Rapid ascension — Williams vows he'll hone all aspects of his game

Because his season ended so late — but not quite late enough, if you ask him — and he's booked a prestigious USA Basketball commitment and a few weeks of vacation, not to mention a visit or two to mom's house, Deron Williams is probably a bit too busy to attend the John Stockton Summer Camp again this year.

It appears Williams might be OK anyway.

Seems the 22-year-old got more than his money's worth learning the master's tricks at the first two training sessions on Dagobah with Yoda, er, in Spokane, Wash., with the soon-to-be Hall-of-Famer.

"He's going to be something special for a long time," Jazz power forward Carlos Boozer said of his stellar sidekick.

Heck, he already is. That became evident from the way Williams played this past year and especially during the Utah Jazz's recent playoff run — an effort that earned him Deseret Morning News Athlete of the Month honors for May, among countless verbal accolades.

That's not to say Williams won't be working on his skills this offseason as he has with Stockton prior to his first two NBA seasons. Quite the opposite. While cleaning out his locker last week at EnergySolutions Arena at the conclusion of his stellar second season, Williams said he was going to hone all aspects of his game over the summer.

"I work on everything. Ballhandling, shooting, every part of my game I want to get better and improve in," he said a day after the Jazz were eliminated by the San Antonio Spurs 4-1 in the Western Conference Finals. "I just try to do that, try to get stronger, faster, quicker."

Williams can't wait to do a lot of that fine-tuning with coaches (like Duke's Mike Krzyzewski and Phoenix's Mike D'Antoni) and players (like Jason Kidd and Chauncey Billups) involved with the USA Basketball invitation-only tryout in July.

"I look forward to it. It's going to be a challenge," Williams said. "It's going to be fun playing with the guys I'm playing with, learning from the great coaches I'm going to be around. I'm just going to try to take all of that in and give it my all."

And Williams' all, his NBA coach believes, is quite a bit.

"The sky's the limit with him," said Jazz coach Jerry Sloan. "He's got a tremendous amount of upside."

Williams showed flashes of his pretty-dang-good-in-the-middle-side during this past regular season when Sloan credited him for giving the Northwest Division champs "tremendous lift." The flashes got even brighter under the glaring national spotlight as the playoffs progressed and a star was born.