Playoff Talking Points: The Real True Story

No one with a wife and kids, or the need to eat leafy greens, has time to watch all this basketball. But we do. So, as a service to the public, here are the Playoff Talking Points you need to fake it at the water cooler:

• It's Deron's Time: If I were Utah Jazz fans, I would be mad at me, too. So far, the Jazz's postseason has been all blood, guts, and radiance. They've hit all the right notes to make themselves a story.

Deron Williams is a young superstar reaching new heights. The team itself is mangled by injury -- always good copy -- and, as a result, relying on all sorts of springy non-vets. They're on the verge of knocking off the Nuggets, a half-crazed team that's a perpetual favorite among affected fans like me. And yet they're doing so not by stamping out all Denver stands for, but by beating them at some of their own game.

Which brings me to my principle complaint: I'm sick of hearing how this is just Jerry Sloan, same old dude, running the same plays, timeless till the end no matter what roster gets handed to him by fate. When even the Spurs are in the midst of a dramatic makeover, it's an insult to this team, and possibly even Sloan, to insist this is still some Stone Age manual being enacted by this latest bunch of recruits.

But most of all, it's a slight against Deron Williams, the self-proclaimed "best point guard in the NBA". No matter how much the playbook stays the same, Williams is most certainly not John Stockton. The Jazz's success is a function of Deron Williams, and Williams at very least requires admitting that Sloan's had to shift a little.



ShareIn terms of perception, Williams's career has indeed been a weird one. He entered the 2005 draft trying to convince teams he could play the point, and ended up going higher than Chris Paul. Paul proceeded to use this as motivation to make the NBA his own personal playground, and ended up a vote short of unanimous Rookie of the Year. That lone hold-out was a Utah local, who insisted that Williams had bested Paul in head-to-heads. There was also a whole line of argumentation that converted Williams's "meat-and-potatoes" game into the superior one, usually involving the use of the term "hockey assist" and suggesting that submission to Sloan's offense was inherently noble.

This was supposed to be a pro-Jazz, pro-William piece, so I'll switch directions here. But suffice it to say that, even as Williams's stats climbed steadily and the Jazz kept winning, it was only in the 2007 playoffs when I first saw the same fury and complexity that had made Paul into a Hall of Famer after two seasons. Williams was still the more measured guard, but started to lash out -- angry, inventive, and just generally insistent on making sure he brought out all he could for these games against the Finals-bound Spurs.

Chris Paul looked pissed during much of his first year or two. Williams, in control. But by that spring, it was Williams who was nursing a massive chip on his shoulder during this time. Paul's earlier, draft-related resentment had turned him into the Rookie of the Year, perennial All-Star, and thinking man's MVP candidate; Williams, while not exactly a bust, was watching his rival earn through-the-roof acclaim while he couldn't even make an All-Star team (he may have been squeezed onto All-NBA Third Team). At the same time, the Jazz won, and Sloan's way worked. More and more, Williams took over games when the opportunity presented itself, but that's different than being a dominant player.

So why is Deron Williams, hardly know as a loudmouthed jerk, now making a point of telling us that he's surpassed Paul? Because enough is enough. Williams made his first All-Star team this season, and found a balance between the colossal player he could be and Sloan's system. But now, things are different. There are obvious traces of Sloan; he remains the architect.

Deron Williams, though, trumps all. And Williams is no John Stockton. This is a young, athletic, rangy team approximating Jazz Basketball. The Dual Mailman Effect of Paul Millsap and Carlos Boozer both complicates and reinforces this agenda. But as implacable as Sloan remains, on the court, this is Williams's team. If he seems indignant, it's because it's taken so long, and such a ridiculously high level of play on his part, for him to finally be acknowledged as the equal of Paul or Steve Nash.

His claim of supremacy, borne out of pride and frustration, is equal parts justice and swagger. That doesn't sound like Jazz Basketball to me. But it's telling that Jerry Sloan isn't interested in putting him in line. Williams, and this team, are changing the parameters of Utah's style, and Sloan -- like Gregg Popovich with the Spurs -- seems open to some measure of change.

Pretending that Williams isn't a new kind of Utah star does nothing but increase his angst. Actually, maybe that's a good strategy, seeing how much mileage he's gotten out of indignation.

• Blood and Guts Bureaucracy: I never like to see referees decide a game, as some are saying happened last night with Spurs-Mavericks. But what really gets me down about the Thursday night backlash is what a thing of beauty the officiating had been in that series up to that point. I also am a peaceful, graceful man who has no place for brutality in my life; the "it's playoff basketball" or "send a message, like the old days" crap really wears thin.

Yet watching Dallas and San Antonio go at it with miminal whistle intrusion, two teams pulling off great play despite a constant counter-melody of body blows and shoves, was pretty amazing. Toughness shouldn't have to come at the expense of basketball artistry, and through much of this series, the new were balanced perfectly. That's entirely a credit to the officials. Too bad they went and squandered this good will when it counted most.

• Rolling Thunder: Back to this adjustments theme: I don't expect OKC to emerge from this series with Los Angeles. I don't even know if they'll make it past tonight's Game 6. However, I am looking to see if they respond to the Lakers' responses to them. There will be no miracle. But if Scott Brooks finds a way to address some of the counter-moves that Phil Jackson made to run away with Game 5, this team will have preserved its reputation as not only one of the most exciting teams in the league, but also one of the smartest.