Heavy Burden for D-Will: the Numbers Don’t Lie

Added by Darius Amos on January 23, 2012.

… and we’re back, better than ever!

The excitement that captivated us more than a month ago when NBA players and team owners reached an accord and ended the lockout has now passed. The honeymoon is over, and the abbreviated regular season is in full swing. And with most teams already playing a quarter of its games, the time for teammates to gel is quickly fading. I wonder if the Nets know this.

Don’t let Sunday’s 10-point win over a hapless Charlotte team fool you – this Nets team is in serious trouble and already in jeopardy of missing the playoffs. Yes, their season is only 17 games old, but it’s not like they have shown any signs that they’re about to turn things around. Going into Monday’s game against stalwart Chicago (now there’s a team that’s gelling), New Jersey is 5-12. And I picked the Nets to sneak into the playoffs this season. What was I thinking?!

Alright, the argument can be made that the Nets aren’t built to compete without Brook Lopez – remember him, the All-Star center who broke his foot in December during a preseason game against the Knicks? We all knew that Deron Williams couldn’t carry the team alone, and we’re seeing that play out.

D-Will, for lack of a better phrase, is seriously busting his butt when he’s on the court. In a conference where point guards like Derrick Rose, Rajon Rondo and an inactive Baron Davis get most of the attention, D-Will is playing like an All-Star. But a deeper look at his statistical totals thus far indicates that he’s carrying a heavy burden. Let’s look, shall we:

At 18 points per game, D-Will is scoring higher than his career average. Throughout his career with the Jazz and even going back to his college days at Illinois, Williams has always been a scoring point guard. But beyond that could be the most telling about the Nets this season.

Williams’ shooting percentage (37.2 percent) is at the lowest of his career, and he never had a season when he was below 42 percent. His 3-point field goal percentage is also lower than his career average. As for his point guard play, Williams is averaging 8.3 assists per game (the lowest number as a full-time NBA starter), and he’s turning the ball over more than four times a game for the first time in his career.

Without another consistent threat on offense, D-Will is in a situation where he’s forced into double teams, forced into taking extra shots, forced to do maybe too much. Yes, you want the ball in your all-star’s hands, but that player needs help and reliable options.

Rookie MarShon Brooks and Kris Humphries have emerged as D-Will’s best options in Lopez’s absence. Let me repeat that: a rookie and Kris Humphries. Hmmm.

To his credit, Brooks is slowly coming along and developing into a solid NBA guard. Aided by extra attention paid to him by head coach Avery Johnson, Brooks is bolstering his aggressiveness when it comes to passing and strengthening his all-around defensive skills.

Offensively, Brooks is playing as expected. A 47-percent shooter, Brooks is the team’s second-leading scorer at 15 ppg while playing just under 30 minutes. But for how long and how often can the Nets rely on a rookie? It’s not an ideal situation.

Humphries is no longer Mr. Kim Kardashian – thankfully he’s back to being Mr. Double-Double. Once again averaging double-digit points and rebounds (13.5 ppg and 10.5 rpg), Humphries offers his usual gritty and grinding effort each game. He’s hardly a go-to guy on offense, though, which really trims the Nets’ and D-Will’s options.

But the contributions from the support staff have been inconsistent at best. Take Anthony Morrow, for example. Expected to play on the wing and build on what’s a promising career, Morrow has been hit-or-miss this season. He’s hitting his career averages, but is doing so with up-and-down performances. He dropped 19 points on 6-of-10 shooting against Charlotte on Sunday, but A-Mo only shot 2-for-13 in a loss the previous night. He’s been relegated to the bench after beginning the season as a starter, so we hope he can deliver more good than bad in his new role.

Of course, many factors such as injuries and effort aren’t tracked or noted in averages, numbers and other statistics. In most cases, the intangibles will make or break the team and often define the unit as a whole.

In the case of the Nets, the intangibles most likely resemble the statistics. And we all know that the numbers aren’t that very good.