Links To The Present: Rounding out the Roster

If The Cleveland Cavaliers weren’t already off to a better start with the addition of Kyle Korver and Derrick Williams, who officially signed as a member of the team after the end of his 10-day contract, they certainly are now.

This week has been a slight roller coaster ride with losses to the Bulls and Celtics, but underneath those surface, something magical was brewing. With the news of another roster addition to the Cavs roster and an INSANE win against the Hawks Friday, things have turned around since Wednesday’s Cavs-Celtics loss.

If you’ve been living under a rock and haven’t heard your uncle, neighbor or even your phone alert you on the new changes, Briana will help you out (yes I refer to myself in 3rd person at times). One of the great, few roster changes David Griffin recently made for the Cavaliers was to finally give a well-deserved spot to Williams. After jumping from team to team in his six years of playing in the NBA and patiently taking advantage of his time with the Cavs, the 25-year-old earned his position to play with the team for the rest of the season. The value of the deal, per Joe Vardon at the Cleveland Plain Dealer, is $268,000.

“He definitely earned it,” Lue said. “I felt that he (would sign for the season) before he even got here. Just playing against him on other teams and his motor, his athleticism, being able to guard four positions and he’s shooting the ball well. He’s come here and he’s definitely earned it. He’s played well for us.”

In just nine games, he’s averaging 10.3 points, 3.1 rebounds and shooting 56 percent (43 percent from 3-point range). Williams is also averaging 24 minutes off coach Tyronn Lue’s bench.

“Whenever you’re on a championship level type team, everybody is helping each other,” Williams said. “I think my previous teams maybe we lacked in that category a lot, where it’s just about helping the next guy that’s next to you, and once you get that, then the rotations start happening.

Williams has been contributing big time, especially in last night’s historic game against Atlanta. Now if you missed the game down in the ATL, enjoy the highlight videos below.

Treys for DAYS! Watch @kingjames tie the all-time record and then @kylekorver make history in his ATL return.
MORE: https://t.co/H6hyeANSZz https://t.co/Q2TnhToHTm

— Cleveland Cavaliers (@cavs) March 4, 2017

That’s the new NBA regular season record for most threes in a game.  And the Cavs did it without J.R. Smith or Kevin Love.  If we ever get to witness the power of a fully operational battle station, look for more records to get vaporized.  Interestingly, Kyle Korver, who hit the recording setting (and surprisingly necessary) 3, was not aware until reporters informed him that the Cavs had set the record.  The Cavs also own the record for playoff 3s in a game, also 25, against Korver’s Hawks, which Kyle remembered all too well.

“Oh, I knew that,” Korver said. “I remember that one. That’s ironic, I guess. I don’t know what else to say, but I’m glad I’m on this side of that.”

From ESPN’s Cavalier beatwriter Dave McMenamin:

At the conclusion of Friday night’s slate of games, there will have been 44,520 regular-season and playoff games played in the 3-point era, according to ESPN Stats & Info, and the only team to have made 25 3-pointers in a game is the Cavs — twice in the past 10 months and both times against Atlanta.

Poor Hawks.  The Cavs have won 11 straight games against them and if you go back to 2009, 12 straight playoff games against them and now they’re setting all these 3-point records against them using their own beloved Korver to ice the game and the record.  No wonder Coach Budenholzer was a bit ‘touchy’ during the game.  Budenholzer has been suspended one game by the NBA for making contact with referee Brian Forte late in the 3rd quarter.  Budenholzer took the high road.  From the Atlanta Journal Constitution:

“I fully understand and respect the decision of the NBA,” Budenholzer said in a statement released by the team. “I plan to reach out to Brian as soon as possible and intend to apologize for the contact that I made during last night’s game. The referees have the most difficult job on the court and do an outstanding job of managing the needs of the game, players and coaches. I accept the suspension, will learn from it and look forward to moving beyond this.”

This ball movement. 😍 https://t.co/9TAaohsGXJ

— Cleveland Cavaliers (@cavs) March 4, 2017

Maybe the technical got his team fired up.  But in the end, Kyrie Irving scored 43, LeBron James 38 as Cavs survived a supremely high scoring 135-130 win over Hawks.

“You might belong in Griffindor,
Where dwell the brave at heart,
Their daring, nerve, and chivalry
Set Griffindors apart”

“Nerve” is a great way to describe Cavalier GM David Griffin.  Never content to rest on his laurels, Griffin has a history of taking calculated risks.  Now that the dust is settling on the buyout market, the Cavs have Griffin’s latest daring aquistion, former Golden State Warriors Center Andrew Bogut.  The Cavs waived guard Jordan McRae to open a roster spot for Bogut.  Over at ESPN.com, Kevin Pelton ranked the best buyout pickups by Value over Replacement Player.  We’ll see if D Will or Bogut can climb these ranks!

Bogut gave the clear to officially sign with the Cavs this past Wednesday and will play with them for the rest of the season. He’s expected to hold Kevin Love’s spot while he’s still out, however, the 7-foot will not make a debut until the Cavs play the Heat at home on Monday.

BUT, what we’ve seen so far from Deron Williams, a.k.a “D-Will,” is another addition impactful addition.  It took Kyle Korver a few weeks to get acclimated to the offense.  Hopefully D-Will is primed and ready for playoff basketball.

According to Michael Pina, a featured columnist on Bleacher Report, he believes that D-will gives Cleveland an edge they’ve never had – I may have to agree.

This article really opened up to me that us fans weren’t expecting great help like this. I don’t even think LeBron was either with the potential names he was dropping earlier in January – like Ray Felton and Michael Beasley.

According to Pina, from 2008-2010, Williams was the only player in the entire NBA who tallied at least 4,000 points and 2,300 assists. Pina also stated that he was unstoppable through his mid-20s, a mid-range assassin who thrived as an iso-scorer and knew how to put teammates in opportunistic situations.

https://twitter.com/tompestak/status/837846155207839746

Old stats don’t always mean much but his confidence and playing history stand out to me the most.

“I just feel like I can help this team win, and whatever my role is, that will figure itself out over the course of the next couple months, in the regular season and on into the playoffs,” Williams said. “I haven’t really talked about a number of minutes or anything like that, but, just, I know I can help this team win.”

In other links..

• Although it wasn’t enough to put them a trance and win, Kyrie Irving’s Euro step leaves three Celtics defenders scratching their heads. Watch here.
• One ridiculous stat shows how much LeBron James owns the Eastern Conference.