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June 19, 2015Cleveland Indians sign first-round pick Brady Aiken
June 19, 2015Prepare the Godfather music and “goosey” three-point celebrations: Mo Williams is interested in re-joining the Cavs. The soon-to-be free agent point guard, who finished last season with the Charlotte Hornets after being traded by the Minnesota Timberwolves, is “more than interested” in coming back to Cleveland, according to NEOMG’s Chris Haynes.
The Cavaliers have an obvious need for a ball-handler capable of creating scoring opportunities for themselves and others. There’s a candidate exceedingly intrigued with potentially filling that void.
Soon-to-be unrestricted free agent point guard Mo Williams is “more than interested” in making a return to Cleveland, sources close to the guard informed Northeast Ohio Media Group. … Williams is seeking a multiyear deal and the Cavaliers and Hornets are two of the teams at the top of his wish list, a source revealed.
Williams played two seasons with the Cavaliers from 2008-10, making an All-Star appearance during his stay, before being dealt to the Los Angeles Clippers in the deal that ultimately netted Cleveland point guard Kyrie Irving.
Given the Cavaliers current payroll situation, the team would be very limited in what they could offer Williams (or any free agent), but if the past season has shown us anything it’s that veterans may be willing to play for less in order to play well in to the month of June. Will the team make Mo Gotti an offer he can’t refuse? It depends. The Cavs are a lock to exceed the salary cap to re-sign their own free agents — headlined by LeBron James, who is widely expected to opt out of his current deal — which means that the only means they will have to sign Williams are the taxpayer mid-level exception (about $3.4 million) and the veteran’s minimum.
Williams averaged 12.2 points with the Minnesota Timberwolves prior to being move to Charlotte where he averaged 17.2 points per game in place of an injured Kemba Walker. The long-time guard fits the bill of a floor-spacing play-maker, a term used frequently by general manager David Griffin on Thursday afternoon. And if any city digs nostalgia, it’s Cleveland.
15 Comments
No Show Mo?
The same dude that soiled his pantaloons under playoff pressure.
NO.
For the vet’s minimum? Yes, I’d take him back. Mid level – eh, maybe.
But he was the #2 or 3 guy back then. I wouldn’t worry about him as much as an off-the-bench, 5th or 6th option. (very similar to JR’s sitchu)
On this team he’d be like an 8/9th option. Plus I’d look for them to add via trade (or draft) as well. We could potentially have the depth of GS next year – 10 deep (with no need to play Miller, Jones, Perkins, Marion ever again)
It’s so weird that Mo Williams is only 32 years old. It feels like he’s almost at retirement age rather than tail-end of prime. He’s older than what David Griffin said he was looking for as a playmaker, but I’d be very interested in Mo for the right price (i.e. veteran’s minimum or maybe the taxpayer mid-level exception). Veteran’s minimum for next season will be about $1.5M and taxpayer mid-level will be about $3.4M.
Looks like the Bobcats signed him using only a portion of the non-taxpayer mid-level exception, so they gave him 3.75M this year. The Cavs will certainly be over the cap, so they can only use the taxpayer mid-level exception (about $2M less than the non-taxpayer). So this is a long way of saying, the taxpayer mid-level that the Cavs will have available sounds about right for Mo Williams. A year’s worth of age decline resulting in a salary that is $374,000 lower than his salary this past season.
Mo
http://nbabreakingnews.blogspot.com/2015/06/mo-williams-interested-in-returning-to.html
No Mo.
not exactly. Kyrie gets hurt every year, so at some point he’s a starting PG who doesn’t handle the ball particularly well, has a jumper that dies a little in the moment and makes Kyrie look like an all-defense selection. I’d rather have a dependable blah guy than Mo.
Ahh, so he can disappear for 10 minutes a game instead of 30.
Thats some good money
I’d rather have Norris Cole.
I like Mo as a backup PG, but probably only at the veterans minimum. If he was two years younger, maybe the MLE, but not now. Then again, the Cavs clearly need a backup guard who can handle the ball and create, and there may not be an abundance of them on the market. I like Delly as much as the next guy, but the Cavs still need to upgrade offensively at that position.
I have to respectfully disagree with how much of a difference the role is going to be versus the last time he was here. His dying down was overexaggerated based on just how good he was all season in ’09.
And we’re talking about the 8/9th guy in the rotation here. I don’t think you’ll find much better value to find a 10-12 ppg scorer for $3.5 million or less. Even with his defensive shortcomings, you can hide one guy most of the time. He can’t play with Kyrie, but that’s about it.
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