Utah Jazz playoff preview: Where is Williams among the Best of the West?

San Antonio's Tony Parker has three NBA title rings.

Phoenix's Steve Nash has two NBA Most Valuable Player awards.

Chris Paul of New Orleans has adoration from the masses, and is a top contender — along with Kobe Bryant of the Los Angeles Lakers and Boston's Kevin Garnett — to be named MVP this season.

And Deron Williams?

All the Jazz point guard has is the highest of regard from most who cross his path, a road which — as Williams tells it — could very well lead to somewhere not even all-time NBA steals and assists leader John Stockton stepped.

"I think we're one of the best teams in the league, if not the best team in the league," Williams, asked about the Jazz's chances for winning a championship, said as the Jazz prepared to open postseason play. "I believe that."

If Utah is to win, anytime in the foreseeable future, what eluded both Stockton and fellow Jazz retiree Karl Malone — this year, next year, sometime sooner rather than later — it likely will be largely because of the play of its point. Someone, who in three seasons out of the University of Illinois, has quickly but quietly climbed high up the ladder of elite NBA floor generals.

The league's Western Conference playoff qualifiers this season are overloaded with quality point guards, and Williams compares favorably with most, if not all, of them.

Houston's Rafer Alston has a great streetball nickname — Skip To My Lou — and has adapted well to NBA play.

But his Globetrotter-like game — which the Jazz are likely to see when they open first-round play in a best-of-seven series against the Rockets — still may be better suited to blacktop than the hardcourt.

Derek Fisher, like Parker, has three championship rings. But the Los Angeles Lakers — whom the Jazz may face in second-round play — are Bryant's team, not Fisher's.

The story is a similar one for Parker, who may have the keys to the Spurs but perhaps wouldn't get far without an engine named Tim Duncan.