Deron Williams Facing Make-or-Break Season With Brooklyn Nets
By Joseph Martinez
@JMartinezNBA
Getty Images
We all know how tough it’s been for Deron Williams mentally and physically the last two seasons. Dealing with a bevy of ankle sprains, this season will tell us a lot about Williams’ health. The Brooklyn Nets need the Williams who was once a top 10 player on the Utah Jazz.
He has looked great during this preseason and finally looks healthy again. Offseason surgery on both of his ankles has Williams ready for this season. Williams has shown what he can do when he’s healthy, but when’s the last time he was completely healthy? We’ve seen glimpses of a healthy Williams, but the Nets need it consistently.
Williams is a player who has the best crossover in the game and is almost a mismatch because he has great size and is very strong for a point guard. The Nets should use him in the post more often this season. He can change the whole dynamic of this team.
I believe Williams still has it in him to be a star in this league. He’s just had bad luck with injuries. Some of his ankle injuries have just been situations where he couldn’t have prevented it from happening. It seems that he’s gotten a lot of his quickness and explosiveness back, which is great news for all Nets fans, although the preseason is only just a small sample size. We’ll see how he holds up in an 82-game season.
A healthy Williams could turn the Nets from a 40 to 48 win team very easily. People forget that two seasons ago he averaged 19 points and almost eight assists per game and the year before that he averaged 21 points and eight assists per game. When he is healthy he has shown that he is still a top-five point guard in the NBA, in my opinion.
Williams will always take heat from critics and fans because, well, he makes around $18 million a season and he plays in the Big Apple. I believe Williams will finally prove he’s worth that huge contract that Brooklyn gave him, and if he stays healthy don’t be surprised to see the Nets deep into the playoffs.
Joseph Martinez is a Brooklyn Nets/NBA writer for www.RantSports.com. Follow him on Twitter @BKN_Martinez08, find him on Facebook or add him to your network on Google.
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