Lou Williams should be on the Cleveland Cavaliers radar
Lou Williams should be on the Cleveland Cavaliers radar.
It’s trade season for the Cleveland Cavaliers, and Lou Williams should be at least on their radar.
The shooting guard position for the Cleveland Cavaliers has been a consistent problem this season. In order to fix that problem, the Cavs need to turn their attention to Los Angeles and consider acquiring Lou Williams.
Lou Williams has emerged as one of the elite scorers in all of the NBA this season. The abundance of injuries the Los Angeles Clippers have suffered has allowed Williams to showcase just how good he really is.
Lou Williams has been on six different teams throughout his 13-year career. However, he has not succeeded as much as he is this year with the Clippers. For his career, Williams is averaging 13.3 points, 3.0 assists, and 2.1 rebounds, all while shooting 42.0% from the field and 35.2% from three.
That is a far cry from how he’s playing this year.
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Williams is undoubtedly having the best year of his career this season. He is averaging a career-high 23.1 points and 5.0 assists, to go along with 2.6 rebounds. To add to that, Williams is also shooting career-highs in both free throw percentage (90.9%) and three-point percentage (41.4%). In addition, Williams is shooting a career-second best 44.9% from the field.
While Williams is flirting with a 50-40-90 season, not only is his consistency something to marvel at, but his ability to perform against the high-level teams in the league has been very impressive. And something the Cavs should be monitoring as well.
For instance, against the Golden State Warriors (three games), Lou Williams is averaging 30.0 points and 4.3 assists, shooting around 48.9% from the field and about 44.4% from three. Most recently against Golden State, Williams dropped a career-high 50 points, to go along with 7 assists, while hitting 8 three-pointers, and making 16 of his 27 shots.
Not only can Lou Williams score while coming off screens and moving off the ball, but he can also create his own shot. Something starting shooting guard, J.R. Smith, has been struggling at this season.
In addition, Williams has the play-making ability not many shooting guards have. Williams is 3rd among all shooting guards in assists per game. He is only trailing Jimmy Butler and Demar DeRozan, who are both All-star caliber players.
It’s no secret that the Cavs and Clippers have held talks over DeAndre Jordan. Throughout those talks, the Clippers have stated their interest in the Brooklyn Nets first round draft pick that Cleveland possesses. While Cleveland would be hesitant to trade away the pick solely for Jordan, if Williams were to be included, then something could potentially happen.
With J.R. Smith having arguably the worst season of his career, the Cavs could look to replace him. And with the way Lou Williams is playing, he should certainly be on the Cavaliers’ radar.
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Would you take Jordan and Williams for the Nets’ pick, Thompson, and Frye?