Jazz's Williams resisting rest

With five-plus minutes still to go in the first quarter, whether he has one foul or none, Deron William takes a seat. He does so somewhat grudgingly, though not with any more — or less — frustration than another certain point guard from Jazz glory days gone by.

But just as coach Jerry Sloan wasn't about to let future hall-of-famer John Stockton play entire games sans rest, he isn't going to overextend Williams either.

"We need to substitute him somewhere along the line," Sloan said of Williams, who is averaging 36.8 minutes per game in four games so far this season — virtually the same playing time he averaged as an NBA sophomore last season.

"He hasn't been especially receptive to that. Which is OK," Sloan added. "I mean, a lot of guys want to play 48 minutes. (The pitfalls of that) is something that you figure out later on."

Williams, for his part, tries his best to toe the company line.

"That's what Coach has in mind. That's what's best for the team," he says with a smile when asked about the substitution pattern. "Whatever Coach has in store, or whatever he wants, what's best for the team — that's what's best for me."

But press him a bit on the subject, and Williams' words — just like those slumped shoulders when he walks toward the bench — chip away at the truth.

"I'm not happy any time I come out of the game," Williams said, "whether it's five minutes or two minutes (left).

"I'm not gonna say 'I'm not happy,"' he adds after a moment of reflection, "but, you know, I want to play the whole game, if I have to."

Sloan has long defended the way he used Stockton, especially to Stockton himself, suggesting it made him more efficient on a game-to-game basis, limited his exposure to injury and, in the long run, extended his 19-year career by perhaps a few seasons.

"I have to make decisions, I think, sometimes based on what is best not necessarily for me, but for the franchise — and that's what I did years ago," the longtime Jazz coach said before his club practiced Tuesday for tonight's game against Cleveland. "If I had been selfish, the best thing for me to do was play him 48 minutes every night. ... But I never felt like I was a selfish coach in that regard."

Sloan also explained Tuesday that by pulling Williams as early as he does in the opening quarter, it both allows backup Jason Hart — who was signed as a free agent this past offseason — more time with some of Utah's starters and Williams more time with some of the Jazz's reserves.

"(That) gives you a chance to show your leadership, playing with players that aren't as good as the guys that are starting," he said.