Mo Williams Rumors | Hoops Rumors

Central Notes: Williams, Van Gundy, Dunleavy, Noah

January 10th, 2016 at 12:24pm CST by Arthur Hill

No one in the Cavaliers organization has corroborated Mo Williams‘ claim of a partially torn ligament in his right thumb, writes Chris Haynes of Cleveland.com. Williams announced the injury Friday after visiting with a hand specialist in New York. The team had called it a sprain and didn’t issue a release, which Haynes notes is customary with injuries of this type. Williams, who has undergone two prior surgeries on the thumb, said it should heal on its own within six weeks without another surgery. “It’s just peace of mind, knowing I didn’t rip it off or anything,” he said about the second diagnosis. “It’s just a little partial tear, no different from like when you sprain your ankle real bad.” The injury coincides with Williams’ loss of playing time since Kyrie Irving‘s return. Williams sat out his third straight game Friday in Minnesota.

There’s more from the Central Division:

The Pistons have improved by becoming a Stan Van Gundy team, according to Paul Flannery of SB Nation. Van Gundy built his kind of team over the past year, Flannery writes, trading for Reggie Jackson at last season’s deadline, dealing for Ersan Ilyasova and Marcus Morris and adding free agents Aron Baynes, Steve Blake and Anthony Tolliver over the summer and drafting Stanley Johnson. “It’s pretty clear what Stan wanted to do over the last 15, 16 months with spacing the floor with skilled fours,” Celtics coach Brad Stevens said. “When you think about how impactful Ilyasova and Tolliver are, it may not be on the stat sheet, it’s the fact that those rim runs are a little bit more open by those bigs and the guard driving. It just puts you in such a predicament.”
Bulls coach Fred Hoiberg says injured forward Mike Dunleavy is still about a month away from returning, tweets Nick Friedell of ESPN.com. Dunleavy has yet to play this season because of back problems.
Coach Jason Kidd, sidelined with a hip injury, joined the Bucks for a shootaround this morning at Madison Square Garden, tweets Charles F. Gardner of The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Kidd will meet with his doctor in New York tonight to have X-rays taken on the hip. The coach has been out of action since having surgery December 21st.

Cavs Notes: Cunningham, Harris, LeBron, Love

January 8th, 2016 at 1:48pm CST by Chuck Myron

The Cavaliers thought when the regular season began that they’d waive Jared Cunningham by Thursday, the final day they could release him without paying his full-season salary, but they made up their minds weeks ago to retain him, a source told Jason Lloyd of the Akron Beacon Journal. Still, the recent injury to Joe Harris posed an issue, Lloyd writes. The team would still like to somehow open a roster spot in advance of the trade deadline to provide flexibility for the post-deadline buyout market, Lloyd adds, suggesting that trading Harris, as the team has tried to do for weeks, is the only viable way of accomplishing that. The Cavs dodged a bullet today when Mo Williams said that he won’t require surgery on a partially torn ligament in his right thumb and that he’ll play through the injury as it heals over the next six weeks, tweets Chris Haynes of the Northeast Ohio Media Group and the Cleveland Plain Dealer. See more on the Cavs:

LeBron James didn’t mention Andrew Wiggins in his summer 2014 Sports Illustrated essay announcing the four-time MVP’s return to Cleveland because he simply wasn’t familiar with him, James recently told Michael Lee of Yahoo Sports. Many speculated that the omission was a signal that James wanted the Cavs to trade Wiggins for Kevin Love, a move the team ultimately made. “I didn’t know the kid, really,” James said of Wiggins. “I knew Dion [Waiters]. I knew Kyrie [Irving]. I knew Tristan [Thompson]. I knew all the guys that I was playing with before. I didn’t know the kid, so it wasn’t no big issue to me.”
Wiggins isn’t bitter, telling Lee in the same piece that the trade “put me in a better place.”
The max contract that Kevin Love signed this summer “gave me that little extra edge and push” to recover from the shoulder injury he suffered in the playoffs, Love said to Lee. The power forward’s primary desire in free agency was to remain in a winning situation, as he explained to James. “When I talked to him this summer and when he went over what he wanted, what he needed, the most important thing that came out of it was, ‘I just want to win. And I want to win at a high level because I went through too many losing seasons in Minnesota,’” James said to Lee. “And I said, ‘If that’s the case, we can figure out all that other stuff. If you want to win, we can figure out all that other stuff.’ And he’s been unbelievable from that point on.”

