Lets say you watched the Brooklyn Nets loss Wednesday in Game 2 of their first-round series with the Atlanta Hawks. Lets say you didnt know any of the players or their salaries.If someone asked you to identify the max contract point guard, you likely would have guessed the Nets' backup, Jarrett Jack, who carried Brooklyn and contributed 23 points. Or you may have picked the Hawks' starter, Jeff Teague, or his backup, Dennis Schroder.Theres no chance you would have guessed Deron Williams, and for good reason.He looked lost. He seemed disengaged. He scored two points on 1-for-7 shooting and missed a wide-open opportunity to tie the game in its waning moments.Williams earns $19.8 million this season. Jack, Teague and Schroder combined earn $16 million.When the Nets needed Williams most, as they drew within striking distance of stealing a split in Atlanta, he was nowhere to be found. It doesnt help that Williams disappearing act came just a week after his former teammate Paul Pierce publicly questioned his motivation and resilience under pressure.Pierce told Jackie MacMullanof ESPN.com:Before I got there, I looked at Deron as an MVP candidate.But I felt once we got there, thats not what he wanted to be. He just didnt want that. I think a lot of the pressure got to him sometimes. This was his first time in the national spotlight. The media in Utah is not the same as the media in New York, so that can wear on some people. I think it really affected him.As Mike Mazzeo of ESPN.com noted, in the last three years, Williams is 2-for-17 from the field in the last five minutes of playoff games when the Nets were within five points of their opponent.It didnt have to end up this way. The truth is, Williams has shown streaks of brilliance, as recently as the middle of this season. His bright moments are typically overlooked by the national media, which favors the simple narrative that Williams was once great, now hes terrible and theres no hope for recovery. Thats empirically false.At times this year, Williams has been electric, spry and dynamic. Thats no small feat after offseason surgery on both of his ankles. Hes broken defenders down off the dribble and attacked the basket with purpose.In those moments, Williams fuels the Nets offensive engine. He generates opportunities for his teammates. That Williams is still there. Somewhere. He just hibernates for long stretches and needs to be rediscovered.In order to fix the problem, one needs first to understand it. Williamsand much of the mediahave failed to properly diagnose the current issue. Do I have to really answer that' Williams said after Thursdays practice, according to Mitch Abramson of the New York Daily News, when asked about his struggles in Game 2. I just came off two points. 1-for-7. I can play better. All right guys'Nets head coach Lionel Hollins said of Williams performance, He had 10 rebounds, he had eight assists; he played well, according to Tim Bontemps of the New York Post. He was defending; he made some hustle plays. Shooting comes and goes.But the problem isnt that Williams scored two points. The problem isnt that he shot 14 percent. The problem isnt that he missed a shot on the last possession.Scoring two points and shooting 14 percent don't preclude a player from positively impacting the game. The Nets need look no further than a point guard from their pastJason Kiddto find a paradigm for controlling the game without scoring. That is plainly not what Williams did on Wednesday night.The real problem is that Williams appeared aloof and tentative. He deferred completely to Joe Johnson. He camped out on the perimeter and swung the ball immediately without looking at the basket, much less attacking it.He looked like he didnt want the ball. And when he got the ball, he seemed preemptively defeated, like he knew driving to the basket would prove futile. That is to say nothing of his three turnovers and abject late-game defensive failures, including getting lost on DeMarre Carrolls backcut to put the Hawks up three points with less than a minute remaining.The Nets dont need 2006's Williams to suddenly come back to life. That ship has sailed.They just need Williams to stare down his opponent, own the moment, get aggressive and create scoring opportunities. They need him to be confident and decisive and act like he thinks hes the best player on the court, not the worst. They need him to apply pressure to the defense. They need him to get angry about Pierces comments.They need him to play with purpose. They need him to resent the fact that Jack, his backup, is the one playing with force, clawing to get his team back in the game and seizing the moment. Thats Williams job.It doesnt matter how many points Williams scores, or what his field goal percentage is or whether he makes the last shot. As long as he leads and attacks the defense aggressively, that will represent progress. At that point, Williams will know that he did all he could to help his team.And thats all anyone can ask for, beginning in Game 3 in Brooklyn on Saturday at 3 p.m.
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