National Basketball Association

Cleveland Cavaliers: Mo Williams Will Play In 2016-17, What Does It Mean For Cavs?

Published Jun. 30, 2017 6:28 p.m. ET

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Mo Williams has decided against retiring and will return for a final season with the Cleveland Cavaliers. The veteran will be valuable piece for the Cavs.

Cleveland Cavaliers point guard Mo Williams has been deciding whether or not to retire for a couple of weeks. In the time he’s been deciding, the Cavs have been signing guards to their training camp roster.

While his decision to return doesn’t entitle him to minutes, Williams could find himself in the rotation in a point guard-by-committee approach.

After much deliberation, Mo Williams has decided to play for one more year.

Coming back #onemoreyear

— Mo Williams (@mowilliams) September 22, 2016

Context is always key when talking about players. Cleveland fans want to know what to expect from Williams. When considering that the Cleveland Cavaliers are essentially having a battle for the backup point guard spot, that answer is dependent on what Wiliams brings to the table.

Williams will be 34 years old by the end of the year and last year he only played in 41 games games because of knee and thumb injuries. However, when he returned to Cleveland last season, he was a relatively attractive commodity.

After being traded from the Minnesota Timberwolves to the Charlotte Hornets before the trade deadline, Williams was given a large role in the wake of Kemba Walker‘s injury. In 30.8 minutes per game, Williams averaged 17.2 points on 15.3 shot per game. Williams also averaged 6.0 assists per game.

Part of the reason for Williams success comes from his signature offensive style. Williams is a gunner on offense. Though he is capable of slowing himself down and being the team’s floor general, he shoots pull-up jumpers and catch-and-shoot threes with confidence. A career 37.8 percent shooter from three-point range, Williams will consistently be a catch-and-shoot threat.

Williams is also an above-average distributor and always keeps his head up to make the pass. His abilities as an all-around point guard on offense are what attracted Cleveland to Williams last year, as well as his familiarity with LeBron James.

Another part of his success comes from his ability to play both guard positions. Because of his 6-foot-5 wingspan, Williams is effective when defending some shooting guards. This becomes important when Williams, at the age of 33, is not a player in his athletic prime and subsequently at a disadvantage when guarding quick point guards.

The ability to play both guard spots, as well as his veteran status in the NBA, are what will give Williams an opportunity to be a player who regularly impacts games for the Cleveland Cavaliers. Currently, the Cavs are having an open competition at backup point guard.

Kay Felder, Jordan McRae, Iman Shumpert, Markel Brown and DeAndre Liggins are all players who should be given consideration at backup point guard. Fortunately for Williams, his decision to return to the team could ultimately force Brown or Liggins off the team and out of the competition.

Essentially, Williams is competing with Felder, McRae and Shumpert more than any other players. Two of those players aren’t nearly as experienced as Williams and already at a disadvantage in the competition because of that.

For his part, Felder is a rookie who does have the talent to play, but has a different learning curve to go through as an undersized point guard. Though the Cavs have confidence in Felder, it may be asking too much to simply expect Felder to perform at a championship level as an undersized backup point guard in his rookie year.

This Vine shows Felder’s offensive awareness is advanced for a rookie point guard. An able scorer as well, Felder has the potential to be one of the steal’s of the 2016 NBA Draft.

While it’s unlikely Felder will get the chance to prove he has “it” early on, he could get the chance to show he has the chops to run the backup point guard position full-time by the end of the year. He’s just one of the rare rookies who displays the mental acuity to play with the big boys in the league from an early age.

McRae is a player who deserves minutes with his James Harden-like ability to score. However, McRae isn’t a natural facilitator. Though McRae is only 25, and has the potential to develop that part of his game in time, it’s also a lot to expect McRae to develop his game quickly enough to make the wheels run on offense when he’s a natural scorer.

Shumpert is making the effort to be the Cleveland Cavaliers backup point guard, having lost 10 pounds this summer. Where Shumpert excels is as a defender and he would provide an interesting 1-2 punch at point guard with Kyrie Irving. Losing weight will allow Shumpert to keep up with the quickest point guards in the NBA such as Russell Westbrook, John Wall, Stephen Curry and Isaiah Thomas.

In addition, Shumpert has been spending the offseason training with Irving. This training with Irving is just what he needs to improve as a ball-handler and develop his basketball IQ on offense. Those two improvements will manifest themselves into tangible results. Shumpert’s turnovers should go down and his assists and scoring should go up as the Cavaliers backup point guard.

The catch is that if Shumpert, or McRae for that matter, become the backup point guard then there is potential for Williams to fill in the open void at shooting guard. Currently, J.R. Smith is penciled in as the team’s starting shooting guard, however, according to 82games.com Smith was best when playing as a small forward. Mike Dunleavy Jr. is most effective at shooting guard according to 82games.com, however, he also functions well as a stretch-four because of his big 6-foot-9, 230 pound frame.

Shumpert or McRae can fit in as an attacking shooting guard, especially while Smith can play small forward. James and Dunleavy Jr. can play the power forward position. Williams has the opportunity to come into the game and make a positive impact as he finds minutes in the backcourt through the team’s versatility. In those minutes, expect Williams to be a perimeter threat. As Williams beats the less agile shooting guards off-the-dribble, he’s capable of scoring but also facilitating off of his lane penetration.