The NBA season is long, and often times injuries, performance issues, and other detritus will force teams to rely on players they hadn't necessarily planned to give heavy minutes. We'll take a look at some of those players from time to time here with a feature we'll call P2W (players to watch).
Today's P2W: Jason Williams, Magic
With Magic point guard Jameer Nelson on the shelf for the next 4-6 weeks with a torn meniscus, Orlando will hand over the reins to the artist formerly known as White Chocolate. A year after retiring from the league, Williams rejoined the association this year ostensibly as a back-up to Nelson, but he'll be forced into much bigger duty for at least the foreseeable future.
Wednesday night Williams logged 28:30 of game time, a high for the season, in a 108-94 win over Oklahoma City. Though he had only four points and five assists, he finished the night with a +27 rating and earned rave reviews from his coach:
One of Williams' strengths is a low turnover ratio, which could make him the perfect person to lead the Magic in Nelson's absence. All Orlando needs is someone to distribute the ball to the likes of Rashard Lewis, Vince Carter, and Dwight Howard, and Williams should have no problem accomplishing that feat.
"J-Will has always been a guy who has really pushed on the break," noted Magic coach Stan Van Gundy. "Jameer likes to push and attack, but he's not the same as J-Will. J-Will does that a little better than Jameer and Jameer does a lot of other things better. They're different guys and you play to their strengths."
Based on his first night's performance, it looks like the Magic won't skip too much of a beat.
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