OT: Cavs close to landing Mo Williams?

[LongLiveHinkie]

According to NBA sources, Bucks guard Mo Williams could soon be headed to Cleveland as part of a three-team trade. Oklahoma City's Luke Ridnour would likely go to Milwaukee, and Cleveland could include Delonte West via sign-and-trade and/or send Joe Smith's expiring $4.8 million contract to OKC.
Williams has five years and $43 million remaining on his contract, which the Bucks appear ready to shed -- it's less of a gamble after watching Ramon Sessions average 11.5 points, 4.9 rebounds and 11.3 assists in the final 10 games of last season. Meanwhile, Ridnour's departure would clear the way for the ascension of Russell Westbrook in the OKC backcourt. It sounds like a no-brainer for the Cavs, who sacrifice future cap space for an explosive scorer at PG, but keep in mind this is all speculative until the contracts are signed.

I'm not the biggest Mo Williams fan, but he should help them. They still lack a true PG IMO even if this deal gets done. But Mo can score, so it looks like the east may get a little bit tougher.

[The Guilty Party]

Do you have a link to this?

I like Milwaukee's end of this. Moving Mo Williams and his ridiculous contract for Ridnour is a solid deal for them.

[bebopdeluxe]

I agree, TGP. You want to talk about a bad contract - Mo WIlliams certainly has one.

Frankly, given regular minutes, I don't see West giving that much up relative to WIlliams. Better defender. Can play the 1 or 2. Good outside stroke. Runs the floor well.

If I had to choose between Mo WIlliams and his salary and West for the MLE, I take West.

[The Guilty Party]

Here is Mo Williams' contract...

08-09: $8.3 MIL
09-10: $8.8 MIL
10-11: $9.3 MIL
11-12: $8.5 MIL
12-13: $8.5 MIL (Player Option)

Here is Ridnour's deal...

08-09: $6.5 MIL
09-10: $6.5 MIL

Gimme Ridnour.

[Sandalf42]

I don;t understand how that's a bad contract. The dude is a 17/7 PG. Is his defense really that bad?

[LongLiveHinkie]

http://blogs.jsonline.com/bucks/archive ... trade.aspx

[The Guilty Party]

1) Like most of the Buck players, his defense is that bad

2) He averaged 6.3 assists last season so he's not exactly a 17/7 guy

3) I wouldn't call his contract terrible.... but it's a deal that isn't all that great to me. Unless he ends up on a team with three superstar players, I don't think Mo Williams will the PG of any team that goes on to win anything and if that's the case, give me the better contract.

[Skates]

If OKC takes Smith's expiring contract they would be the winners here by adding cap space and clearing out a guy they won't play any way in Ridnour. For the Bucks and Cavs these are running in place moves. Mo Williams is nothing special as a PG and I agree with TGP that he is not a PG on a winning team. Ridnour might do better with a change of scenery, but at this point he might never be better than a back-up. Cleveland keeps slapping band-aid players on that team in BK like fashion. Odds of LBJ staying in Cleveland after 2010 are probably below 25% at this point and rapidly sinking.

[The Guilty Party]

I agree, Skates, which is why I like the move for the Bucks. If a move doesn't do much for your team or take away from it's chances of winning anything... then you better come out on the better side of things from a financial standpoint and they do. I don't think Ridnour is anything special and probably is a back-up PG on a good team but then again, I strongly believe that Mo Williams will only be a good PG on a bad team... that makes sense to me.

[sixerswillrule]

This is definitely a good trade for the Cavs. They desperately need some more scoring help for LeBron, and Williams gives them that. He is a better scorer/shooter than West.

[geiger]

Williams is a very good offensive player, a decent PG, and a top flight shooter. His contract is fine on the right team. Cavs would be one such team, where he would get plenty of open looks courtesy of Z down low and LeBron on the wings. He can easily put up 17 and 6 on the Cavs, while shooting close to 50% from the field and 40% from 3.

However, this deal is just a rumor of a three way trade at this point. It's not even clear who would be moved in order to make the salaries match up - or why Oklahoma would want Delonte West back after dealing him last season.

[cavsfan_osiris]

Mo Williams' contract is not awful at all. It's looking better and better with what guys are getting now. Ben Udrih just got the full MLE for 5 years. Mo Williams is head over heels a better player than him.

Would acquiring Mo Williams make the Cavs a better team than Philly? Not in my opinion right now before seeing this new Philly team play, but it would be a step in the right direction. If the Cavs do nothing they are toast to start this season. Philly would have been hell to handle for any team in the East last season without Elton Brand. If Brand is healthy they are going to do more than raise hell.

They can always test teams in the post-season by slowing the pace of a game down and having LeBron play 48 minutes and force his way to rim every possession on offense, but in the regular season the Cavs team as constructed now is not a very good one. If the Cavs want to win a championship they've got to put together a roster than can compete for the #1 spot in the East. They are not close to that right now.

