Larry Brown Sports

Deron Williams had a record-setting game on Friday. The Brooklyn Nets point guard made an NBA record nine 3-pointers in one half, and he finished with a franchise-record 11 3-pointers in his team’s 95-78 win over the Washington Wizards at Barclays Center.

Williams scored a season-high 42 points on 15-for-24 shooting, including 11-of-16 behind the arc. He even made his first eight threes.

D-Will has been particularly hot from beyond the arc recently. He made 49 percent of his threes in February, and he was 7-of-17 (.412) in three games this month prior to Friday’s explosion.

How hot was he?

“Hot like fish grease,” teammate Reggie Evans told the NY Daily News’ Stefan Bondy.

In terms of statistics, Brooklyn Nets point guard Deron Williams is having one of his worst years as a pro. He has openly admitted that he has struggled to learn a new offense since leaving the Utah Jazz, and as a result he is averaging only 16.8 points and 7.7 assists per game. Despite all that, Williams was second in the Eastern Conference All-Star voting earlier this month, trailing Rajon Rondo by about 325,000 votes.

Williams is still one of the better guards in the game, but his performance this season certainly hasn’t been All-Star worthy. He knows that.

“I just think there’s people playing better than me,” Williams said Tuesday when asked if he was deserving of an All-Star spot, via ESPNNewYork.com.

The worst part of Williams’ game this season has been his shooting. He’s shooting just 40.9% from the field overall and 32.8% from three-point range. However, he has definitely improved since P.J. Carlesimo took over for Avery Johnson as Brooklyn’s head coach. The Nets are on a six-game winning streak, during which Deron has shot 46.8% from the field and 48.3% from beyond the arc. He’s averaging 19.5 points and 8.3 assists during that stretch.

Chances are, Williams will be left off the All-Star roster. The fans select the starters, and it appears as though Rondo will be the starting point guard for the East. The coaches pick the reserves and Kyrie Irving is more deserving than Williams. That being said, he has shown signs that he is turning his season around. That’s good news for the Nets as they look to assert themselves as one of the better teams in the East down the stretch.

Chest bump to Pro Basketball Talk

Deron Williams’ shooting woes have been well-documented this season, as he is currently averaging career lows in field goal percentage (39.9) and three-point field goal percentage (30.0). His current scoring average of 16.3 points per game is his lowest in six seasons. Williams isn’t fully comfortable with the Brooklyn Nets, and there are a number of theories as to why.

For starters, Deron said he has not been able to get comfortable in Avery Johnson’s offense since being traded from the Utah Jazz to the Nets. But Johnson has been fired, and Williams continues to struggle. Brooklyn GM Billy King said in a recent radio interview that he believes Williams could be worn down from overworking himself during the offseason, and Williams sounds like he agrees.

“I didn’t take any time off. After last season, I never stopped working out,” he said according to the NY Post. “After the Olympics, the day I got back I worked out the next morning. I thought it was the best thing to do, and now looking back, it probably would have been smarter to take some time off and get a little bit of rest, especially on my legs, and my ankles in general.

“I took a lot of pounding over the last year because even though we had a shortened season, I was over in Istanbul, so I haven’t had a break since before then. I felt like I could handle it, and at the time I thought it was the right thing to do. I didn’t want to get out of shape. I wanted to just keep going.”

Williams has certainly had a greater workload than the average player, but the Nets aren’t in need of excuses right now. They need Deron to establish himself as a consistent leader who can run the offense on a nightly basis and score when called upon. Whether it’s fatigue, coaching or just plain poor jump-shooting, Williams is being paid enough money where he’s expected to identify the problem and fix it.

The Brooklyn Nets fired head coach Avery Johnson on Thursday morning, and many believe Deron Williams was the driving force behind the move. The Nets are off to a 14-14 start, and Williams recently was open in saying that he was having a hard time getting accustomed to Johnson’s offensive scheme.

With every NBA head coaching vacancy comes Phil Jackson speculation. Of course, Jackson is not going to return to coaching unless it is with a roster that has the potential to win a championship. Do the Nets have that potential? Whoever is operating the official Twitter account of the Utah Jazz does not believe they do. In fact, that person doesn’t think Brooklyn has any great players — not even Williams. The following tweet has since been deleted, but the folks at Black Sports Online were able to capture it first:

Williams is certainly an above-average player and one of the better guards in the NBA, but is he a great player? At this point, I’d put him right on the cusp. With the Jazz, he was a great player. With the Nets, he has not reached that level. It’s highly unlikely that Jackson is interested in coaching Brooklyn, and the team’s lack of talent is probably one reason why. The fact that the official Twitter account of the Utah Jazz said it is what makes it noteworthy.

