Deron Williams on His Disappointing Season: 'Hopefully It'll Change'

This season has been, to say the least, a disappointment for Brooklyn Nets point guard Deron Williams.

Sidelined with ankle injuries at various points this season, Williams has missed 16 of the Nets' 46 games. And in the games he's played, his numbers have not impressed. The alleged star is putting up 13.5 points and 6.9 assists. Both numbers are the lowest they've been since his rookie season in 2005.

When you look at those totals without knowing who Deron Williams is, they don't seem bad at all. Serviceable, even, for a starting point guard. But factor in certain elements like his $98.7 million contract, the four seasons in a row where he averaged a double-double and the fact that his franchise banked on him to lead their rebranding effort in Brooklyn, Williams' output has not only been a letdown, it's been downright disastrous.

Last week, Williams admitted that a lot of his problems stemmed from a lack of confidence. It's the reason he came off the bench for six games after returning from another ankle injury. His confidence has been so bad, it seems, that it took playing against the lowly Philadelphia 76ers to regain some trust in himself. After a slow start returning from injury, Williams put up 21 points to go along with 6 assists against the NBA's worst defense by almost 4 points.

"It was big," Williams told Tim Bontemps of the New York Post. "I wish we weren’t talking about little things like that all the time. It seems like I have a good game and it’s a big deal. It shouldn’t be that way. It has been, because of injuries and how it’s gone. But hopefully it’ll change.’’

Whatever the reason – injuries, confidence, something else – the Nets cannot afford for Williams to take a backseat with this team, especially offensively. Shaun Livingston has shouldered much of the burden for Brooklyn this season while Williams has been out, but he's also the lowest-paid player on the team and was more or less an afterthought before Williams went down. Livingston's offensive game has drastically improved, but he still doesn't have a jumpshot outside of 10 feet – a skill that star-caliber point guards need in today's NBA. That's where Williams, the Nets would hope, comes in.

The only available guards who can play the 1 spot behind Williams and Livingston are Marquis Teague (who cannot be relied on) and Jason Terry (who has been terrible lately). With Williams nursing his confidence and ankles back to full strength, the Nets suddenly are in a position where they have little to no reliable depth at the point.

Every player has slumps. Every player gets injured. But Williams has seemingly had to deal with both for the entire season – when it's been going on this long, it's not just a slump anymore.

 TNT's Inside the NBA crew – Charles Barkley, Kenny Smith, and Shaquille O'Neal – also unleashed against the Nets and Williams in a conference call this morning, reports Andy Vasquez of The Record.

"He’s never going to get back to Utah," Barkley commented. "His best days are behind him."

"I was actually kind of dumbfounded when I heard a great player say, 'I don’t have any confidence,'" O'Neal said. "Especially when you have the ball. … Deron Williams has always been a guy that loves to have the ball. A very explosive player."

Not exactly ringing endorsements on the confidence campaign.

But maybe all is not lost. Willliams, at long last, finally does seem like he's finally starting to get a bit of his touch back and with it, his ankle is healing:

“It’s definitely getting better,’’ said Williams. “Last year, it didn’t happen overnight, it was a couple weeks for it to calm down and the strength to come back, so it’s getting there, slowly but surely.’’

Something that Nets fans have held onto for this entire season is Williams' turnaround last season after the All-Star break. After a disappointing beginning to the season not unlike this one, Williams averaged 22.9 points, 8 assists, and 2.8 threes on a remarkable 48.1% shooting from the field and 42% from three. He looked like vintage Deron Williams from the Utah Jazz.

But that was last year. And in a league and a city where "what have you done for me lately" is the reigning mentality, last year isn't good enough anymore. Until Nets fans stop seeing Williams limping every game and until his jumpers start to fall with consistency, they will not have any confidence in him – no matter how much his own confidence is coming back.

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