Williams once again had a slow start in Brooklyn, looking lost on offense in his first two months before slowly picking it up through December and January. He also underwent platelet-rich plasma therapy treatment and cortisone shots on his ankles for the second straight year, missing time to rest in between.
But Williams has continued a disturbing trend, averaging just 3.6 shots per game in the paint and 3.1 free throw attempts per game. Williams has played like he’s apprehensive about approaching bigger defenders, likely due to his balky ankles.
The franchise’s star player has shot well from outside — he’s hit on 48.7 percent of his midrange shots and 38.4 percent of his three-pointers, both respectable numbers. He’s also got one of the team’s best on-off court figures, as the team’s outscored opponents by 2.9 points per 100 possessions with him on the court. But Williams’s lack of aggressiveness means he’s played the back seat to his teammates on more than one occasion; the team’s alleged star player and floor general has only scored more than 20 points five times this season, and he’s turning the ball over on a career-high 17.8 percent of his possessions.
He’s played better than his detractors give him credit for, but slightly above average isn’t good enough. His explosiveness is all but gone, and his player efficiency rating is his worst since his rookie season. That’s a bad sign for a point guard four months shy of the wrong side of 30.
It’s just not clear at this point if Williams’s health is holding him back from his true potential, or that he just hasn’t been healthy in so long that the All-Star is long gone, and anyone who gives you a definitive answer on that is trying to sell you something. But last year, Brooklyn’s problem was that its successes and failures paralleled the team’s star player; if Williams was on, the team hummed along, if he was off, the team faltered. Indeed, this year Williams has shot much better in the team’s wins (50.6-39.1-75.9) than their losses (40.4-37.7-80.0) The problem now isn’t that the Nets go as Williams goes, but that the team often chugs along in spite of him.
Williams once again had a slow start in Brooklyn, looking lost on offense in his first two months before slowly picking it up through December and January. He also underwent platelet-rich plasma therapy treatment and cortisone shots on his ankles for the second straight year, missing time to rest in between.
