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SALT LAKE CITY -- The Jazz have agreed in principle to their second trade of the offseason and grabbed another Williams, this time Marvin Williams.
Just three days after completing a trade to bring in Mo Williams from the Clippers for their trade exemption the Jazz have agreed to trade bring in Marvin Williams from the Atlanta Hawks for Devin Harris.
Williams is a 6-9 small forward who is commonly referred to as long and athletic. He is entering his eighth year in the league, the first seven with the Hawks. He was drafted second overall out of North Carolina, before Deron Williams who went third to the Jazz and Chris Paul who went to the Hornets.
His career has been considered a disappointment due to the lofty nature of his draft slot and the two superstars taken behind him.
Kurt Helin blogger for NBC Sports describes his career to this point. "Pedestrian is how to describe Williams in Atlanta — the former No. 2 overall pick averaged 10.2 points and 5.2 rebounds a game for the Hawks."
The pedestrian title is very accurate for his numbers, but he has been considered a good or maybe even great defender early in his career. He is still only 26 and could still grow and might require a change of scenery. John Hollinger describes him on ESPN's player card as "a perfectly decent small forward, which would be totally fine if he hadn't been the second overall pick." (Insider required for link)
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Two particular skills that Hollinger mentions is first his midrange jumper, where he was just under 44 percent last year. The other is his ability to get to the free throw line.
However, he brings in dark clouds that could overshadow any silver lining. He points out that his ability to shoot deep two's hasn't translated to 3-pointers, where he is a career 33 percent shooter. He had a career-year last year shooting from deep with 38.9 percent.
Williams is considered a good defender, but Hollinger talks about keeping him off the other team's best wing. David Locke, the Voice of the Jazz, has a different opinion of Williams from his blog on weareutahjazz.com.
"The length and athleticism of Williams, [Gordon] Hayward and [Derrick] Favors would give the Jazz three tremendous defensive players on the floor. Hayward at 6-8 and Williams at 6-9."
From good to tremendous is a big range, but with the ability of Hayward and Favors on the defensive end if he is simply good at defense and can add help defense to that lineup it should make for a great defensive team.
As the Jazz acquired Mo Williams it was applauded by analysts in part because it was both free with the trade exemption and his deal will come of the books at the end of next season to open up to $40 million in cap room. This trade is basically the opposite in every way.
The Jazz had to give up Harris, who with the Mo Williams trade and the Jamaal Tinsley resigning had created a logjam, so the loss of the player isn't a big deal, but the cap room could be.
In Hollinger's Insider trade breakdown he is disappointed in the Jazz, in stark comparison to his view on the Mo Williams trade. (Again Insider required for link)
"Utah baffles me. The Jazz just took on an extra year of Marvin Williams at $7.5 million, and I have no idea why. While Williams isn't a bad player, he's not worth this amount and he does little to solve Utah's twin needs of perimeter shooting and real backcourt players. While the Jazz have a ton of cap room in 2013-14, Williams eats into it, and that paper cap room is going to disappear in a hurry if Utah tries to retain any of its own free agents - - such as Al Jefferson, Paul Millsap or Mo Williams."
However, Ben Golliver, blogger for CBSsports.com, writes some good remarks in regards to the trade.
"Williams steps in for Harris as the starter for the Jazz and Utah picks up a veteran wing in Williams who can complement their youngsters: Gordon Hayward and Alec Burks. The Jazz could lose C.J. Miles to free agency and have motivation to ship out the often disgruntled Raja Bell, so Williams fills a roster role with a dependable, no-nonsense approach. He's not a game-changer but he's solid, not drastically overpaid and he's a nice part for a maturing team that's ready to begin a string of playoff appearances."
So now the team and lineup are pretty close to set. The team now has three point guards, six wings, and five bigs under contract. With the probability of Raja Bell being moved in some way that would give the Jazz 13 players.
The starting lineup would most likely include both Mo and Marvin Williams, Hayward, Favors and Jefferson. This could include Millsap for Marvin Williams, Favors or Jefferson.
The bench would then have Tinsley/ Earl Watson for the point guard, Burks, DeMarre Carroll and rookie Kevin Murphy for the wing and Millsap, Enes Kanter and Jeremy Evans rounding out bench.
