This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2006, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
He doesn't like to compare anyone to the Hall-of-Famer-to-be, but Jerry Sloan's instincts betray him. The coach already has begun treating Deron Williams like John Stockton.
Specifically, Sloan began the season doling out point-guard minutes the same way he did for the final 10 years of Stockton's career: Start the game, play seven minutes, then sit. Return at the quarter break or later, and play to halftime. Rinse. Repeat.
It's a tactic that frustrated Stockton, annoyed Jazz fans - and now occasionally ticks off Williams, too.
"I don't like it," Williams said. "You just start playing, getting into the rhythm of the game, and you're out."
Sure enough, in the season's first 15 games, Williams never played 10 minutes in the first quarter of any game, with Sloan trying to shave minutes off his starting guard's playing time at every opportunity. He averaged 7.3 minutes in the first quarter - but nearly 9.5 in the second, playing the entire quarter five times.
Williams understands why Sloan does it: For his longterm health and welfare. Funny thing is, the 22-year-old guard will likely remain in the NBA several years past the day the 64-year-old coach walks into retirement. Yet it's Sloan who is thinking about Williams' golden years.
"I'm not going to try to get everything I can out of him in one year," Sloan said. "I've always felt like I've had a responsibility to guys, not only for today but for their future. I told John [Stockton] that. He never liked it, but I said, 'Would it be better for you to play 15 years, or 10?' "
Actually, Stockton played 19, and while there is no way to know whether playing 31.8 minutes per game rather than 35 or 36 had much of an effect on an ironman who rarely missed a game - only Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Karl Malone, Elvin Hayes and Wilt Chamberlain played more NBA minutes in their careers, after all - Sloan figures a minute here and a minute there adds up.
Not just in career terms, either.
"If you push a guy to 40 minutes a night, you're susceptible to a lot more injuries," Sloan said. "I have to think about how guys will perform at the end of the season, too. I can't use him up in December, then wonder why he's tired in April."
Williams doesn't plan to be tired. He averages 36 minutes, 11 seconds per game, most on the team. But that doesn't mean he liked seeing Derek Fisher strolling to the scorer's table seven minutes into each half. "Our arena is pretty cold, so it takes awhile to get warm sometimes, and then you have to go sit," Williams said. "I just want to play. I'll play 40 minutes, whatever we need, every night," something Sloan has allowed only four times this season.
The Jazz's recent problems at shooting guard, however, may deliver those extra minutes to the point guard anyway. When teams began using zone defenses against the Jazz, "we weren't able to shoot the ball well enough," Sloan said. "I took out Ronnie [Brewer] because he's got to work on his shooting a little more. Andrei [Kirilenko] has to work on his shooting a little bit. And I just felt we've got to make some shots in those situations, so I put Fisher out there."
That means Fisher, Williams' primary backup through the first 17 games, now starts alongside him, at least for the moment.
"Deron's young, so he can handle it as long as we need" him to, Sloan said. "If someone steps up at the other position, maybe that will help" trim Williams' minutes here and there again.
Which figures to bug Williams the same way it did Stockton.