang.

Niang, 33, missed the entire previous season with a long-term foot injury, but the Utah Jazz still traded him as part of the spectacular move involving Jaren Jackson Jr. to the Memphis Grizzlies, who then released him.

Now recovered, Niang was seen as a sought-after free agent because of his undeniable quality as a sharpshooter. Over the course of his career, he has hit just under 40 per cent of his shots from downtown, so the Warriors' thinking is obvious.

Nor is this a completely unfamiliar stop for Niang. In 2017, he spent time in the Warriors' training camp and then briefly joined the Santa Cruz Warriors' G League team.

For the time being, this double signing has filled the Warriors' final roster spot, so squad planning now appears to be complete.