Marvin Williams: “The bigger the moment, the better [Joe Johnson] plays.”

Two of my favorite Utah Jazz players who were NOT drafted by the team are Joe Johnson and Marvin Williams. I find some level of irony that Johnson is now playing the role that I wanted Williams to have (off the bench, subbing in either at SF or PF). Instead what we saw of Marvin Williams was a great 20 point outing in his first game with the Jazz, and then Tyrone Corbin mismanagement. He was locked in as a starter, and starting out of position compared to what the Western Conference was doing then. Quin Snyder is handling Johnson a little differently. Yes, Joe had a big game in his first Jazz game, a 20+ point outing just like Marvin. But so far this season he’s been used as this SF/PF who uses his size against smaller guys and punishes them. (As an aside, all four of these guys, Marvin, Joe, Tyrone, and Quin all have ties to the Altanta Hawks team.)

Marvin knows Joe. After all they were teammates for a few seasons in Hotlanta when they were a young group of guys making some noise in the NBA Playoffs. Today they are veterans who have beaten the odds and remained in the league for over a decade.

My guy Adi Joseph is the main man at USA Today’s sports section called For the Win. And he had recently interviewed Marvin about Joe.

They talked about what it was like back then; playing one-on-one; strengths; the whole “Iso-Joe” thing and more. Here’s an excerpt:

Joe Johnson buried the Los Angeles Clippers. The 35-year-old pulled out his full bag of tricks and took over Games 1 and 4 entirely while making clutch plays for throughout the Utah Jazz’s seven-game series victory.

This is what he does. Johnson has been dubbed “ISO Joe” since his days with the Atlanta Hawks, where he made the first six of his seven NBA All-Star teams. He combines his 6-8 frame and shooting guard skills to become impossible to guard one-on-one, with any opponent’s best hope that he takes the wrong off-balance jumper.

Marvin Williams played with Johnson for his entire seven-year run with the Hawks. Then he moved on to play two years with Johnson’s current team, the Jazz, before spending his last three seasons (and likely the next three) with the Charlotte Hornets. Last season, Williams got a taste of his ex-teammate’s postseason medicine as Johnson was one of the players leading the Miami Heat to a seven-game first-round victory against the Hornets.

For The Win caught up with Williams by phone this week to discuss Johnson, the Jazz and their series against the Warriors, which starts Tuesday (10:30 p.m. ET, TNT).

Adi Joseph, USA Today, 2017

Sure, that’s not the best ‘tease’ as I didn’t actually except that article with any of Marvin’s answers. Read the post! Also, Marvin who DID play for the Jazz gets to talk about those years as well, including his take on guys like Gordon Hayward and their climb to the NBA Playoffs. Check it all out here, at FTW.

Also you all should be following Adi. He’s a pretty big deal. He asks the toughest questions around:

#TakeNote