Cavs Notes: Williams, Jefferson, Smith, Shumpert

January 3rd, 2016 at 9:00am CST by Arthur Hill

Having a healthy roster for the first time in more than a year is cutting into the playing time of some Cavaliers veterans, writes Jason Lloyd of The Akron Beacon-Journal. It’s a situation that Anderson Varejao has been dealing with all year. Now Mo Williams is joining him and Richard Jefferson could be in the same situation, Lloyd speculates. Williams signed with the Cavs over the summer to handle the point guard duties while Kyrie Irving recovered from a fractured kneecap. Now that Irving is healthy, Williams’ playing time has plummeted. He was held out of a game against the Suns last week, then played just five minutes against the Warriors and 10 against the Blazers. Lloyd writes that it’s obvious Williams has fallen to third on the point guard depth chart behind Irving and Matthew Dellavedova. “Guys gotta understand and I’ve told them this, only so many guys can play,” said coach David Blatt. “That’s just the reality of the limitations of the game. Some guys may find themselves for no other reason other than that not playing many minutes or not playing at all.”

There’s more this morning out of Cleveland:

Some veterans on the team weren’t happy with Blatt’s decision to not play Jefferson in the Christmas Day game against Golden State, Lloyd writes in the same piece. The writer believes Blatt will have to eventually decide between Jefferson and J.R. Smith for a rotation spot. Smith is currently a starter, but Lloyd expects Iman Shumpert to take over his role when Irving’s minutes restriction is lifted.
Williams showed up at the locker room barely an hour before game time Saturday, then seemed to be a reluctant participant in cheering his teammates, according to Dave McMenamin of ESPN.com. The writer sees the Cavs as primed for another run at the NBA Finals, but warns a counterproductive influence could help derail that.
Cleveland’s renewed defensive prowess has coincided with Shumpert’s return to the lineup, Lloyd writes in a separate story. Since Shumpert came back from a wrist injury three weeks ago, the Cavs lead the league in defensive field-goal percentage and 3-point percentage and are behind only the Spurs in points allowed per 100 possessions.

Cavs Notes: Thompson, LeBron, Love

October 7th, 2015 at 7:15pm CST by Eddie Scarito

During an appearance on Zach Lowe of Grantland’s podcast, ESPN’s Brian Windhorst opined that the contract standoff between the Cavaliers and restricted free agent Tristan Thompson isn’t likely to end any time soon, as RealGM transcribes. “I think it will take a third party event to bridge the gap here,” said Windhorst. “I actually believe it will probably go [on for] months. This will go well into the regular season.” The ESPN scribe also compared Thompson’s current situation with Anderson Varejao‘s prolonged holdout back in 2007 that saw the center remain unsigned until December 5th of that year. Varejao’s contract impasse finally came to an end when he inked a three-year, $10MM offer sheet with Charlotte that the Cavs matched.

Here’s more out of Cleveland:

Windhorst also told Lowe that agent Rich Paul, who represents Thompson and LeBron James, wanted to get Thompson’s deal in place prior to James re-signing with Cleveland this summer, but plans changed when Klutch Sports realized how difficult Thompson’s negotiation would be (RealGM transcription). “It was my understanding at the outset that their plan, when I say ‘their,’ I’m talking about Tristan’s representation, was to handle Tristan Thompson’s contract first and then do LeBron’s contract,” Windhorst said. “But five days into free agency, they realized Tristan’s deal was going to go very long and they had a choice to make. LeBron could either exercise influence or not. And whether it was Rich Paul’s decision or LeBron’s decision, they elected not to do that. LeBron signed his contract.“
Kevin Love has put his difficult 2014/15 campaign behind him and is excited about the Cavs’ chances this season, and he is ready to assume a larger role in the team’s offense, Dave McMenamin of ESPN.com writes. “It’s just, I think, face everything head-on,” Love said when asked about his outlook for this season. “Relationships with all the guys out there on the court, facing adversity with these guys, or staying on a high with these guys, no matter where the season takes you, it’s just I think facing it head-on and trying to be in a collision course for great things. I think if we all put our heads together, we all continue to work and get healthy, I know I sound like a broken record, but I think we can do something special.“
Familiarity with the city of Cleveland played a major factor in Mo Williams‘ decision to re-sign with the Cavs this offseason, Joe Gabriele of NBA.com relays. “That was huge,” Williams told Gabriele. “It wasn’t that long ago [since I was here]. It feels like a while, but it really wasn’t. So, there’s some familiarity here – the same people, a couple familiar faces with teammates, but mostly everyone is new. The front office is pretty much intact, but in a little different capacity. It was definitely a comfort level and an excitement. And the thing about it is, I really enjoyed every single person in the front office. Griff [GM David Griffin] was here before I left. So, with all those things being said, it was an easy decision for me. Watching these guys fall short last year and me – being, you know, kind of a ‘Cav-at-heart’ – I felt sorry, I felt bad for the city. So that was definitely what made my mind up. When Golden State won that final game, my mind was made up – I was coming back. It was just how much money Griff was gonna give me.“

