Williams is Nets’ ‘Confidence Man’

Point guard's resurgence key to Brooklyn's 2014-15 season

May 20, 2014 By John Torenli, Sports Editor Brooklyn Daily Eagle

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There’s a 10-letter word that has defined Deron Williams’ three-plus seasons in the Nets’ organization: C-O-N-F-I-D-E-N-C-E.

The three-time NBA All-Star and two-time Olympic gold-medalist, who inked a five-year, $98 million deal to remain in Brooklyn during the summer of 2012, has been full of it at times, but lacking it far too often for a player described as the undisputed key to this franchise’s success.

Following last week’s playoff elimination at the hands of the two-time defending NBA champion Miami Heat in five disappointing games, Williams was frank – perhaps a bit too frank – about his vulnerable mental state heading into this offseason.

”It just took a beating on me,” Williams revealed, referring to his second straight injury-marred and underachieving campaign in our fair borough.

”[I] just couldn’t do what I wanted to, can’t finish the way I want to finish,” he added after averaging a lackluster 14.5 points and 5.8 assists during the Nets’ 12-game postseason run. “You just start thinking about things. So that was just the main thing.

“Confidence-wise, it’s hard to get back to where I was.”

Confidence-wise, it’s hard to believe Williams will ever be the player the Nets thought they were getting when they committed the years and money necessary to keep him here a little less than two years ago.

After arriving on Feb. 23, 2011 in the deal that sent guard Devin Harris, forward Derrick Favors, a pair of first-round picks and $3 million in cash to the Utah Jazz, Williams was tabbed the face of the franchise as it prepared to make its historic move from New Jersey.

On July 11, 2012, he officially inked the deal that would make him the richest Net in franchise history.

His image was immediately emblazoned on virtually every billboard and bus-stop sign celebrating the Nets’ long-awaited arrival on the corners of Atlantic and Flatbush avenues at the sparkling new Barclays Center.

Living up to that image, however, has been a struggle.

Williams has dealt with a pair of bum ankles, needing several rounds of cortisone shots as well as platelet-rich plasma treatments on the joints in each of the past two seasons.

He has been virtually invisible during the fourth quarters of several key playoff games, both this year and last, and put up an unfathomable zero points in Brooklyn’s Game 2 loss to Miami during the Eastern Conference semifinals.

That’s unacceptable from the highest-paid player on the team with the highest payroll in the history of the NBA (upwards of $190 million at last check and counting).

As a perennial All-Star during his five-plus seasons in Utah, Williams emerged as one of the top two point guards in the entire sport, if not the world.

He averaged in excess of 20 points and 10 assists in three of his four playoff runs with the Jazz, culminating with a career-best 24.3 points per contest and 10.3 assists during the 2010 postseason.

But now, as we all evidenced during his at-times eye-brow raising effort against Toronto in the opening round and Miami in the conference semis, the man they call D-Will has appeared unwilling to take the lead when the Nets need him most.

All-Star shooting guard Joe Johnson, aging veteran Paul Pierce and backup point man Shaun Livingston each seemed more capable of stepping up in big spots down the stretch of must-have games.

When the supporting cast begins to overshadow and outshine the lead actor, it’s time to consider recasting. And there are already rumors circulating, albeit unfounded ones, that Williams is on his way out of Brooklyn.

Unless, of course, he can find a way this offseason to regain his health and maintain it through the grind of the 82-game 2014-15 regular season and beyond.

Entering a summer full of doubt regarding the free-agent status of Pierce, the desire of Kevin Garnett to return for his option year, and whether or not Andrei Kirilenko, Livingston and Andray Blatche will be back for another run with Brooklyn, Williams remains the Nets’ most pressing question mark.

“I used to feel like I was the best player on the court, no matter who we were playing against,” Williams glumly admitted following Brooklyn’s ouster at the hands of tried and true franchise-type players like LeBron James and Dwyane Wade.

The Nets, doubtlessly, used to feel the same way about Deron Williams.

Whether they will again is up to him.

In the end, it’s just a matter of confidence.

Nothing But Net: It’s official! The Nets will host the 2014 NBA Draft at the Barclays Center for a second straight year. Tickets for the annual event will go on sale Wednesday. … C Brook Lopez, who had season-ending foot surgery in January and an ankle procedure two months later, will also be instrumental to the Nets’ success in 2014-15. The 7-foot Stanford alum was Brooklyn’s lone All-Star during the inaugural 2012-13 campaign, but played only 17 games this past offseason before being shut down. General manager Billy King believes Lopez will be ready to go when the Nets open training camp in October, but Lopez had “no idea” when he would begin basketball activities prior to then.