Does Deron Williams need to change his game for Coach Kidd?

On Thursday, Jason Kidd gave some hints, but not many details, about how he sees the Nets offense running next season ... emphasis on "running." He wants to "pass the ball ahead" rather than dribble ... wants to "explore early, get up and down more" ... wants to play Deron Williams off the ball, have Gerald Wallace play "point forward," giving him more responsibilities.

Does that mean Kidd wants D-Will to be more of a distributor? He did say he wants his star point guard to be an "extension of the coach" like he was, but also talked about how much better of a shooter Williams is. Michael Salfino of the Wall Street Journal suggests Monday that the bottom line is that Williams will need to be more of a "facilitator" than he has been under Avery Johnson and P.J. Carlesimo.

"If the Nets are going to progress quickly in Kidd's first season, Williams may have to become more of a facilitator after all," Salfino writes. "It's easy to see tension developing if Kidd wants his point guard to become more of a quarterback rather the player who frequently looks to score himself."

We didn't get that ... at all, but there's no doubt the relationship is critical to the team's success. Johnette Howard of ESPN wrote a few days ago that "Kidd needs Williams to play like the Second Coming of Jason Kidd" but didn't discuss a wholesale change in D-Will's game. Instead, she said any change should be more about Williams."galvanizing" the Nets, what Mikhail Prokhorov called "the fire in the belly."

"The Nets' problem last season didn't trace to X's and O's. It was chemistry," Howard wrote after the press conference. "Williams wasn't able to galvanize the team despite being the Nets' franchise player and floor general. And with the Kidd hire, Williams is robbed of excuses going forward."

• Will Williams Change His Game? - Michael Salfino - Wall Street Journal
• Coach Kidd needs D-Will to be J-Kidd - Johnette Howard - ESPN New York