Central Notes: Jackson, Parker, Smith

September 30th, 2015 at 9:29pm CST by Eddie Scarito

The Pistons will look to Reggie Jackson, who re-signed with the team this offseason for five years and $80MM, to assume more of a leadership role within the franchise, Vince Ellis of The Detroit Free Press writes. “The best leaders are normally the best followers,” Jackson said. “I have a tendency — I want to do everything perfect. I want to know why it works, why it doesn’t work and everybody’s position on the floor. I like to know what’s going on. Everybody doesn’t deliver the message well, but you have to filter out and listen to the message. I think that goes a long ways. I think a lot of my leadership comes from being willing to listen and in following. If I know how to do things right, then I feel like I’m confident enough to steer you in the right direction without hindering you, questioning myself if I’m giving you good advice.”

Here’s more from the Central Division:

J.R. Smith is a fan of Cavaliers coach David Blatt, saying, “Coach really cares about me as a person…I’d run through a brick wall for coach,” Dave McMenamin of ESPN.com tweets.
Bucks forward Jabari Parker has been medically cleared to participate in training camp activities, but the team will limit how much the second-year player does, Matt Velazquez of The Journal Se ntinel writes. “I go within the hours, and whatever I’m able to complete, then you’ll be able to analyze that, but I can’t predict anything,” Parker said about the team’s precautions with him. “I’m just going to give everything I have for the amount of time and opportunity that I get.“
Before signing with the Cavaliers this summer, Mo Williams sought out and received LeBron James‘ blessing, Chris Haynes of The Northeast Ohio Media Group relays. “Yeah, you have to call. This is his team,” said Williams. “That’s no secret. The conversation was made and the feeling was mutual. It was a good conversation.” Williams had been publicly critical of James departing Cleveland to sign with the Heat, but the two have apparently mended fences since then.
The addition of Greg Monroe as a free agent fits well with the Bucks‘ desire to be a more balanced offensive team, and not to overly rely on the deep ball for offense, Charles F. Gardner of The Journal Sentinel writes. “The game is looked upon as just shooting threes,” coach Jason Kidd said. “For us, last year we were a team that was very successful in the paint. That’s where we scored a lot of our points and hopefully we can continue that. It’s all right to score twos, and if they’re close to the rim that helps. We have guys that can shoot the three, but we want to be able to get the ball in the paint, take the easy shot first and work inside-out.“

Cavs Notes: Williams, J.R. Smith, Blatt

September 29th, 2015 at 8:59am CST by Chuck Myron

Mo Williams is a client of Mark Bartelstein but said Monday that he represented himself in free agency, tweets Dave McMenamin of ESPN.com. The point guard who simply wanted to return to the Cavaliers signed a two-year deal for nearly $4.295MM after trying and failing to get the team to lift the value of the deal, as McMenamin relays. Williams also said he rooted for the Cavs even when he wasn’t playing for them, as George M. Thomas of the Akron Beacon Journal writes.

“I didn’t see me [being] over here because I said they’re pretty good at point guard,” Williams said. “[Matthew Dellavedova] was coming out of his shell and turning into a player. I didn’t see that then. Obviously once the conversation started with [GM David Griffin], I saw a bigger role for me and listening to him, I thought it was a good place for me to be.”