Jason Kidd and Deron Williams both know what it’s like to play for Avery Johnson, and they both understand how it feels to not be fully comfortable playing for him. Earlier this week, Williams said he has not been the same player since joining the Brooklyn Nets and that he was far more comfortable in Jerry Sloan’s system with the Utah Jazz. Kidd, who had some disagreements with Johnson when he was with the Dallas Mavericks, said the offensive system isn’t the issue.

Simply put, Kidd feels that Williams has not been an effective enough shooter.

“I don’t think it has anything to do with the coach,” Kidd said Thursday according to the NY Daily News. “I think it’s just a matter of getting comfortable making shots. Also, he has new teammates. He’s got to get used to a new crew. It’s always a growing period.

“He’s a grownup. He’ll figure it out. All things don’t go well right away sometimes. He’s just going through a struggle shooting the ball, but he’s one of the best at what he does, so he’ll work through it.”

A look at the numbers would tell you Kidd is right, and Deron has admitted several times that he has not shot well enough. Williams shot 43.9% from the field last season — the lowest since his rookie year — and is down to 39.6% so far this season. He’s hitting only 29.4% of his shots from beyond the arc, which is a career low.

Williams’ struggles have likely been caused by a combination of things, but his poor shooting is certainly what sticks out the most. A player who simply isn’t knocking down shots isn’t going to be comfortable in any system.

Deron Williams has played in 90 games since joining the Brooklyn Nets in February of 2011, but he says he still isn’t totally settled in. For starters, he has been dealing with nagging injuries since the Utah Jazz shipped him across the country. In addition, Williams says he is not nearly as comfortable in Brooklyn’s offense as he was in Utah’s.

“I’ve really had injuries I’ve been dealing with the whole time,” Williams said Monday according to the NY Daily News. “I didn’t have the talent around me I did there. Their system was a great system for my style of play. I am a system player. I loved coach (Jerry) Sloan’s system there, I loved the offense there.”

Williams averaged 21 points per game last season with the Nets — the second-highest total of his career. However, his assist numbers have been just over 8.0 per game whereas they were consistently around 10.0 per game in Utah. He indicated the problem he has had adjusting could be due to the fact that Avery Johnson’s offense is less structured than he’s used to.

“I grew up in high school, my coach wasn’t one of those guys who would just throw out the ball and let us play,” Williams said. “We were a system team. We had a staple of plays that we relied on. We were good at execution. In college (at Illinois), we ran the motion offense. A lot of cutting, a lot passing, a lot of screening, a lot of extra passes. I’m used to just movement. So I’m still trying to adjust. It’s been an adjustment for me.”

Deron is only 28 years old and recently signed a five-year extension with Brooklyn, so he has plenty of time to find his comfort zone. But he knows big things are expected of the Nets in a new city, new arena and with new superstars like Joe Johnson. Williams is expected to be the glue that holds the whole thing together, so it would be in his best interest to learn quickly.

Deron Williams may have been more anxious than any other player or coach in the NBA during the whole Dwight Howard saga that took place last season. Williams wanted to play alongside a superstar, which is why he openly stated he was hoping Howard would come to the Brooklyn Nets and also why he strongly considered signing with the Dallas Mavericks. When all was said and done, he decided to re-sign with the Nets anyway.

Instead of forcing his way to Brooklyn or waiting to become a free agent, Howard was traded to the Los Angeles Lakers. Rumor has it the move has strained the relationship between Howard and Williams, but Howard doesn’t seem to care.

“It’s my life so if he’s upset because I made a decision for me, so be it,” Howard said according to the NY Daily News. “If he doesn’t want to be friends because I’m on another team, then so be it. There’s no need to smooth things over.”

Williams and Howard used to meet up for dinner anytime they were in the same town, but Deron said he has not spoken to Dwight recently. The Lakers host the Nets on Tuesday and it seems unlikely that the two stars will be breaking any break together in Hollywood.

“I’m here now in L.A. there’s no need to talk about what could have happened. I’m happy with being here in L.A.,” Howard said. “The fans have always been great here. Now that I’m on the team the fans, from Day 1, they’ve just been unbelievable to me and to this team.

“It really doesn’t matter at this point (why I demanded a trade to Brooklyn). There’s no need to talk about the past. I’m happy being a Laker. This is the best situation for me and what I need to move forward.”

We hear time and time again that professional sports are a business, so you would think Williams would accept that and move forward. If not, it doesn’t seem like Howard is going to lose any sleep.