Deron Williams
Teams
Utah Jazz - 2005-11
New Jersey/Brooklyn Nets - 2011-15
Dallas Mavericks - 2015-17
Cleveland Cavaliers - 2017
Playoffs
Appearances - 9 (2007,2008,2009,2010,2013,2014,2015,2016,2017)
Conference Finals - 2 (2007,2017)
NBA Finals - 1 (2017)
Championships - 0
Awards and Honors
All-NBA First Team - 0 (2008,2010)
All-NBA Second Team - 2 (2008,2009,2010,2012,2013)
*(actual in bold, deserved in italics)
All-Time Ranks
Assists Per Game - #14
Total Assists - #22
Three-Pointers Made - #78
League Leads
Total Assists (#2-2007,2009,2010, #3-2008, #5-2011,2012,2013)
Assists Per Game (#2-2007,2009, #3-2008,2010,2011, #5-2012,2013)
Deron Williams did not have big stats in college at Illinois, putting up 12.5 points and 6.8 assists per game as a junior at Illinois, but after leading the Illini to the national championship game, he drew big notice from the NBA, and ended up being drafted #3 overall by the Utah Jazz.
Williams was good as a rookie, averaging 10.8 points and 4.5 rebounds, which earned him a spot on the All-Rookie First Team, but he made a huge leap in his second year, averaging 16.2 points and 9.3 assists, finishing behind only Steve Nash in assists. He would finish in the top 5 in assists in 7 straight seasons starting from that point, though he never took the top spot.
In the playoffs that year, Williams led the Jazz all the way to the Conference Finals for the first time since 1998, and he averaged 25.8 points per game in that series against the Spurs, but it wasn't enough to take down the perennial contenders, who beat Utah in 5 games.
In his third season, Williams was named to the All-NBA Second Team after averaging 18.8 points and 10.5 assists, but wasn't named to the All-Star Team because of the depth at the point guard position in the Western Conference. Despite another very strong playoff performance, Williams and the Jazz fell in the second round in 2008.
The next year, Williams missed 13 games with an ankle injury, the first of many nagging injuries that would eventually force him from the league. He still played at a high level when he got healthy, with 19.4 points and a career-high 10.7 assists per game on the season.
Williams was finally selected as an All-Star for the first time in 2010, something he had deserved for several years, but Utah couldn't get past the second round of the playoffs again. Midway through the following season, shortly after coach Jerry Sloan retired, Williams was traded to New Jersey.
He didn't score as much with the Nets that year, but he averaged 12.8 assists per game for the team before he was forced to have surgery on his right wrist, which ended his season prematurely. When he came back fully healthy the next year, he averaged a career high with 21 points per game, but the Nets missed the playoffs after Brook Lopez missed most of the season with foot and ankle injuries.
Williams started to have problems with his ankles again the next year, but he played through it, and had another really good season, but it would be his final season playing at a star level. He did get the Nets to the playoffs, but they fell in the first round, even with Williams averaging over 20 points per game in the series, the final time he would do that.
Over the next couple years, Williams missed time with several injuries to his ankles, calf, and ribs, and it started to affect his production to the point that the Nets released him in 2015. He signed with the Mavericks, where his injury issues followed him, with an abdominal strain forcing him out of the playoffs early in the first game.
Williams was released by the Mavericks midway through the next season, and he signed with Cleveland to try to win a championship. Williams only averaged 7.5 points during his time with the Cavaliers, and came off the bench in most games, but the team did reach the NBA Finals, the only time he would get there in his career. After Williams averaged only 1 point per game in the Finals, he was forced to retire earlier than he wanted to.
Even though Williams retired much earlier than expected, he had a long peak of 7 years where he was among the best players in the league, as he was near the top of the league in assists consistently and averaged between 16 and 21 points every season. He was the best player on a Conference Finalist, and always played better in the playoffs through his first 8 seasons, and he deserves to be remembered as one of the best players of all time.
"but wasn't named to the All-Star Team because of the depth at the point guard position in the Western Conference"
ReplyDeleteGotta disagree with you here. First of all there wasn't much PG depth in the West. Steve Nash was a media darling but not actually a good basketball player considering he was the worst defender in the league. Tony Parker was better than Nash, but not great either. Deron Williams was a deserving All-Star from 2007 on probably close to every year until his second or third year on the Nets. He was better than Nash and Parker but they played on teams the league cared about, the Suns and Spurs. No one (relatively speaking) cared about the Jazz, throughout history the NBA has rarely cared about the Jazz.
Secondly, even if Deron was considered the 4th best PG in the West, since when did that mean you can't make the All-Stars? In 2002 or 2003 when Steve Nash was considered just an average point guard, he made the All-Stars as the 4th Point Guard in the West. So the coaches didn't choose Deron as an all-star in 2007-2009 simply because they didn't care about Deron as much as they did other guys.
"He was the best player on a Conference Finalist"
Yeah not really. Deron Williams was a great player, but Carlos Boozer was the best player on the Jazz in 2007. This was basically the peak of Boozer's career, and he was fantastic that playoffs. Furthermore, while it's true the Jazz made the conference Finals, it wasn't exactly impressive since the Rockets choked against them in the 1st Round and then they had one of the easiest 2nd Round matchups in years against the Baron Davis Warriors.
Deron Williams is a very underrated player, especially these days.