No Mo After All… J.R. Deal Close?
2016-09-27
Yesterday, David Griffin and the Cavaliers had to delay the start of their Media Day press conference by about thirty minutes after they received a call from Raymond Brothers, the agent for Mo Williams. Turns out, Mo had reversed course once again and decided to forego the final year of his contract to officially retire from the NBA.
The announcement comes less than a week after the 14 year veteran told fans via Twitter that he was planning to return for one more year to provide depth at the PG position for the defending champs. Mo’s change of heart likely stemmed from his ongoing struggles with chondromalacia (chronic knee pain) that plagued him last season and caused him to debate his future all summer.
Mo is owed $2.2 million this season, however, once he files his retirement papers that should change…
Once Mo Williams files retirement papers with the league, he forfeits his $2.2 million salary. That money will also come off #Cavs books
— Jason Lloyd (@ByJasonLloyd) September 26, 2016
Griffin declined to answer whether the team would pursue a settlement, but said the team had prepared for this outcome.
“It was in debate what Mo was going to do; he vacillated a little bit,” Griffin said. “So we were planning for this eventuality. We’re comfortable with where we are at the point guard position.”
As has been well documented on this site and others, the Cavs are fairly thin at the traditional PG position, having let Matthew Dellavedova depart in free agency and now with Williams officially calling it a career. They still have promising rookie Kay Felder and have been experimenting with trying both Iman Shumpert and Jordan McRae at the position. Although they have no shortage of ball handlers with both Kyrie Irving and LeBron James doing the majority of the work. The team has also reportedly been reaching out to veteran backup PGs like Mario Chalmers, Norris Cole and Kirk Hinrich.
The other bit of news that Griff dropped in the press conference was an update on the team’s progress in their attempts to re-sign unrestricted free agent J.R. Smith. Without giving too many specifics, Griff did make it seem that there was a new offer on the table…
“We think very highly of J.R., we love him as a member of our team,” Griffin said. “As a member of our locker room, he was essential to our success. For that reason, we’ve made an incredibly competitive and aggressive offer to re-sign him. We hope that gets done in relatively short order. At the same time, we’ve been accustomed to a next-man-up mentality, and we expect this will be no different.”
Cavs GM David Griffin announces that Mo Williams is indeed retiring. Addresses J.R. Smith as well. #Cavs pic.twitter.com/BGUtS9Hxe0
— Hayden Grove (@H_Grove) September 26, 2016
It remains to be seen if the Cavs can avoid a scenario where J.R. misses part of training camp and the pre-season (as Tristan Thompson did a year ago). Although, according to sources quoted by Terry Pluto of Cleveland.com, as of this morning, the two sides are apparently close on the annual salary and the real question is length of the contract. Hopefully, things will work themselves out soon, since as LeBron himself says, they don’t win the title without Swish…
.@KingJames on @TheRealJRSmith: "Without him, we don't win a championship last year." #CavsMediaDay pic.twitter.com/pXoSpHjTKy
— Bally Sports Cincinnati (@BallySportsCIN) September 27, 2016
This isn’t a bad thing. What do you get when you have an injury prone guy backing up an injury prone guy? The Cleveland Browns.
If I were to choose in any of these available backups maybe I’d go with Cole. He ain’t great at any skill but he’s average and that’s enough to spell Kyrie’s minutes. Rio has the edge at shooting but he often goes out his way that this team doesn’t need much. Kirk has the edge on defense and playmaking…. as long as he can stay on the court (doubt that).
NATE VERY GOOD POINT ABOUT DION —HE COULD AVG OVER 20PPG AND SET HIMSELF UP FOR A NICE PAYDAY NEXT SUMMER ——-LEANING TOWARDS CHALMERS RIGHT NOW OVER COLES —VETERAN SAAVY / BETTER OUTSIDE SHOOTER
About the only people melancholy about the fall of the Heatles era are a handful of Heat fans and Windy himself… I feel bad for Bosh (nobody should have to go out that way), but I can’t help but feel some satisfaction that Riley finds himself awash in a flotsam of karma…
http://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/17650279/nba-melancholy-end-big-three-era-miami-heat
Quietly, Dion Waiters has the opportunity of a lifetime.
Not many other scorers left on that team, so probably…
What team he is on now? My only memory is of him waving frantically for LeBron to pass him the ball. LeBron ignores him of course.
That was a great team. Good thing the Spurs played better than they ever had in their lives while Wade and Bosh sucked for the last three games of the Finaps or we wouldn’t have LeBron right now. We’d be talking about our 6th straight lottery year.
That is a good point about the Spurs. I spent the whole four years hoping for an alignment of the stars that would bring LeBron back. Certainly the Heat losing and the fact that the Cavs had better players was a big part. There were a lot of other reasons why I thought he would come back, and I think they played a big part.
I’ll admit, I kind of like the idea of Cavs just trying out young guys to see if they can hack it in the regular season… Having an infusion of youth off the bench is always a good thing…
Totally agree. It looks like a really promising bunch. The Cavs will not have a high draft pick in forever, so the possibility of developing a rotation player out of a FA would be a huge plus.
But, God forbid, something happens to Kyrie, the Cavs can still contend. Someone with veteran savvy would be… GD IT. Why did they get rid of Delly?
They’ll be fine. If the worst happens, they’ll find a way. I have every confidence in Griff…
Yep. Don’t worry, Nate is just trying to troll me.
I’m not worried… but I also don’t think Nate is trying to troll you… No matter how you feel about Delly, Nate appreciated what he brought to the team.
I am not too worried. As long as KI doesn’t miss the finals, we are fine. The Cavs can miss any one player not named LeBron for the entire season and still win the ECF.
Sitting here patiently awaiting news on JR Smith. I would take any of those three as our backup PG. Essentially they just need to eat minutes during the regular season and hopefully one can contribute 10 minutes a night in the playoffs.
Yeppers. JR will be signed no problems at all.