Cleveland Cavaliers reserve guard Mo Williams is still a member of the team. For now. Whether or not that remains the same come opening night on Tuesday, when Williams and the Cavs will receive their NBA Championship rings, is still a mystery.
Williams said he was not retired, then his agent told the Cavs he retired and then he un-retired. To add to the Cavs front office headaches, he mysteriously underwent knee surgery out of nowhere. That did not sit well with the team and they began shopping the market for a reserve point guard. To this point, they remain unsuccessful in those efforts.
If they indeed knew Williams was going to play this season, they most likely would’ve just went ahead with him as the backup point guard but that doesn’t look likely. The deadline for the team to waive him and stretch his contract has passed. The Cavs appear to be fed up and are willing to move Williams and attach a promising young guard to dump his contract.
Following from Brian Windhorst of ESPN.
The Cleveland Cavaliers are in impasse with guard Mo Williams and it has left them scouring the league for a trade partner so they don’t have to swallow millions, sources told ESPN.com.
Williams is owed $2.2 million for this season and he did not report to training camp. The Cavs, who were caught off guard by the decision, have not had meaningful discussions with Williams on a buyout agreement, sources said.
Williams has not filed retirement paperwork with the league.
They are looking to attach guard Jordan McRae to Williams in trades, sources said.
The Cavs attempted to get medical updates from Williams but were unable to do so.
As Windhorst also points out, had the Cavs waived him, the team would’ve been able to save $4.5 million in luxury tax. Cleveland is already projected to hit a luxury tax bill of $32 million for this upcoming season.
The Cavs can suspend Williams and not pay him as team suspensions do not affect the salary cap and they would still be taxed on the full salary. But that could potentially be messy and result in some legal troubles given his current injury status. Besides, if they do suspend him, Williams would still use a roster spot.
Cleveland brought in Toney Douglas during training camp and they’ve also been linked to Mario Chalmers in the past. Both could come in and play some solid minutes behind Kyrie Irving. In the case for Chalmers, he’s still recovering from a season-ending achilles injury and may not be ready until November, at the earliest. Rookie point guard Kay Felder appears to not be quite ready for the NBA game yet but he does have a ton of potential.
Attaching Jordan McRae to a deal just shows the Cavs really want to get rid of Mo. McRae is still young and any playing time from him would be a bonus.
Williams averaged 8.2 points and 2.4 assists in 41 games last season. He appeared in 13 playoff games, six of them in the NBA Finals.
