A little more from Aldridge

[tatermoog]

https://www.nba.com/2011/news/featu...8/morning-tip-trade-deadline-recap/index.html

2) Utah (traded Deron Williams for Derrick Favors, Devin Harris and two first-round picks)
The picks could be lottery picks; Favors could turn into Utah's next great power forward; Harris could well regain the form that made him a borderline All-Star early in his career, in Dallas. That's a lot of coulds for a franchise that never likes taking chances and doesn't like change any more than taking chances.
But owner Greg Miller was worried that Williams would leave in 2012, when he could hit free agency, just as LeBron left Cleveland and Amar'e left Phoenix and Carmelo talked his way out of Denver. So when GM Kevin O'Connor presented him with the trade proposal last Tuesday, hours after first working on it with his counterpart in Jersey, Billy King -- the two are long, old friends who've known each other 20 years -- it took a surprisingly short amount of time for Miller and O'Connor to agree.
"It made a lot of sense," Miller said Wednesday.
For the last couple of years, the Jazz had watched Williams get angrier and angrier as players left Utah for greener pastures. He got into the occasional verbal dustups with Jerry Sloan, but they figured they were no worse than what Kobe Bryant and Phil Jackson occasionally had to work out behind closed doors, or any other star player and his coach. They didn't get all that upset when Williams would insist on running pick and roll plays early in games instead of running Sloan's offense -- so that, the team increasingly believed, he could get a leg up on piling up early assists, according to a source with knowledge of the Jazz's thought process.
"He wanted to coach a little bit, too," the source said. "But he was like that in college."
But by the end, after Sloan's sudden resignation, there didn't seem to be a future in Deron Williams. So the Jazz pulled the trigger. It might well work out in the long run, but they're a diminished team now, the promise of Williams and Carlos Boozer becoming the next Stockton-to-Malone gone.

The bolded part was new to me. Pretty funny.

 

[candrew]

Not suprising in the least. When Malone was here I always said the most dangerous place in Utah is between Karl Malone and a garbage rebound. But Williams brought it to a another level.

It's readily obvious to whoever watches Williams year after year like I did that he is a shameless stat whore.

 

[YB85]

I didn't think Williams chased assists as much as St. John did.

 

[sojodave]

Obviously, Deron was talented and could ball; however, the team seems a lot happier since he has been gone. I was at the Chicago game and I watched Deron's facial expressions. He would run the break, pull the ball out and shake his head back and forth in disgust at his teammates. I think Devin will be a breathe of fresh air and I am excited about Favors potential.

 

[tatermoog]

I didn't think Williams chased assists as much as St. John did.

I honestly don't think Stockton was as bad at stat-chasing in general as Williams was, but he was much, much worse at passing up an easy layup for a much more difficult assist.