Shot Analysis: Deron Williams

Deron's performance has been kinda uneven with the Nets, but he certainly had his bright spots this season.

This is the 1st series I'm doing analyzing shot charts of the more important Nets (sans Brook Lopez because of his limited play last year) and how they fared from the field last season. We start off with the player at the helm of the Nets, Deron Williams.

For these 'Shot Analysis' posts that I'll do, I'll be using statistical support from a new (at least to me) site called VORPed.com that has shot charts from the last two seasons for every NBA player. Pretty cool, huh? The chart below is Deron's from last season, his first one with a significant amount of games being played with the Nets.

As you can see, Deron took most of his non-layup shots behind the 3-point line along the wing. 31% from the left and nearly 40% from the right sides of the wing are each pretty good percentages for a passing-first point guard. However, D-Will's shooting accuracy faded significantly on threes taken in either corner and from right at the top-center of the arc. 

Game 51 Preview: Utah Jazz (26-23) at Nets (16-34)

Will D-Will step up against his old team? Well, if he doesn't, the Nets probably won win their  2nd-straight home game.

In an attempt to win consecutive home games for the first time this season, the Nets will try to defeat the upstart Utah Jazz, a team that is surprisingly stuck right in the middle of the Western Conference playoff race. Of course, there is added intrigue for tonight's contest as it will be the first time that former Nets Derrick Favors and Devin Harris, who were traded to Utah from the Nets last February (a year ago) for Deron Williams, are going to play at the Prudential Center since the trade. More importantly, D-Will will be playing the team that drafted him in 2005 and the team that he played on for six seasons prior to coming to the Nets. It's always big news when stars play their former teams.

Background on Utah

The Jazz are a very different team from the Nets as they focus very much on interior scoring and defense while the Nets score most of their points from outside of the paint and don't play very much defense. Utah also doesn't turn the ball over much, as they are tied for 6th in the NBA in that category. On the other hand, the Nets are 20th in turnovers per game in the league. I guess it's fair to say that the Jazz as a fundamental-based team which can definitely not be used to describe New Jersey. The Jazz might not have a ton of flash or starpower but playing the game the right way and not making any stupid mistakes can take teams very far and help them win games, especially against a poor team like the Nets.