Jazz's Williams in tune with Sloan in second season

[RonnieBrewer (Ronnie Brewer)]

Jazz's Williams in tune with Sloan in second season
Posted: Monday January 8, 2007 10:58AM
Updated: Monday January 8, 2007 11:30AM

Chris Mannix

The Utah Jazz's war room was operating on overdrive the evening of the 2005
NBA Draft. The Jazz had just traded away three first-round picks for the
right to swap places with Portland, with the clear goal of acquiring a point
guard to replace John Stockton, whose presence (or lack thereof) was still
being felt in Salt Lake City two years after his retirement.

As united as the front office was on its primary need, it was divided on
exactly whom it needed. General manager Kevin O'Conner favored Chris Paul,
the poised playmaker from Wake Forest seemingly cut out of the Stockton mold,
while coach Jerry Sloan preferred Deron Williams, a heady (and occasionally
hulking) guard from Illinois. Sloan, as he has for the better part of his
19 years with the Jazz, won out: Utah made Williams the third overall pick.

Sloan's faith, however, wasn't immediately validated. Though Williams grabbed
the starting point guard position nine games into the season, he lost the job
a month later. Worse, he developed a volatile relationship with Sloan.

"I just felt I should have been playing," says Williams. Sloan himself
acknowledged that the two "knocked heads" last season, mainly because of
Sloan's belief that Williams could work harder.

While Paul was on his way to winning Rookie of the Year honors and leading
the Hornets to the brink of a playoff berth, Williams quietly fumed on the
bench as his minutes continued to dwindle. Though his confidence (and Sloan's
in him) returned late in the season -- Williams started the final 26 games
and played more than 40 minutes in four of them -- it wasn't until the
offseason when Williams figured out what playing for Sloan truly meant. That
August, Williams spent four days working out with Stockton in Spokane, Wash.,
where he picked up secrets on successfully running an offense that Stockton
spent 16 seasons conducting.

"I know what he expects now," says Williams, who also hired a personal
trainer and worked daily on his conditioning. "Try to get easy baskets. Push
the ball every chance I get; if not, bring it back out and get the ball where
it needs to go. That has always been one of my strengths, controlling the
tempo of the game."

The results speak for themselves. Utah is off to a 24-10 start (third in
the Western Conference) with Williams operating as the offensive catalyst,
averaging 16.9 points and a Stocktonesque 8.8 assists.

At 22, Williams' leadership has extended beyond the floor. Last season
Williams wanted to wear black sneakers but Sloan wanted uniformity with his
players and required a unanimous vote. When the vote wasn't unanimous --
Greg Ostertag was the lone adamant dissenter -- the change was quashed. With
Ostertag, Sloan's all-time favorite whipping boy, having retired, Williams
again pushed for the switch. The result? Let's just say Utah's road attire
looks a little different this season.

"You can see him maturing and getting better before your eyes," says Jazz
guard Derek Fisher. "He has a rare combination of a lot of strengths and he
makes good decisions. And he doesn't walk around thumping his chest. He's
respectful."

Williams has even managed to impress the seemingly unimpressible.

"He's played pretty well," says Sloan. "We drafted him because he has all
the basketball abilities, but he also has a mind for the game, a basketball
intellect. Intelligence doesn't always correspond with basketball
intelligence, but he's one of the smartest players I've ever coached."




http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2007/writers/
chris_mannix/01/08/deron.williams.notes/index.html

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