Tuesday, December 18th, 2012 at 9:00 am  |  137 responses

Deron Williams Blames Avery Johnson’s System for Struggles


by Marcel Mutoni / @marcel_mutoni

A deeply frustrated Deron Williams is searching everywhere for answers.

The Brooklyn Nets’ star point guard, putting up the worst numbers since his second year in the NBA, has gone from saying his issues are mostly mental, to blaming his head coach for his struggles.

According to D-Will, currently averaging 17 points, 8.3 assists and only shooting 38.8% from the field, Avery Johnson’s offense hasn’t helped his game. Williams says he prefers the system Jerry Sloan ran in Utah.

Per the NY Times:

Since coming to the Northeast, he has eroded in nearly every facet of his game. His scoring has declined, and his shooting percentages have plummeted. [...] Injuries may be partly to blame. But as the Nets prepared to host the Jazz on Tuesday, Williams listed another factor: the playbook. “That system was a great system for my style of play,” Williams said of the “flex” offense run by Utah Coach Jerry Sloan. “I’m a system player. I love Coach Sloan’s system. I loved the offense there.”

Williams was widely blamed for Sloan’s sudden retirement in February 2011, just before the Jazz traded Williams to the Nets. And his openly pining for Sloan’s system could be viewed as subtle criticism of Coach Avery Johnson’s offense. Williams did nothing to discourage that interpretation when he was asked to compare the offense used by the Nets with the one he ran in Utah. “Is it as good as there? No,” he said. “There’s just more one-on-one and isos” in Johnson’s offense.

Shots fired!

While saying that he will eventually adjust to the Nets’ iso-heavy system, Deron Williams added that in both high school and college, his teams ran motion offenses that featured plenty of movement which allowed him to thrive.

Avery Johnson thinks time is on Deron Williams’ side and that he will snap out of his funk. And though that may very well be the case, there’s no denying that things will be considerably more tense in Brooklyn going forward.

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  • http://twitter.com/sooperfadeaway nbk

    i mean if these were 16 year old girls who were sensitive about stuff like that sure. but these are grown ass men. as a professional, when someone says something that is completely true in regards to my work place, and it doesn’t make light of my abilities at my job, i take that as constructive. The only thing Avery should do from these comments is try and come up with a way to appease his star player. He shouldn’t get rattled, or feel insulted. There is no reason to be, unless he’s insecure, but if he is, should he really be coaching an NBA team? He doesn’t work at a daycare.

  • RKJ92

    I JUST THINK HE GETS WAYYYYYYY TOO MUCH CREDIT THEN HE DESERVES.. A GREAT PLAYER YES.. A SUPERSTAR HELL NO…

  • Anthony Dixon

    how would you know that??? ya fish together?

  • RKJ92

    HE CANT PLAY DEFENSE TO SAVE HIS LIFE?

  • RKJ92

    YEPPPPP

  • Anthony Dixon

    season aint over yet so that statement holds little weight. lillard is nice but hast to win some meaningful games first.

  • RKJ92

    ILL BELIEVE IT WHEN I SEE IT, I THINK FACTS ARE MORE EVIDENT AT THIS MOMENT IN TIME THOUGH AND THEY AREN’T EVEN IN THE PLAYOFF RUN ATM :/

  • RKJ92

    NO HE DOESN’T.. AS OF RIGHT NOW, AND AGAIN FOR THIS SEASON OBVIOUSLY.. HE IS INFACT OUTPLAYING DERON WILLIAMS. IT HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH WINNING MEANINGFUL GAMES LOL THESE ARE STATISTICS

  • Anthony Dixon

    you obviously do not watch Nets games. Cuz if you did, you would see that stackhouse gets more minutes than brooks.

  • pposse

    They aren’t 16 year old girls, but there are always a time and place to vent out your frustrations. Who is being a 16 yr old girl is DWill for venting to the public when he should have the mental acuity to understand that the NY media will get a hold of this and try and create controversy. Of course that’s my opinion, its why I find the need to comment on every Kobe post when he publicly calls out teammates and such. He should just say what he has to say to Avery behind closed doors (again that’s just my opinion).

  • http://twitter.com/sooperfadeaway nbk

    so yes, the shock exchange has a hearing problem. or literacy problem. because, obviously it isn’t hearing.

  • shockexchange

    Cosign. “Yo Ma, I like my other girl’s cookin’ better than yours.” Yeah, that always falls your way.

  • Anthony Dixon

    is he venting or just answering questions?

  • shockexchange

    Avery Johnson is a much better man than the Shock Exchange. If DWill made some backhanded comment about the Shock Exchange’s system on Sunday night, he’d be fryin’ fish by Monday morning.

  • http://www.facebook.com/qcollingwood Interdico Scriptor

    What?

  • pposse

    he might just be answering questions, but when he says one system is better than the one he is running now, then shouldn’t he just not answer the question? you guys don’t think that what he is saying will cause atleast a little bit of controversy?

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=509819249 Gaurav P.

    I don’t understand why he said Sloan’s system was great when he was the one that was clashing with Sloan over his system (eventually leading to the trade).

  • Da-Meat-Hook

    I LOLed

  • http://www.facebook.com/Starkindustries24 Josh Sykes

    Stop typing in fucking caps. Damn bet your yelling at your screen right now.

  • Anthony Dixon

    nah i agree wit you.. i think he should have kept quite but it’s hard when your being asked questions.

  • http://www.facebook.com/andrew.kelleher.1610 Andrew Kelleher

    Well said! Superstars take over games within any system. Great players adapt given any situation and believe they will succeed.

  • Anthony Dixon

    he is only shooting better. That means he’s out performing him?

