Blazer news: Mo news of Mo

The Blazers are off and running into the free agency race, apparently.  And they have some formidable contenders.  Jared Zwerling reports that Mo Williams is expressing an interest in the Dallas Mavericks.  Williams has long had ties to Dallas, where his Mo Williams Academy is located.  But Williams also is quite comfy in Portland, too, and the team would like him back.  The question he will likely be facing is, whether what the Mavs might offer would be enticing enough.

This question may not be decided for the Mavericks, however, until the many other deals they are working on have come through.  After he meets with the Rockets in Houston tomorrow, for instance, Carmelo Anthony will sit down to talk to the Mavericks about a possible place there.

Currently, the Mavs are actually a great fit for Williams.  They run an offense very similar to that of Portland.  With Williams, they would have a flexible point guard/shooting guard who can keep the floor stretched, but who also can move the ball if need be.  Williams could play the perfect backup to Monta Ellis, not unlike how he does with Lillard here.

Whether Devin Harris, however, has anything to say about this, is the issue.  Currently a free agent himself, the Mavs are rushing to keep him.  The recent arrival of Raymond Felton from the Knicks along with the re-acquisition of Tyson Chandler also complicates things.  It is doubtful they will want to use Felton as a point guard, ever, if they don’t have to.  But he is there and available and taking up more room.

Williams’ flexibility as an off-ball 2-guard who can play point allows teams a lot of options with him, however.  And so if the presence of Harris and Felton stacks the 1 spot too much, it wouldn’t be too odd to think that they could fill up the 2 spot with someone like Williams for playing small lineups or fast moving ones.

The impact of any developments that take place with Williams will be crucial to the Blazers going into next year.  If Williams gets a good offer somewhere else, this produces a significant domino effect that will affect other moves they will make in the offseason.

In many ways, the net effect could be very good: if Williams goes, it frees up the Blazers to go after a significant addition to the roster at his spot.  Many of the fans would in fact like this to happen.  Mo’s spot as backup PG/bench 2-man is a spot that currently provides satisfactory performance.  But if it were open, it would allow for a titanic instant improvement in the team.  Especially if they could find a superlative backup PG-G who could play better defense than Williams, such as Darren Collison (who the Clippers are, unfortunately, currently rushing to resign).

The more likely scenario, however, is that Williams stays and Will Barton works his tail off this off season to become a better defender.  If Barton is better at this, it allows Stotts to hide Mo on defense on either the 1 or the 2 man of the opposing team—whoever is less threatening.  We will see what happens there.