Since joining the Brooklyn Nets back in 2011, when the franchise was still in New Jersey, Deron Williams‘ story has been dominated by injury and under-performance. Friday night as Williams starred in putting local rival the New York Knicks to the sword, it felt a little different though.
Williams looked refreshed, energized, and dare I say, as confident as he has since his days with the Utah Jazz.
During the offseason, the 30-year-old had double ankle surgery, in an attempt to address the problems he’s had on both sides over the past few years.
Although it’s always a risk having surgery on both ankles at once, as it makes recovery a little bit trickier, and can sometimes have an impact on balance and timing as the player returns, the early signs suggest the move is paying dividends for Williams.
More from Hoops Habit
- The 5 most dominant NBA players who never won a championship
- 7 Players the Miami Heat might replace Herro with by the trade deadline
- Meet Cooper Flagg: The best American prospect since LeBron James
- Are the Miami Heat laying the groundwork for their next super team?
- Sophomore Jump: 5 second-year NBA players bound to breakout
It may only be five games into the season, but Williams’ averages of 19.8 points and seven assists per game, on a shooting percentage of 47.3 percent from the field, are incredibly impressive.
As a whole the Brooklyn Nets have been running very efficiently on offense, and Williams is no exception to that either. With their starting point guard on the floor, the Nets are averaging 111.1 points per 100 possessions, and that’s a result of a couple of different factors.
First and foremost, Williams seems to have found the right balance between scoring himself and deferring to teammates. Williams is clearly comfortable with his personnel, and knows who to distribute to, and when.
Joe Johnson and Mirza Teletovic have proven to be his favorite targets so far this season, as his passes to those two combine for 2.8 of his seven assists per game.
More than anything else it appears that Williams is finding great looks for both players, as off Williams’ passes Teletovic is shooting 60 percent from 2-point range, and 40 percent from behind the arc, while although Joe Johnson likes to do a lot of his work off the dribble, he’s shooting 50 percent on 3-point attempts assisted by Williams also.
The fact that Williams is finding his shooters is encouraging for the Nets going forward, but what’s even more important is that he makes his own shots, and in the early season he’s doing that at an efficiency that he hasn’t neared since the 2008 season.
Throughout his career, Williams shooting has generally been more about volume than efficiency, but so far this season he has managed to increase his number of attempts from last year while also improving upon his success rate.
Williams has been lethal on catch-and-shoot-opportunities, making 60 percent of them. Once he gets inside of 10 feet, Williams has also been very effective, making more than 55 percent of his tries from that range.
Something which may even provide further encouragement for the Nets is the fact that Williams is currently struggling with his pull-up jump shot, a shot that he has made his own over the years.
Williams has only made 34 percent of his pull-up attempts in his first five games, where even in a bad season last year, he averaged 39 percent. In other words, there’s still scope for further improvement.
It was no secret that Williams needed to pick his play up this season if the Brooklyn Nets were going to be a success, and in the very early stages, the signs of that are promising.
Following the Nets’ win over the Knicks, Williams told NBA.com just how aware he was of the situation, and how he was ready to move on:
"“Last two years were a struggle. They’re behind me now, looking forward to this one.”"
If Williams can maintain his recent form, Brooklyn Nets fans may have plenty to look forward to as well.