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Deron Williams is looking to bounce back after being 'pretty much written' off
Nobody really expected the Brooklyn Nets to contend for a championship last season, but the team’s goofball mix of aging veterans, All-Star-level players in prime and the addition of a wild card in rookie head coach Jason Kidd at least added some intrigue to things. With the right matchups and a little luck, the Nets could have possibly upended a top-tier team like Miami, Indiana, or Chicago (thought of as top-tier, prior to Derrick Rose’s season-ending injury) in the second round and made things interesting in the East.
Instead, the squad worked its way through a wildly inconsistent season, with Kidd nearly fired midway through, Brook Lopez breaking his foot yet again, and Deron Williams limping his way through another diminished year. D-Will only missed 18 games during the season while dealing with ankle woes, but he spent training camp in a walking boot, and contributed his worst box score numbers since his rookie season in 2005-06.
It wasn’t pretty, and with Kidd gone to Milwaukee and swingman Paul Pierce off to Washington, few are expecting Brooklyn to make any such noise in the East this year. Provided they even make the playoffs. Expectations for Williams are similarly tempered, and he acknowledged as much in talking with Lenn Robbins at the team’s official website recently:
"Everybody's pretty much written me off. People say I'm never gonna be like I once was. I'm on the downhill. And so what pressure do I have?"
What ESPN New York’s Mike Mazzeo also found is that Williams’ Nets teammates and Deron himself seem to be a little on edge, in a good way, as they approach a hoped-for bounce-back season:
"I'm just playing, man," Williams said Tuesday. "I can actually play. I can actually run, cut, jump, so it's different."
Nets power forward Kevin Garnett said he feels like Williams has been playing with "a little edge" to his game.
"He has the looks of a man who is out to prove something," Garnett said.
Deron’s statistical contributions to the Nets in the years following the deal that sent him to the then-New Jersey Nets in 2011 weren’t actually that far off from his work in Utah, it’s just that outsized expectations may have gotten in the way. Williams was never comparable to Chris Paul, despite the direct line that many (mostly) televised pundits and scribes tried to pass off years ago, and Williams’ five-year and nearly $100 million contract agreement with Brooklyn in 2012 helped ramp things up.
Clearly hobbled, Williams did take a step back last year – again, posting his dreariest numbers since a rookie year that saw him out of NBA shape. After finally submitting to ankle surgery last May, perhaps the 30-year old can turn the clock back in a way. Perhaps he can make the final three years and over $63 million owed on his seem less … actually, no. That deal is always going to be onerous. Mikhail Prokhorov and general manager Billy King at their absolute peak.
The Nets aren’t doing anything this season, but if Williams could turn in a borderline All-Star contribution, the team could stick in the Eastern playoff bracket.
Nets center Brook Lopez will miss Wednesday’s season opener against the Celtics as he continues to recover from a right midfoot sprain he suffered two weeks ago in China.
Lopez was listed him as doubtful to play when the team left for Boston Tuesday, but coach Lionel Hollins confirmed the news after the team’s morning shootaround Wednesday.
“He’s not playing tonight,” Hollins said. “He still is having some pain when he goes hard.”
Brook Lopez is owed over $32.5 million over the next two seasons.
Nets!
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is an editor for Ball Don't Lie on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at KDonhoops@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter! Follow @KDonhoops
