#mo williams

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The Pigeon Needs a Bath words and pictures by Mo Williams

Using voodoo, blood magic and unicorn tears, a random NBA player from the halls of history is chosen to have a random profile written about them. These can be either factual or just my thoughts on the player. But mostly just bullpoop.

Career stats:

https://www.basketball-reference.com/players/w/willima01.html

Maurice “Mo” Williams is one of the better volume scorers the league has seen over the past decade or so. Now, if you had said this to me on Mo’s draft year of 2003, I would have probably laughed you out of the building. An undersized score-first point guard playing for the University of Alabama, Williams was not athletic and could not really shoot, which is why he slipped in the draft and was picked 47th overall by the the Utah Jazz. He spent his rookie year in Salt Lake City and, to put it bluntly, he sucked. As a restricted free agent in the summer of 2004, Milwaukee Bucks signed him to an offer sheet that the Jazz chose not to much. Not much was expected from Williams in Milwaukee but things took an interesting turn in the 2004-05 season.

With starting point guard T.J. Ford being out with injuries the whole year, Mo Williams was named the starter. To the surprise of many, he did not suck anymore. In fact, Bucks shipped out Ford next summer and named Williams the point guard of the future. He formed the core in Milwaukee with Michael Redd and a young Andrew Bogut. Williams had grown into a deadly pick and roll scorer, capable of shooting from everywhere while also using his speed and touch to finish inside. While Mo continued to improve and impress over his 4 seasons in Wisconsin, the Bucks were not good and he had to endure a lot of losing. He did however get a deal in 2007 worth 52 million over 5 years. A very impressive deal for a late second round pick.

Right before the start of the 2008-09, Williams was traded in a very complex three-team deal to the Cleveland Cavaliers to act as a sidekick to LeBron James. To the surprise of no one, he looked even better playing with BronBron, making his first and only All-Star appearance in 2009 as an injury replacement to Chris Bosh. Life was good in Cleveland until James decided to take his talents to South Beach. Seeing it was time to blow it up, Cavs traded Williams to the Clippers alongside Jamario Moon in the middle of the 2010-11 season. Cavs got in return the corpse of Baron Davis and a first round draft pick that turned out be a fella you might know as Uncle Drew.

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His move to Los Angeles can be seen as the point where Williams slowly started to go from a borderline All-Star caliber player to a score-first sixth man. He was still capable of exploding for 40 on a given night, but his limitations as a playmaker and as a defender limited his appeal has he continued to age. From 2011 to 2015 Williams played in Los Angeles, Utah, Portland, Minnesota and Charlotte, providing every place with roughly 13 points a night with barely acceptable shooting percentages. During his time in Minnesota, he did drop a ridiculous 52 points one game, showcasing that he can still get really, really hot.

33 years old, Mo Williams returned to Cleveland in the summer of 2015, signing a two-year, veteran’s minimum contract to rejoin LeBron, with the hope of getting a ring before retiring. He played a bit early into the 2015-16 season but as the season went on, he fell behind both Kyrie Irving and Matthew Dellavedova in the rotation and by the time the 2016 Playoffs rolled around, he was practically a benchwarmer. He did get his ring though, as the Cavs erased a 3-1 series deficit against the Warriors to win the Larry O’Brien trophy in a Finals series that will go down as one of the best ones ever. Williams picked up his player option in the summer but then abruptly decided to retire before the 2016-17 season, as he had struggled with injuries. His contract, which now had little value, played Hot Potato that season, as teams wanted it to reach various needs that the salary cap demanded. While by all accounts Williams has not officially signed his retirement paper, it is highly unlikely that he ever appears in NBA again.

Second round of the NBA draft is like throwing darts while you are really drunk. You might be aiming at something but in the end, it is all about luck. Williams showed incredible development early in his career, took full advantage of his opportunities when he got them and turned in a very good NBA career, providing a scoring punch to many teams that desperately needed it.

Side notes:

Nickname is “Hitman”

Williams had the Wolves all-time single game scoring record until Karl-Anthony Towns scored 56 this year. It kinda felt wrong having Williams at the top of that chart.

Also, Corey Brewer scored over 50 in a game for the Wolves. I really don’t understand how that is possible.