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21
When Brian Windhorst types, the world reads. Windhorst broke news yesterday that the Bucks, Cavs, and Sonics pulled off a deal that sent Mo Williams to Cleveland, Luke Ridnour, Damon Jones, and Adrian Griffin to Milwaukee and Desmond Mason and Joe Smith to Oklahoma City. Here’s what they’re saying out in the ether about the three-way switch …
Le Cavs!:
"Batman has his next Robin, and his name is Mo Williams. Is this a case
of one player single-handedly killing a team to the point that they
trade for him? Probably. After the Larry Hughes debacle, I think we
need to pace ourselves before going out and declaring the things yet to
come. … Have I waited long enough? … CHAMPIONSHIP! In the bag. Mo
Williams will be perfect on the Cavs. Delonte can be our combo guard.
Sasha or (pre-trade) Wally can be our big guard. Boobie can be a
specialist. And Lebron James can actually play off the ball against a
real defense. Hallelujah for that!"
YAYsports!:
"How in the world are the Danny Ferry haters going to bash him on this
one? He gets rid of Damon Jones and Joe Smith for Mo Williams, a young
scoring PG who is, quite frankly, perfect to put next to LeBron James.
(We don’t mourn the loss of Smith — he’s a nice solid vet, but
replaceable.) Just a few weeks ago, we were all slightly angsty about
why the Cavs couldn’t get in on one of these sweet garbage-for-good
deals with a team looking to dump some salary. And now they’ve done it.
Finally, finally, finally, finally, finally."
Ziller, FanHouse: "This deal kills the chance to sign a big free agent outright next summer: the Cavs will go into July ‘09 over the cap and roughly $10 million away from the luxury tax (assuming Delonte West is not re-signed). Even trading a big contract like Zydrunas Ilgauskas for cap space (unlikely, given that Ben Wallace has no pulse) wouldn’t help enough to land a Carlos Boozer or Shawn Marion on the open market. Any major improvements in the Cavs 2009-10 roster — the season prior to LeBron James’ free agency — will have to come via trade. Luckily, Cleveland has kept some pieces worthy of deadline bidding."
Ryne Nelson, SLAM Online: "Cleveland gave-up essentially nothing for a young, talented point guard — a position at which they were clearly lacking last season. Williams is known to dominate the ball at times. However, he’s now playing with LeBron. If Cleveland can parlay Wally Szczerbiak’s expiring contract by February’s trade deadline, the Cavs might be poised for another run to the Finals. The question now moves to whether the Cavs will retain Delonte West. Since Cleveland’s second-round elimination, West’s camp and Cavs management have been not-so-quietly feuding over what constitutes a ‘fair’ contract. Could a trade for J.R. Smith still be in the works?"
Brew Hoop: "Acquiring two point guards for Williams leaves the Bucks with a logjam in the backcourt — Ramon Sessions, Tyronn Lue, Jones, and Ridnour would all be battling for time. And if the Francisco Elson signing still happens as expected then the Bucks would be at the maximum roster size of 15. That might suggest the Bucks aren’t done dealing, but in moving Williams and Mason’s expiring deal they now only have Charlie Villanueva left as an obvious trade chip — and they might be too thin at PF to deal him anyway. Meanwhile, Jones, Ridnour, and Griffin, cannot be traded with any other players for two months, but could be traded individually at any point. So hypothetically if Miami decided they wanted Luke Ridnour tomorrow, they could have him for Udonis Haslem straight up (not that I’m expecting that to happen)."
Cavs Board: "Maurice Williams, Daniel Gibson, and J.J. Hickson are the only guys on the roster who would definitely still be here past 2010. Adding Williams’ contract may be a concern to some, but it’s a justifiable risk if the Cavs feel they are close to competing for a title, or if they think that Williams strengths will fit well with this roster long-term. No team is going to be able build their squad so that every contract is off the books simultaneously, and Williams is making a lot of money on a long-term deal (5 years, $43 million remain), but he is only 25 years old. He will probably still be contributing throughout that term. The biggest risk in this deal was the financial part of it. Chemistry and injuries are secondary to that."
The Bratwurst: "The NBA mantra is that the team that gets the best player usually wins the trade. In that case, then Cleveland is the big winner here. But it’s a strange deal all around, and it makes some sense for the Bucks. […] Ridnour had a couple of good seasons for Seattle, but knee injuries have cost him chunks of the last couple of seasons. He does an okay job of managing games and has decent instincts. John Hollinger once wrote about him: "You couldn’t draw a better picture of what an average NBA point guard looks like." Honestly, as far as point guards go, I don’t really mind Ridnour. He should do a good job of spreading the ball around without throwing it away too much. I just hope his knees will allow him to hang on defensively. He’s paid $6.5 mil/year for two more seasons, and for 3/4 of the money due Mo Williams, Ridnour should offer about 3/4 of the production. He won’t win any games by himself the way Mo occasionally could, but he shouldn’t cost the team any wins either."
