THURSDAY, 11:07am: The Blazers have officially signed Williams, the team announced today in a press release.
WEDNESDAY, 1:14pm: The Trail Blazers have reached an agreement on a contract with free agent guard Mo Williams, according to Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports (via Twitter). It'll be a two-year deal worth about $5.6MM, tweets Wojnarowski, while Ken Berger of CBS Sports.com adds (via Twitter) that the second year will be a player option. ESPN.com's Jeff Goodman reported earlier this afternoon that Williams was expected to make his decision as soon as today.
Williams' decision comes as something of a surprise, since the Blazers hadn't been linked to the veteran in recent weeks — the Grizzlies, Heat, and Knicks had been viewed as a few of his primary suitors. Portland also has plenty of backcourt depth already, with Damian Lillard starting at the point and Wesley Matthews at the two. Earl Watson, C.J. McCollum, Terrel Harris, Allen Crabbe, Will Barton, and even Dorell Wright can also play one or both guard positions.
Still, considering the bench was Portland's Achilles heel last year, adding another veteran contributor like Williams to the rotation can't be a bad thing. I'd assume his deal will actually be closer to $5.42MM for two years, since the team is capped out. If the 30-year-old agreed to sign for the room exception, he'll earn about $2.65MM in 2013/14, with an option worth about $2.77MM for the following season.
In 2012/13 with the Jazz, Williams started all 46 games he played for the team, averaging 12.9 PPG and 6.2 APG to go along with shooting percentages of .430/.383/.882. The Blazers will be the fifth team Williams has played for in his NBA career. The 10-year veteran also had two stints in Utah to go along with stops with the Bucks, Cavs, and Clippers.
The agreement with Williams looks like bad news for Harris, who is on a non-guaranteed deal and facing a drug-related suspension. Williams will be Portland's 16th player under contract, so Harris appears to be the odd man out for when the team finalizes its 15-man roster. Teams can carry up to 20 players during the offseason, so he doesn't need to be cut quite yet, but it'd be a surprise if Harris was on Portland's opening night roster.