Williams was coy when asked about his relationship with LeBron James, Thomas notes in the same piece, pointing to tweets Williams made in the past criticizing the four-time MVP. However, James embraced the idea of Williams’ return to the team, as Chris Haynes of the Northeast Ohio Media Group and the Cleveland Plain Dealer reported this summer. See more from Cleveland here:

J.R. Smith will make $5MM with the Cavs on his new deal this year after declining a player option worth about $6.4MM, but he expressed no regret over that decision Monday, Haynes notes (Twitter link). “I’m a gambler,” Smith said. “I’ll take a gamble on myself any day.”
Michael Dunigan was the last of the Cavaliers camp invitees to be reported, but he was the first to sign, according to Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders (All Twitter links). Cleveland ordered its transactions thusly so that it could sign Jared Cunningham, Chris Johnson, Austin Daye, D.J. Stephens, Quinn Cook and Nick Minnerath to Exhibit 9 contracts that cover one season at the minimum salary with no money guaranteed and limited injury protection, Pincus reports. Teams have to have 14 players signed to non-Exhibit 9 contracts before they can sign anyone to an Exhibit 9, and Dunigan was the 14th player, as Pincus reveals. Dunigan is on a one-year, non-guaranteed contract for the minimum salary with standard injury protection, according to Pincus, so the Cavs would be on the hook for his salary for as long as he’s sidelined if he were to get hurt while playing for them.
One of the best ways for David Blatt to show he’s learned after his first year in the NBA will be to cut down the minutes for LeBron to keep him fresh, opines Terry Pluto of the Cleveland Plain Dealer.
We looked at the latest involving Tristan Thompson right here.

Central Notes: Williams, Kirk, Douglas

August 12th, 2015 at 5:41pm CST by Eddie Scarito

The opportunity to play for an NBA title is what ultimately led to Mo Williams‘ decision to sign with the Cavs, Chris Fedor of The Northeast Ohio Media Group writes. “It feels home,” Williams said of Cleveland during an interview on SiriusXM NBA Radio. “There’s just that team where you kind of feel like, ‘You know what? I would never want to leave this organization.’ Obviously the business of basketball changes the landscape of a lot of people’s careers and mine was no different, but to have the opportunity to come back and finish my career there and have the opportunity to go out on top, I couldn’t ask for a better situation. There’s no monetary factor involved in any of my decisions. At this point of my career now it’s just playing winning basketball, playing for championships.”

The Cavs’ young backcourt will also benefit from the addition of Williams, Fedor adds. “The reasons why the Cavs were confident to bring me back, I’m a strong voice and a team guy,” Williams said. “It’s about bringing everybody together collectively for one goal. That’s kind of my approach and just being around guys every day obviously you’re going to learn personalities. It’s just like any coach. You have to be able to manage those personalities and you have to be able to have everybody on your team like you. I think those things are important. Be able to relate to our guys. I’ve been the star of my team. I’ve been the second guy and the third guy. I’ve been the sixth man and the guy [expletive] off that he’s not playing. I can kind of relate to each guy.”

Here’s more out of the Central Division:

Alex Kirk, who made five appearances for the Cavaliers during the 2014/15 season, is expected to sign a deal with an Italian team in the near future, Alex Kennedy of Basketball Insiders relays (Twitter link).
The Pacers guaranteed $600k of Toney Douglas‘ $1,185,784 salary for the 2015/16 season, and another $275k becomes guaranteed if the guard is on the roster come the season opener, Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders tweets.
Former Bulls coach Tom Thibodeau says he was not surprised by the team’s decision to fire him, Nick Friedell of ESPNChicago.com tweets. Thibodeau also relayed that he had no regrets regarding his tenure with Chicago, and said he had no reaction to the disparaging comments made by team owner Jerry Reinsdorf when the Bulls announced his termination, notes K.C. Johnson of The Chicago Tribune (on Twitter).

Central Notes: Shumpert, LeBron, Monroe

July 13th, 2015 at 1:01pm CST by Chuck Myron

Six teams offered a first-round pick to the Cavaliers for Iman Shumpert at the trade deadline this past February, and three of them had max-level cap flexibility this summer, reports Chris Haynes of the Northeast Ohio Media Group. That made Cleveland’s front office “incredibly nervous” as it sought to re-sign the swingman in restricted free agency, despite its ability to match competing offers for him. The Kings were one of the teams that thought about an offer before Shumpert, who’d made it a priority to remain with the Cavs, did just that and signed a new deal.

