Mo Williams

Maurice Williams was acquired by the Cavs today in a three team deal involving Milwaukee and the OKC Somethings. Cleveland sent out Damon "Goofball" Jones to The Bucks and reliable and lovable veteran forward Joe Smith to The Oklahoma City Extortionists. Mo, probably not even the best player on his now former team, has received almost a saviors welcome on Cavs forums. This may look like an overreaction to a player of his caliber, but Cleveland has reason to be excited.

First off, the price tag on Mo was remarkably low. Though I call Damon and Joe a low price, it will be sad to see the both of them go for very different reasons.

Damon Jones is a huge idiot...but in a good way. His antics were always entertaining and we'll always have the YouTube clip of The Chuckster shouting, "Oh my God! Go back to Damon Jones' coat!!" The best thing about Damon though was probably that when everyone on Cleveland was injured or had just been traded, he always played pretty well, and that is admirable. Still, he just isn't very good and is worth more as an expiring contract than an actual player. We also have a guy in Boobie Gibson who does the same things and more and is younger and better at everything. Joe Smith will also be sorely missed. He was a consistent and not offensively retarded power forward which you cannot say for most of Cleveland's front line. He was also a veteran with a friendly smile who was easy to root for.

With that said, Mo Williams is the best player that has come to Cleveland via free agency or trade or draft since the LeBron era began almost without question.

Tangent: One of the biggest reasons I root for the Cavs, aside from proximity, is due to the most extreme case of pity in the history of fandom. The City of Cleveland has been stuck in sports purgatory for too long. Cleveland is not quite cool enough a city to entice free agents or attract love from the media but the fans are enthusiastic enough that every time their teams come up short, it hurts just the same. And they always come up short. That's why if The Cavs were to somehow avoid winning a title with the gift given to them from the Basketball Gods named LeBron James, it would be simply too much.

Back on track.

When I heard about this possible deal, I was skeptical, as I always am about a little guy on a bad team who takes a ton of shots, especially shots off the dribble. As the deal became more and more real, I slowly (and then very very quickly) warmed up to him. First, he shot 48% last season (on shots that I may have deemed to be ridiculous) and averaged over 6 assists. Those aren't really the statistics of a "chucker," which is what I dislike so much in some players. The clincher though, and I don't know why this means so much to me, was that I heard him interviewed by the Cleveland local radio guy. He seemed like a funny smart guy with a solid attitude. When asked about improving his defense, he didn't get defensive (no pun intended), he just seemed confident and not cocky with the correct amount of resentment for the accusation that he can't play on the defensive end. Liked it.

Depending on how well Mo meshes with LeBron, this could be the beginning of Ferry's Redemption in building a title team. Though Mo is not an All Star (not yet anyway) with the Mo Deal, Gibson's re-signing, the drafting of J.J. Hickson, and the Kinsey signing, The Cavaliers are slowly but surely becoming younger, better, more athletic, while conserving their trade assets at the same time. While they may not yet be at a championship level, you can at least see what Cleveland is trying to do. They have a path.

Ferry may be slow to pull the trigger sometimes, but isn't that a good thing? Ferry isn't afraid to do something that is unimpressive to fans, but may be important to the team (like the Kinsey signing). My trust in this guy is growing. All he can hope is that LeBron feels the same way.