Mo Williams is probably the most unexpected addition to the
Blazers. He was a late addition on August 8th. After spending time
with four other franchises Williams found his way to the Pacific Northwest. He
has spent two separate stints in Utah, four years in Milwaukee, two and a half
with Cleveland and one and a half with the Clippers.
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| Photo Courtesy of: wikipedia.org |
His best season was arguably in 2008-09 when he started in
all 81 games he played. He shot 91.2% from the FT line and scored 17.8 PPG.
That year was his second best shooting percentage from the field at 46.7%. He
also hit 43.6% of his three point shots that year. His career high in assists
came in 2010-11 when he averaged 6.5APG, he averaged 7.1 per game with
Cleveland and 5.6 with the Clips. He hasn’t been a great rebounder since
2006-07 in Milwaukee when he gathered in 4.8 rebounds per game. That year with
the Bucks he also gathered his best steals per game with a little over than one.
Every year since that great year with Cleveland, Williams
has declined. Now that wasn’t his choosing or his doing. He got fewer minutes,
fewer games played and fewer games started. Williams is coming to Portland off
not his best season. He did start in every game he played (46 games) and he
averaged 12.9 points, 6.2 assists and 2.4 rebounds per game.
Now, I don’t want to pick on Williams because he is a great
player and he fortifies the PG position behind Damian Lillard. One of the
biggest upsides for Williams is that he has four different appearances in the
playoffs, his best stint? You guessed it, in 2009 with Cleveland. He averaged
16.3 points, 3.2 rebounds and 4.1 assists per game. He shot 37.2% from
downtown, 40.8% from the field and 76.7% from the FT line.
With even more veteran presence off the bench with Williams,
Earl Watson and Dorell Wright, the Blazers will be better prepared going into
the season. If the Blazers can make the playoffs like they hope to they will
need to use the knowledge of all the older players about what to expect when
they get a seed. Last year with Eric Maynor, fans and the players thought they
could make a run, well we all know how that worked out, 13 game losing streak
to end the season. Now I am in no way putting that on Maynor, but with three
well established and well respected veterans in Williams, Wright and Watson the
Blazers can better prepare for a full season geared towards the playoffs.
Williams will be the only logical choice at backup PG
because as I mentioned, C.J. McCollum is not ready to be an NBA PG (even as a
backup). Williams will be Lillard’s best mentor and will provide coaching on
the court for the Blazers second unit. Terry Stotts has had Williams before and
he will know how to use him. Depending on how Stotts wants to play it, he can
even have Damian and Williams on the court at the same time just like last year
with Maynor and Lillard.
With Williams coming off the bench the Blazers second unit
has a legitimate chance of contending with other teams’ second units. He can
provide the spark necessary to win the battle of the benches and win game after
game. The biggest reason the Blazers need a good bench is for those
back-to-back nights or even back-to-back-to-back games. With bench help the
starters will have more energy every night to contend and go all out for a
reduced amount of minutes. Williams’ biggest contribution will be reducing
Lillard’s amount of minutes, which in case you forgot Lillard lead the NBA in
minutes played.