Maurice Williams

Mo Williams – Portland Trail Blazers

Long maligned for being little more than a shooter, William’s pull-up jumpshot is nonetheless an elite transition weapon. He is not the half-court point guard he has been pressed into pretending to be in recent years, but in Portland, he will no longer have to pretend to be one. Instead, he will come in, score, and be suitably careful with the ball without being a halfcourt creator. He will do this like a prime Leandro Barbosa for only $2.67 million, an amount probably around half of what he could justify earning. And while his presence may somewhat block the available time for the similar C.J. McCollum, it need not stay that way. Being signed to this good of a price makes Williams a highly tradeable commodity, too.

[T]he amnesty clause (that we're having to pretend will exist here, but which almost certainly will exist in some form) will further expand the range of available talents. A lot of decent players are going to become available, not because they can't play the game, but because they can't justify their contract. A lot of the candidates are obvious and inevitable, some perhaps less so. Here's a potential list:

- L.A. Clippers: Randy Foye and Ryan Gomes - As long as you don't play him as point guard - a position he simply does not "get" - Foye is not a bad player, as undersized 38% shooting two guards with mediocre jumpshots go. But Foye is also being paid $4,250,000 next season to do the work of someone being paid about half that. Meanwhile, Gomes is on the hook for $8 million over the next two seasons, and is coming off the back of a terrible season; a PER of 9.0 with ever-worsening rebounding. The Clippers still don't have an answer for their small forward hole, but Gomes definitely isn't it. (Maurice Williams, if he does not already, will have some trade value down the road and ought not be amnestied. Not when there are alternatives.)