  • http://twitter.com/sooperfadeaway nbk

    i am not arguing with that. Deron is being a petulant star, but he isn’t insulting anyone. that’s all i was saying. he’s saying something honest, not insulting. is he right for saying it? nah. But he also isn’t/shouldn’t be hurting anyone’s feelings.

  • Datkid

    Jerry Sloan ran an excellent system that helped drag some awful teams to the playoffs consistently. Of course Jerry Sloan’s system> Avery Johnson’s

  • Datkid

    he wanted out of Utah for 2 reasons. 1. they traded away basically everybody good, and then they were predictable, everybody knew all their plays because the playbook was literally DECADES old.

  • http://twitter.com/sooperfadeaway nbk

    that’s also not true. if the Shock Exchange were the coach of the Nets, he, just like Avery Johnson, would be less important than Deron Williams.

  • Datkid

    there are def. superstars worse than D.will bro. lmao until very recently both melo and JJ were some of them. and personally I think D.will is still better than melo even tho melo’s improved a lot this year

  • http://twitter.com/sooperfadeaway nbk

    Damian Lillard is not outplaying Williams. Stop saying something that is completely false. He’s scoring better. Everywhere else, he’s a worse player.

    .

    http://www.basketball-reference.com/play-index/pcm_finder.cgi?request=1&sum=0&p1=willide01&y1=2013&p2=lillada01&y2=2013 <—- Proof
    .
    you can say Williams is performing at the same level as a rookie. That would make sense. He isn't being outperformed tho, that's false.

  • Anthony Dixon

    i aint mad… we root for honesty

  • Anthony Dixon

    you obviously have something personal against him… tell the slam world what happened?

  • theDankerNuggets

    Your probably right about his offense, i don’t mean to say it’s all Iso. But from what I have watched Joe Johnson definitely has a green light to try to take his man off the dribble a lot. And he is probably one of the best one-on-one scorers in the league, but is far from being a good passer, and so I think him having the ball in his hands so much makes an offense so stagnant. I think this team would be much more effective if they made him be more of a slasher until late in the shot clock.

  • RKJ92

    WHAT ABOUT THERE EFFICIENCY RATINGS AS WELL LILLARD IS SLIGHTLY AHEAD

  • theDankerNuggets

    exactly just look at how well they are playing now without him, their big men are thriving in a much more fluid offense

  • Datkid

    yes he can. he defended fine when the grizzlies were murdering everything… don’t make it sound like he’s your boy bargnani. You can’t name 6-7 PFs better than a healthy Zach Randolph

  • RKJ92

    I CANT LOL ITS A TORONTO THING

  • RKJ92

    IT COUNTS FOR A LOT.. I DONT WANT A PG ON MY TEAM THAT CANT SHOOT AT LEASSSSTTTT 44% THAT’S HOW YOU LOSE GAMES THE LITTLE THINGS

  • Caboose

    Hey, hey, hey, hey, Raptors guy? Can you just go back to whining about your own team? Or, to put it bluntly, shut up.

  • RKJ92

    I EXPLAINED AT THE TOP OF THE PAGE YOU BRAIN DWARF

  • theDankerNuggets

    And their coach would always want to try to run their offense through them. From what I’ve seen Joe Johnson seems to get way more looks, which has to mean Avery Johnson has more faith in his abilities

  • LakeShow

    Hasn’t kindergarten started yet?

    Geezuz you woman.

    Williams was a superstar in Utah and hasn’t been since he left.

    That’s the facts.

  • Caboose

    Lol, I just had an image of Sloan pulling some worn, Indiana Jones type book out of a giant stone box in the locker room, with sand spilling everywhere. And D-Will thinking, oh hell naw.

  • Anthony Dixon

    thats not personal…… I think it’s something deeper

  • Kadavour

    and I just can’t understand why. Brooks is INSTANT offense, he’ s a hard guard for ANYONE, and it just pains me to see this guy’s potential stifled by extended time on the bench for Jerry Stackhouse. Avery is playing favorites.

  • http://twitter.com/sooperfadeaway nbk

    .1? you are really going to try and say Damian Lillard is having a better season because he has a 0.1 lead in PER? really?

    .

    like i said, you can say they are performing at the same level if you really want, but nowhere is there a reason to say Lillard is the better player right now. he is the better scorer.

  • RKJ92

    I FUCKING HATE BARGNANI HE’S NOT MY BOY AT ALL JUST CUZ I’M FROM TORONTO DOESN’T MEAN I LIKE THAT PRIMO PASTA PIECE OF SHlT AND YOU CANT NAME THEM BECAUSE EVEN THOUGH Z-BO CANT DEFEND HES A MONSTER IN THE PAINT AND REBOUNDING THOUGH HIS FG % IS SHlTTTTTTT

  • RKJ92

    HEY, HEY, HEY, HEY CAVIRGIN? SHUT THE F*CK UP! :D

  • RKJ92

    THAT’S WHAT I BEEN TRYING TO SAY NOBODY GETS IT THOUGH

  • http://twitter.com/sooperfadeaway nbk

    most people had him as better than Paul from 09-11. (mainly because Paul was hurt and nobody knew if he’d ever get back to where he was on a consistent basis).

  • LakeShow

    Naw, that’s not what your said…

    “I never felt DWill was a superstar once”

  • robb

    No doubt about it. I’ve never seen CP3 complaining about anything. He just goes and performs no matter what. He’s always gonna get his numbers because he’s a true superstar PG. But hey, if Deron was capable of getting a HOF coach like Sloan out of Utah, obviously he’s gonna complain about Avery Johnson’s system.

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