P.J. Carlesimo admitted Thursday what has been obvious for weeks: Deron Williams isn’t going to be at full strength this season.
“The reality of it is he’s not going to be 100 percent this year, and I think that’s the thing that a lot of people are having difficulty grasping,” the Nets’ interim coach said in an interview on ESPN 98.7 FM. “He’s playing dinged-up. His ankles are not good at all, and that wrist has been a problem for him all year.”
Williams, who missed two games last week after undergoing plasma rich platelet treatment on his ailing ankles, said after scoring 23 points to go with eight assists in Wednesday’s win over the Bucks that he would be getting cortisone shots in both ankles yesterday as a continuation of that treatment.
Williams has been clearly hampered by the ankle issues all season, which he admitted earlier this week.
“Yeah, it’s definitely affected me a lot,” Williams said. “I can’t jump. I haven’t dunked. I can’t dunk. Even if I tried off one leg, I can’t dunk. So it’s definitely affected me.
“You think about it, when I’m going into the lane and make a move, a hard jump-stop hurts. Any hard impact, or hard move, it hurts.”
After signing a five-year contract worth nearly $100 million to stay with the Nets in July, Williams hasn’t played up to expectations, averaging 16.9 points and 7.6 assists while shooting 41.5 percent from the field. But Carlesimo said his impact on the Nets, particularly considering the injuries he’s dealing with, goes beyond the numbers.
“He’s a warrior,” Carlesimo said. “He comes and he plays and when everybody game-plans for us, that’s the guy you have to talk about right off the bat. You have to talk about playing him and Joe Johnson.”
“It’s hard for me to overstate how much he brings to the table even though … people are fond of [saying], ‘Look at his numbers compared to this and compared to that.’ … It would be scary to think of playing a game without Deron Williams.”