INDEPENDENCE — LeBron James struck gold before the completion of the Beijing Olympics: The Cavaliers finally have a legitimate point guard who can shoot, pass and run an offense.
Cleveland, Milwaukee and Oklahoma City agreed Wednesday to a deal that will bring the Bucks’ explosive Mo Williams to the Cavaliers.
In exchange, Cleveland sent seldom-used guard Damon Jones to Milwaukee and veteran power forward Joe Smith to Oklahoma City. The Bucks shipped small forward Desmond Mason to Oklahoma City and received point guard Luke Ridnour and small forward Adrian Griffin from the former Seattle franchise.
“We’re excited,” said Cavaliers general manager Danny Ferry, who worked on the deal for three weeks. “I think we’re acquiring a talented player that’s about to hit his prime. Being only 25, he can be a traditional point guard for us but also bring the added dimension of scoring.”
Talent-wise, the Cavaliers didn’t give up much to acquire Williams, who averaged 17.2 points, 3.5 rebounds and 6.3 assists last season — only James, Baron Davis, Andre Miller, Chris Paul and Dwyane Wade matched those numbers across the board — but they will be paying a lot for his services.
The 6-foot-1, 185-pounder is entering the second season of a six-year, $51.5 million contract. The Alabama product will earn $8.35 million this season, $8.6 million in 2009-10, $9.3 million in 2010-11, $8.5 million in 2011-12 and $8.5 million if he exercises a player option in 2012-13.
“This again shows ownership’s commitment to winning a championship here in Cleveland and making the investment necessary along the way,” said Ferry, who added the Cavaliers will still have salary cap flexibility in the future.
With Daniel “Boobie” Gibson having recently re-signed with Cleveland as a restricted free agent, the Williams acquisition means restricted free agent Delonte West is probably headed elsewhere, but Ferry denied it.
“This changes nothing on the Delonte front,” the GM said. “We like him very much and remain hopeful we’ll find a common ground on the contract.”
The Cavaliers can match any offer sheet West signs with another club, but they will likely try to execute a sign-and-trade involving the St. Joseph’s product, who was a full-time starter after being acquired in a Feb. 21 blockbuster trade with Boston and Chicago.
Jones, who is entering the final season of a four-year, $16 million contract — he will earn $4.46 million in 2008-09 — had some solid games for the Cavaliers, but never stayed in coach Mike Brown’s plans for long.
Smith, who will earn $4.8 million in the last year of his contract, filled a valuable backup role for the Cavaliers after being acquired at the trade deadline, but Cleveland still has Anderson Varejao and rookie J.J. Hickson to back up big men Zydrunas Ilgauskas and Ben Wallace.
“We’ll miss him,” Ferry said of Smith. “He was the consummate professional while he was here — on and off the court.”
The big story for the Cavaliers, however, is acquiring a proven point guard who set career highs in assists, field goal percentage (.480), 3-point percentage (.385, 89-of-231) and free throw percentage (.856) in 66 games last season.
“He’s a competitive player that can make big shots,” Ferry said. “He’s one of those guys who’s capable of rising up at important times. Obviously, we want to be playing in those times.”
Williams, an extremely quick player who loves to run and gun, will have to slow down a bit in Brown’s offense and improve his defense, but he averaged 12.5 points and 4.9 assists over his first five NBA seasons.
Williams will move into the starting lineup immediately and, if all goes as planned, provide James with the sidekick he lacked over his first five seasons in Cleveland.
“We’ll still play through LeBron quite a bit,” Ferry said. “When you have a player like LeBron, you’d be crazy not to play through him. He’s not a scorer, he’s a basketball player who makes plays for himself and other people.
“Adding another person who can do that is important.”
Contact Rick Noland at (330) 721-4061 or rickn@ohio.net.

GET TO KNOW MO

• AGE: 25
• HEIGHT: 6-1
• WEIGHT: 185
• COLLEGE: Alabama

’07-08 STATS

• PPG: 17.2
• APG: 6.3
• RPG: 3.5
• FG%: .480
• 3FG%: .385
• FT%: .856

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