In the 2005 NBA draft, the Utah Jazz selected Deron Williams with the #3 pick and Chris Paul went #4 to the New Orleans Hornets. Since that day this has been quite a rivalry. And frankly, it’s been pretty lopsided.
Actually, the rivalry started seven months earlier, when on December 1, 2004, Paul and the #1 ranked Wake Forest Demon Deacons marched into Champaign and got buried by Williams and Illinois 91-73. The Fighting Illini promptly took over #1 and went on to play in the National Championship Finals. Friday night continued one of the biggest Player vs. Player rivalries in the NBA when the Nets faced and shut down the Clippers 86-76.
Everyone loves Chris Paul. In ESPN's silly poll he was the highest ranked point guard, #4 overall. I don’t know why. Because he’s small and fast. He had a quick start in the NBA winning the Rookie of the Year nearly unanimously and going runner up in the MVP a couple years later. He’s been selected to five straight All Star games. Okay, yeah, he’s really good.
But when push comes to shove, Deron Williams has dominated Paul. In fact, it seems that CP3 has never played well against D-Will. Heads up in the NBA, Deron Williams is now 14-4 against Chris Paul’s team after Friday’s win as Paul struggled again.
Deron Williams has played 20 more regular season games and has done better in the playoffs. Williams has led his team to win 4 playoff series compared to Paul’s 2. Williams led the Jazz all the way to the Western Conference Finals in just his second year, and then in 2010, D-Will became the only player to record at least 20 points and 10 assists in five consecutive playoff games.
If you think it is just a product of better teammates, I invite you to compare Carlos Boozer’s career before and after he had Deron Williams for a teammate. Deron makes everyone around him better.
I love watching D-Will play basketball. His expression never changes. He is always in control. He is the strongest point guard I think we’ve ever seen and he handles the ball with pure authority. He plays through pain. He is a masterful ball handler, great passer, and can score anywhere. (Not only that, I love playing with him on PS3, where on NBA 2K11 he earned MVP honors two seasons in a row for me. And he’s even better in 2K13.)
Deron Williams is finally getting recognition he deserves, making 3 straight All Star games. He joined one of the worst teams in NBA history and has helped them become a preferred destination in just a year and a half. Consider that Mikhail Prokhorov was willing to swallow Joe Johnson’s bloated contract just to pursuade D-Will to stay.
Whether it’s Wake Forest and Illinois, Hornets and Jazz, or Clippers and Nets, the result is usually the same. And while Chris Paul gets the attention, Derrick Rose gets an MVP trophy, and Russell Westbrook scores the other half of points leftover from Durant, I’ll take Williams who simply goes about his business quietly and doesn’t care who likes him or not. I look for him to win an NBA Championship before those other three guys.
But for my very biased opinion, Deron Williams is the best point guard in the NBA. And heads up, no one has proven otherwise.
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