Through tough love, Terrence Williams warming up to Nets head coach Avery Johnson

Avery Johnson had made no qualms about starting Anthony Morrow over Terrence Williams, despite the second-year guard’s resurgent training camp. Which made the coach’s comments Monday all the more surprising.

The first, as Johnson wandered through a herd of reporters, grabbed Williams’ attention.

“Can I interrupt this interview to talk to the sixth man of the year?” he said.

The second came as he leaned up to Williams’ ear to whisper something.

“I’m going to need you to stop by my office when you’re finished.”

Throughout his first preseason as Nets coach, Johnson hasn’t circumvented his lightning-in-a-bottle guard, opting for direct lines of communication and criticism, despite a potentially volatile situation. He talks openly about Williams’ erratic presence on the floor and his need for a more conventional approach. Williams, in turn, has taken to Johnson, eager to appease.

A player who once — fairly or unfairly — carried a reputation as being confrontational, is taking tough love to heart.

“He likes my attention,” Johnson said after shootaround on Tuesday. “We’ve connected.”