Player Spotlight: Deron Williams

How good is Deron Williams?

Well, just last week he passed Pete Maravich for fifth place on the Jazz all-time assists list. It took Williams just a shade under three full seasons to catch what Maravich compiled in five and one-half seasons, two which were practically wiped out from injuries.

Of course, their respective Jazz roles are (and were) different.

Williams, in just his third season, is easily one of the top five PG’s in the league, and is knocking on the door of ten assists per-game – he is one of the best passers in the league. His rapid improvement since his rookie year – he’s almost a 20/10 guy this year - more than justifies Utah’s decision to take him ahead of Chris Paul in the ’05 draft.

Maravich, on the other hand, played for New Orleans, who were an expansion team at the time The Pistol arrived and were a squad who needed their Meal Ticket to shoot more than 20 times per. Maravich is one of the great oxymoron’s of hoops: The greatest passer who ever lived was considered, by some, to be a ball-hog.

Also keep in mind the level of teammates for both Williams and Maravich.

Funnily enough, three of the game’s more noted gunners – Maravich, Karl Malone (second) and Adrian Dantley (seventh) – occupy spots on the Jazz all-time assists list.

One final note: Williams has a better chance of passing Malone on the all-time scoring list (he’d need roughly 36,000 points to do that) than he does of passing Stockton’s assist record of over 15,000. Seriously. That Stockton mark is residing on another planet, one that can’t be reached.