“We were thinking about it,” Kings Vice President of Basketball Operations Vlade Divac told Haynes, “but we had some other options that came up better for us.”

Haynes wonders just what those better options could have been, but the upshot is that Shumpert is staying put. Here’s more from around the Central Division:

The Cavaliers certainly aren’t trading LeBron James, but if they did, they’d have to pay a 15% trade kicker as part of his new contract, Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders reports (Twitter link). The bonus would only take effect if he were to opt in for next season.
The precise value of Mo Williams‘ two-year deal with the Cavs is $4,294,500, with $2.1MM coming this season and the rest set aside for the player option year in 2016/17, as Pincus shows on Basketball Insiders (Twitter link).
The Bucks had been trying to trade Zaza Pachulia in the days after they struck a deal with Greg Monroe, sources told Marc Stein of ESPN.com. Milwaukee swapped Pachulia to the Mavs last week.
Monroe told Scoop Jackson of ESPN.com that if the Pistons had put on the same sort of hard push that the Clippers made to convince DeAndre Jordan to renege on his deal with the Mavs, he might have stuck with Detroit. “I can’t lie, it probably would have made me think, maybe affected my decision a bit,” said Monroe, whose deal with the Bucks is official, so there’s no going back now. “I mean, I was there for five years, my whole NBA career to this point. I knew the people in the organization, I loved my teammates, so I mean, I can’t lie. I’m not saying if that had happened, I would have changed my mind, but I know that would have affected me, and I probably would have had to ponder a little bit more.”

Cavs Sign Mo Williams

July 10th, 2015 at 11:39am CST by Dana Gauruder

FRIDAY, 11:39am: The deal is official, the team announced.

“We’re very excited to welcome Mo back to Cleveland and we feel he will be a great fit with our team,” GM David Griffin said. “Mo is a proven, high-caliber playmaker and his ability to space the floor at either guard position will be essential for us.”

MONDAY, 8:40am: Point guard Mo Williams has reached an agreement with the Cavaliers, Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports tweets. It’s a two-year, $4.3MM contract that includes a player option, league sources told Wojnarowski. Williams had also considered offers from the Spurs, Mavericks and Pelicans, Wojnarowski adds in a separate tweet. (Twitter links).

Williams, who played for the Hornets during the second half of last season, will provide insurance behind Kyrie Irving. The agreement will not deter the Cavaliers from trying to re-sign Matthew Dellavedova, Marc Stein of ESPN.com tweets.

A report last week indicated a deal between the Grizzlies and Williams was close but it was later denied. The Cavs had their $3.376MM taxpayer’s mid-level to spend. They will have $1.3MM of it left over, Brian Windhorst of ESPN.com tweets.

The 32-year-old Williams, who began last season with the Timberwolves, gives Cleveland scoring punch off the bench and could also start if Irving’s kneecap injury does not heal in time for the start of the regular season. Williams averaged 17.2 points and 6.0 assists in 27 games with the Hornets.

Latest On Mo Williams

July 6th, 2015 at 10:03am CST by Chuck Myron

The Grizzlies remain in the mix for free agent point guard Mo Williams, tweets Jared Zwerling of Bleacher Report, who adds that a source suggested the Spurs as an emergent suitor. Zwerling reported last week that a deal between Memphis and Williams was close, but a source who spoke with Ronald Tillery of The Commercial Appeal around the same time disputed that notion.

Memphis allowed its contract guarantee date with backup point guard Beno Udrih to pass on Sunday, meaning his partial guarantee of $923K is now a full guarantee of more than $2.17MM. That means the team has two point guards locked in, with Mike Conley holding down the starting job. The Grizzlies also have point guard Russ Smith on a non-guaranteed deal that picks up a $150K partial guarantee if he remains on the roster through July 15th.

The Hornets are willing to sign-and-trade Williams, as Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports reported this weekend. That would help the Spurs, who are unlikely to have more than the $2.814MM room exception to spend on Williams in a straight-up signing, as well as the Grizzlies, who’ll likely be spending their $5.464MM mid-level to accommodate their deal with Brandan Wright. Williams and the Cavs, who have their $3.376MM taxpayer’s mid-level to spend, reportedly have mutual interest.