Deron Williams fall from the top has been a dramatic one. He was once the best point guard in the league, he was in debates involving Chris Paul as to who is on top and he was such a talent the he essentially made a future hall of fame coach hang it up a little earlier than anticipated for the betterment of Williams’ career.
Then, as he was dealt from the Utah Jazz to the Brooklyn Nets, his career took a weird turn. He was handed the spotlight and according to an old teammate of his, he crumbled under the pressure. Williams is a strange player who performs well under no pressure to do so but when all eyes are on him, he didn’t show up for Brooklyn.
At the end of his time with the Nets, there was a small resurgence as we saw D-Will show up for Brooklyn in game 4 of their playoff series against the Atlanta Hawks but it appears that fantastic playoff performance was just a mirage and it wasn’t something to expect from him going forward with Brooklyn. It appears now as Williams heads home to play for the Dallas Mavericks, the former All-Star will not be the same player he once was and he already had a plan to depart Brooklyn in the summer of 2015.
Following from Ken Berger of CBS Sports.
“I don’t think be he’ll be an All-Star again because of how good the West guards are,” one longtime executive told CBS Sports. “I don’t think he’s a top-15 point guard right now, but I think he can eventually get there.”
Pierce’s analysis, issued before he left the Washington Wizards to reunite with Doc Rivers in LA with the Clippers this past summer, is at least partially true, according to sources familiar with Williams’ decline in Brooklyn. Advancing in years, Pierce and former Celtics teammate Kevin Garnett looked to Williams to lead and push a team that had championship aspirations. Instead, Pierce said, it was he and Garnett who “ended up doing all the pushing.”
“I think he already had one foot out the door,” a league source said. “When you don’t work out somewhere and you’re looking for the exit door, you’re not going to be as productive at work. I think he had it in his mind that this was not going to work out, and after the season, there’s got to be a different plan here.”
Williams is now gone and the Nets are moving forward seemingly attempting to erase any remnants of the dramatic miscue that was the Williams/Pierce/Garnett/Joe Johnson era. Joe Johnson is the only one that remains and even his problematic tenure with the team is was once reportedly close to reaching its end as well.
Deron Williams did show up though. He showed up and didn’t do what the Nets wanted. He showed up to disappoint and he showed up to devalue his $100 million contract. At the end of the day, the Deron Williams experiment in Brooklyn failed but hopefully for the Mavs, he can make the most out of his new two-year, $10 million deal and be at the worst a serviceable point guard.
