Deron Williams Will Sign With Cleveland Cavaliers
The Cleveland Cavaliers will sign Deron Williams Monday to fill the final spot on the roster. Is he the playmaker that the team has been looking for?
The Cleveland Cavaliers might have finally found their playmaker.
Deron Williams is expected to join the team Monday after being bought out by the Dallas Mavericks. He cleared waivers on Saturday. It isn’t known if he will suit up Monday night against the Milwaukee Bucks.
The Cavs have won the trade deadline twice and they only had to trade away one player. That player was Mike Dunleavy, who they turned into Kyle Korver with the Atlanta Hawks.
Williams will bring a different dynamic to the offense of the Cavaliers. More importantly, Kyrie Irving will finally be able to get a significant break on the bench, or rest for some games.
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Kay Felder did fine for a few games as the backup, but he still has a long way to go in his process of learning the NBA.
One of the biggest things that stands out about Williams is his size. At 6-foot-3 and 200 pounds, he’s one of the bigger point guards in the league. He’s always been able to post up smaller guards and score over them.
He’s also been a very good passer in his career, hence the playmaking tag that the Cavaliers and LeBron James coveted. Williams only averaged 6.9 assists per game with the Mavericks this season, but injuries and a bad team helped attribute to those low numbers.
He will be another option that will keep the ball movement fluid. At times, James is the only one that does it, but Williams will help in that regard.
I expect them to increase with the talent on the Cavs. One thing Cavaliers fans must realize is that they aren’t getting the Williams from the Utah Jazz or New Jersey/Brooklyn Nets days.
Cleveland Cavaliers
They’re getting a more mature, smart,veteran presence on the team that will contribute and know his role.
Williams is also one of the best at executing the pick-and-roll. He makes a lot of his plays off of that, and he always seems to find the cutter or open player when it happens.
The Cavs will appreciate how easy it will be to get easy looks and score when he finds them.
He’s not going to be expected to play 35 minutes per game as he did in years past. He’s only going to be looked upon to give Irving or Iman Shumpert–for now, a break. Williams also isn’t a bad three-point shooter.
He shot 34.8 percent from long-range with the Mavericks, but with the floor spacing, and open looks he’ll get on the Cavs, that is also a number that will increase. He’s more of a slasher to the basket with his size, but he can knock down open attempts if they appear.
The only fault in Williams game is his defense. He’s not James Harden defensive wise, but he’s at his doorstep. He doesn’t fight through screens, and opposing offenses know they can take him away from a play with solid pick-and-rolls.
It’s one of the more unfortunate aspects of his game–especially on a team that is struggling immensely on the defensive side of the ball this season.
Williams has always had great dribbling ability, and has since learned to protect the ball. He was once very turnover prone He averaged four turnovers a game for the Nets back in the 2011-12 season.
That’s even more than Jason Williams had with the Sacramento Kings in the 1999-00 season at 3.7 turnovers a game and he was a turnover machine with those wild passes.
No need to panic, he only had 2.4 turnovers a game this season.
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I didn’t think coming into the season that the Cavs would look llike this. Just the thought of Williams and James finding players in transition, or during screen rolls is beyond exciting.
The five-time All-Star will fit in well with an already solid bench. The only issue is they were missing a player that could control the unit, and Williams is that player.
Now, with the expected addition of Andrew Bogut, this could be one of the most unstoppable benches in the NBA.
This rotation could be better than the Orlando Magic. It reminds me of the bench the Kings had back in the early 2000s with Gerald Wallace, Bobby Jackson, Hedo Turkoglu and Scot Pollard.
That was a tough bench that could go up against any roster in the league at the time.
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Williams might not guarantee a return to the NBA Finals or a championship, but he is a solid piece that any team would love to have.