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SALT LAKE CITY — Nigel Williams-Goss won't start his post-Gonzaga career with the Utah Jazz, or even in the United States.
Instead, he signed a two-year deal with Serbian club KK Partizan to "further his development," Williams-Goss announced in a series of tweets Monday morning.
International basketball reporter David Pick says Williams-Goss will be paid $130K to play for KK Partizan, with a $500K NBA out if the Jazz choose to bring him back to Utah in the summer of 2018.
In the tweets, Williams-Goss noted that he had an offer to go to training camp with the Jazz, but turned it down for the chance to sign a contract with Partizan. The NBA training camp offer would not have come with a guaranteed roster spot, but instead an opportunity to try to be one of the 15 players who make the squad at the beginning of the year. The Jazz already have 16 guaranteed contracts, so odds would have been slim for Williams-Goss.
Going overseas after being drafted does allow the Utah Jazz to keep Williams-Goss' NBA rights. Those would have been lost had the Jazz signed him to a training camp deal, then waived him, even if Williams-Goss had decided to go to the Salt Lake City Stars in the G League. That's the scenario former North Carolina point guard Marcus Paige faced last season. Paige has now been signed by the Charlotte Hornets for a two-way contract after an up-and-down season with the Stars.
Williams-Goss was named to the All-American Second Team after a quality season with Gonzaga, leading the Bulldogs to the NCAA national championship game. But he struggled mightily in summer league, averaging only 4.4 points (on 23.8 percent shooting) in over 20 minutes per game of play. Williams-Goss did average 3.1 assists per game but turned the ball over frequently (3.4 turnovers per game) in his seven summer league contests.
