The Cleveland Cavaliers have acquired the missing link to make them a championship team today in point guard Mo Williams. The Cavs have acquired the 25-year old point guard from the Bucks and it cost them Joe Smith (to Oklahoma City) and Damon Jones (to the Bucks)! What a complete steal for the Cavs. I wonder if GM Danny Ferry had a ski mask on when he made this trade? Oklahoma City also picked up G/F Desmond Mason from the Bucks while the Bucks also acquired point guard Luke Ridnour and G/F Adrian Griffin from Oklahoma City. The Cavs definately got the better end of this trade as Williams fills a gaping hole on this basketball team. Williams played in 66 games (all starts) for the Bucks last season and he averaged 36.5 minutes, 17.2 points, 3.5 rebounds, 6.3 assists and 1.2 steals per game. Williams will give the Cavs a legit point guard for the first time since LeBron James came to Cleveland and he shouldn’t have to bring up the ball near as much as in the past which will make King James more devastating on the fast break. Williams has now played in 329 games (226 starts) in his NBA career and he has averaged 28.7 minutes, 12.5 points, 3.1 rebounds, 4.9 assists and 1.0 steal per game. The most impressive part of this trade is that the Cavs got Williams without giving up a core player which makes them a very serious threat to win the NBA Title in the 2008-09 NBA season.

When the Cavaliers drafted power forward J.J. Hickson in the first round of the NBA Draft in June it signalled that someone was going to be traded with the smart money on Anderson Varejao. When the news broke that it was Joe Smith I’m sure that a lot of Cavs’ fans were happy despite the fact that Smith played well for them after coming over from the Bulls in a big trade last year. Smith played in 27 games (1 start) for the Cavaliers last season and he averaged 21.5 minutes, 8.1 points, 5.0 rebounds and 0.7 assists per game. Damon Jones was nothing more than a three point gunner for the Cavaliers who won’t miss him much. Daniel Gibson is a better shooter than Jones and he will definately excel in that role again this season. Jones played in 67 games (3 starts) for the Cavs last season and he averaged 19.9 minutes, 6.5 points, 1.1 rebounds and 1.9 assists per game. He did shoot 41.7% from three point range last season for the Cavs and that’s pretty good. When the Cavs brought Jones to town three years ago they were expecting him to start at point guard and he didn’t hold onto that job very long because he’s softer than a role of Charmin. Jones played in 209 games (10 starts) in his career with the Cavs and he averaged 22.0 minutes, 6.6 points, 1.3 rebounds and 1.9 assists per game.

This trade was an absolute steal for the Cavaliers and LeBron James should be smiling over in China despite losing one of his best friends (Damon Jones) in this deal.

The Cavaliers have signed shooting guard/small forward Tarence Kinsey to a 1-year contract. Kinsey only played in 11 games (0 starts) for the Grizzlies last season and he averaged 8.7 minutes, 3.6 points, 1.1 rebounds and 0.2 assists per game. He left the Grizzlies to play in Turkey most of last season because he was very upset at his lack of playing time. It will be interesting to see how much P.T. is available in Cleveland for Kinsey but he is a talented player and he proved that as a rookie two years ago for the Grizzlies. Kinsey has now played in 59 games (0 starts) in his NBA career and he has averaged 18.0 minutes, 6.9 points, 1.9 rebounds, 0.7 assists and 1.0 steal per game. This was a nice signing for the Cavaliers as Kinsey has a nice upside.