C.J. Watson spent the past two seasons playing behind Derrick Rose in Chicago. But even after seeing the NBA’s 2011 MVP up close on a daily basis for the past two seasons, Watson said he thinks his new teammate, Deron Williams, is the league’s premier point guard.
“I always thought Deron was the best point guard in the league,” Watson said yesterday during his introductory press conference at the Nets’ practice facility. “When everyone asks me who is the toughest point guard, I always say him.
“Between him and D-Rose, it’s pick your poison.”
Watson picked the Nets after the Bulls waived Watson instead of paying him $3.2 million for next season. When he hit the market, the Nets immediately registered interest in having Watson come to the Nets to back up Williams.
Both Avery Johnson and Williams called Watson once he came free to personally sell him on coming to play in Brooklyn. And while other teams could, and did, offer Watson more money, that personal sales pitch from Johnson and Williams was enough to make Watson decide to sign with the Nets for the veteran’s minimum and pass up more money elsewhere.
“They went out of their way to try and sway me, and no one else really did that,” Watson said. “I think that was really the deciding factor.
“When they called and I thought about it and saw, with them getting Joe Johnson, I think that was the main factor in me deciding to come here.”
Adding Watson is just one of several moves the Nets have made to overhaul their roster this summer as they prepare to move to Brooklyn. Between trading for Johnson, re-signing Williams, Gerald Wallace, Kris Humphries and Brook Lopez and signing Mirza Teletovic and Reggie Evans, Watson is excited about the potential the Nets have, and thinks they can compete with anyone in the Eastern Conference.
“I think one or two,” Watson said when asked how high the Nets are capable of finishing in the East. “It’s big expectations, but I think it’s something that we can do.”
Watson was a key part of one of the league’s best benches the past two seasons in Chicago, where they called themselves the “Bench Mob.” He said he hopes to create the same mentality with the Nets, which starts with being effective when they’re on the floor.
“We have to be good, for one,” he said. “We’ve got to play well and our starters have to do what they do and the bench has to come in and back the starters up and play well.’’
“I think that was the main thing in Chicago — our starters were great and then our bench also did a good job and won a lot of games for us, too. So as long as our chemistry is good, we start to click and just go from there.”
* Andrei Kirilenko told Russian media yesterday he’s going to come to the NBA this season, and that his decision will be made sometime soon. Kirilenko, who is preparing to play for Russia in the Olympics, has long been linked to the Nets because of his ties to Williams, whom he played with for several years in Utah, and Russian billionaire owner Mikhail Prokhorov, whom Kirilenko supported in his failed presidential bid earlier this year.
But after spending over $300 million this summer to completely revamp their roster, the Nets can only offer Kirilenko the veteran’s minimum, something that sources have said would make the Nets a long shot to land him.