[The Guilty Party]

Mo Williams' contract is not awful at all. It's looking better and better with what guys are getting now. Ben Udrih just got the full MLE for 5 years. Mo Williams is head over heels a better player than him.

LOL! How bad is Mo Williams' contract? So bad that the only way to make it look somewhat appealing is to compare it to one of the worst contracts given out this summer. I'm not saying Williams is a bad player or that he won't make the Cavs a better team. In fact, I like the trade from the Cavs POV as well since they would be moving West and Smith for him. I just like the deal from the Bucks POV a little more.

[bebopdeluxe]

cavsfan:

It seems to me that what the Cavs need is an Andre Miller-like PG...a traditional PG who runs the offense, gets everybody involved...and then gets the hell out of the way at crunchtime for LBJ. Williams certainly will provide more offense than West, but when you get to the grind-it-out pace of the postseason, will a better defender and more traditional, run-the-set-offense PG be a better fit than Mo WIlliams?

I don't know.

And then, when you factor in that Williams is owed something close to $45 million for the next 5 years, that seems like some serious coin to me. You probably watched West more than I did last season...I thought that he did a pretty decent job for you guys, and I'm still trying to figure out why you guys feel the need to spend almost 2x what you could sign West for to get Williams and his contract.

If you want to say that neither guy takes you to a title, I'm fine with that...I just don't see Williams' game being 60-70% better than West's game (which is the easy salary differential between the two).

[geiger]

Andre Miller can't shoot and the Cavs absolutely do not need a classic PG. They need a guy who is a dead eye spot up shooter. LeBron James handles the ball more than any other player on that team and it's crazy to take the ball out of his hands. Teams with star player rarely have that classic PG because the star gets the ball. The Bulls ran with John Paxon and BJ Armstrong (later Ron Harper)- both shooters and not traditional PGs, the Lakers went with Derrick Fisher and Harper - ditto. Houston had Kenny Smith at the tail end of his career and he primarly brought the ball across half court, passed it off and ran to spot up.

West is not a pure PG. Williams for all his flaws as a distributor, is a pure PG. He's a worse defender than West, but it's not even close as to who is a better offensive player and better shooter.

And Cavs with Williams (and possibly without) are still a better team than the Sixers. LeBron covers up for a lot of mistakes. He's the best player in the game today. If Wade is healthy, maybe he gives him some competition, but otherwise, LeBron is the man.

[The Guilty Party]

LeBron is the man.... I don't think that's the question. In fact, I don't think there really should be much a question about who the better PG is between Williams and West or Williams and Ridnour. All I am saying is that I don't believe Mo Williams is a championship level PG. The addition of him to the Cavs is a step in the right direction but time is of the essence in Cleveland and so Danny Ferry had better do a helluva lot better if he wants LeBron to stay past 2010 than bring in players like a washed up Ben Wallace, a washed up Wally, and a 2nd rate PG in Mo Williams.

Is Mo Williams a top 15 PG in the NBA?

IN NO PARTICULAR ORDER
1. Chris Paul
2. Deron Williams
3. Steve Nash
4. Jason Kidd
5. Gilbert Arenas
6. Andre Miller
7. Tony Parker
8. Baron Davis
9. Jose Calderon
10. ??????

After that, I think it's a toss up on any given day between Mo Williams and the field which includes Mike Bibby, TJ Ford, Rajon Rondo, Devin Harris, Kirk Hinrich, and Mike Conley. Also, I would probably take Derrick Rose and Russell Westbrook over Williams but they haven't played a single game yet.

Again though... Williams is definitely better than what they have now so I think this is a good deal for the Cavs... just not the move that makes them better than Detroit or Boston.

[LongLiveHinkie]

TGP, I don't think Kidd is better than Miller at this point in his career. I think Kidd is done.

[Dedicated_76ers_fan]

I like the deal from Milwaukee's side. I think it's stupid from Cleveland's side.

For Milwaukee: This is a transition into Ramon Sessions, the PG phenom out of the second round. He's waited patiently for his chance to play and when he got it, he took advantage of it ALA Jose Calderon. Wait for this man to rack up big NBA bucks. Not only do they get about 8 Mill in expirings but they get Ridnour, who only expires 1 year(or is it 2?) after Smith and Jones expire.

For Cleveland: They used to brag about their 20M expirings. Not that it would probably get them under the cap, but it was great trade assets. They used some of that money, and traded a young PG for 27/28 yr old Mo Williams...Needless to say, this move was a wasted one and it's proof of Danny Ferry's god awful tenure.

[psykosacul]

wiretap says deal is done...

i dont think it matters that mo's contract is a little overpriced because the cavs gave up very little player wise and got a starting pg better than what they had.

they have to provide lebron with a commitment to putting talent around him. losing joe smith, and damon jones, and overpaying mo williams means nothing. convincing lebron to stay means everything

[IggyTheBEaST]

good trade for everyone, great for sonics.