In Defense of D-Will...Really...

Lately I've been reading alot of D-will hate on these boards. I mean some really bad stuff. It would be funny if the posters weren't so serious. There was one poster who actually said he was no better than Devin Harris... Really people?

It was not even 2 years ago when this same D-will took a halfway decent Jazz team to the second round (losing his starting center and SF right before the playoffs) against the future champion Lakers. After that series he was talked about as arguablly the best PG in the NBA. A Year and half later, he hurts his wrist, gets into an argument with Jerry Sloan is later traded to the Nets and after 7 games this year he is now being downgraded to Devin Harris status...Really people?

Just last season in 12 games with the Nets, with a bad wrist, he avgs 13 asts and 15 pts. He even had a few memorable games in that short span. The London Game against Toronto with 17 asts. when he just embarassed Sonny Weems:


there was also that great game against the Knicks where he had 22 pts, 8 asts. and 8 reb. and i dont' think we can forget the minossota game where he had 18 pts and count them 22 asts! but of course after 7 games this season, now hes no better than Devin Harris...Really People?

Its been 7 games, time to step back from that ledge and really look at the bigger picture. Do you really believe Deron is all of a sudden a scrub? Do you realy believe that all of a sudden he is overrated? This team lost its leading scorer 3 days before the season began, they added 4 rotations guys less than a week before the first game and they had 2 rookies who also had to learn the offense in a very short training camp. Oh and lets not forget they had one of the roughest opening schedules of any team. This was going to be a rough first couple of weeks regardless. To make matters worse our second leading scorer (Ammo) was absoultely horrendous for the first 5 games, the new guys were just as bad, so Deron was forced to overcompensate, taking shots he normally wouldn't take trying to carry this team.

Some people were trying to compare him to TMac and other great scorers in the sense that if hes a top 10 player he should be able to carry this team no matter how bad it is. You can't compare the two thats like comparing apples and oranges. The PG position is different from all other positions because they lead the team not by scoring but by making thier teammates better by getting them the ball where they are at thier best. He'll get the 3 pt specialist the ball at his favorite spot on the floor, he will find the slasher at the right moment, he'll find the big guy right when hes next to the basket for an easy layup. Now what happens when your 3 pt specialist is missing all of his shots? When your slashers have stone hands? When your big guys can't catch? Then the PG trys to go beyond his game and score more points and sometimes when his shots are falling it will work but thats not his game so most of the time it won't. I'm a huge fan of Jason Kidd but come on people he would not be doing any better in this situation. He would pass it to Ammo who would miss the shot, he would look for james to slash but his stone hands would bungle it and Petro would miss Kids passes too. So Kidd too would be forced to shoot..and take it from someone who always had Kidd on his fantasy teams. Kidd would have put up worse shooting numbers than Deron is now.

One more thing for those complaining about his attitutde. Deron is a very competitive player so of course hes going to be upset when the Nets lose, or when they play badly. I'm willing to be bet that you put just about anybody in Derons place and they would be reacting the same way, hes frustrated the team is playing like crap, missing easy sots and dropping easy passes, you would be reacting the same way if it was happening to you. On the flip side hes critizing his own play as well, hes not just blaming the team. This is how competive players react that is how they function, and I don't mind him behaving like that because at least it shows that he cares enough to have an attitude...
Give it time...Dwill and the Nets are going to play better..really people ...they will.