Celtics’ Robert Williams has a summer plan

https://www.bostonherald.com/2019/05/21/celtics-robert-williams-has-a-summer-plan/



Celtics’ Robert Williams has a summer plan




By STEVE BULPETT | stephen.bulpett@bostonherald.com | Boston Herald

May 21, 2019 at 5:00 pm




Robert Williams is heading into what will be a critical offseason in his development process as he tries to elevate from bit player to a rotational regular.


And Celtics fans will be happy to know that the 2018 first-round draft pick has judiciously narrowed his focus on what he needs to improve over the next four months.

“Everything,” Williams told the Herald.

“I have to work on everything. There’s no limit. Everything.”

And as for what he felt he did well in his rookie year that he can polish into a key skill that will net him more playing time in 2019-20, he was similarly zeroed in.


“It’s everything,” the 6-10 inside force said, shaking his head and adding a quick laugh. “I need to work on everything. Simple as that. Everything.”

Williams got into just 32 games this past season, and while the Celts certainly needed rim protection and some interior offense, there were veteran bigs Al Horford and Aron Baynes in front of him. And at other times Brad Stevens went with smaller lineups to get more skill and floor spacing in the game.

But in his mere 8.8 minutes in those 32 games, Williams still managed to tie Horford for the team lead in blocked shots per game at 1.3. His 36-minute projection put him at 5.1 blocks, miles ahead of Daniel Theis in second at 1.7 (Horford was 1.6).

When given minutes, Williams often proved worthy. He played 25:30 against New Orleans in December and had seven points, 11 rebounds and three blocks. He was a plus-13. (Anthony Davis had 41 points that night but was a minus-18 in the Celtics’ 113-110 win.)

He felt like he could have done more.

“Yeah, I obviously felt like that, but like I said, it’s a league full of great players,” he said. “So if you want to stay in this league, you’ve got to grind.”

Williams got into just three playoff games in inconsequential situations. He dressed and didn’t play in four games and was inactive in the last two as the Celts bowed out to Milwaukee.

And he took it all in.

“It’s just motivation,” he said. “You see there’s a lot of great people in the NBA, and obviously I want to stay in the NBA, so it’s all around motivation. That’s what I have to take into the summer. That and this being my first year, it just pushes me to want more. So it’s going to be an all-around grind.”

Now that the Timelord has time on his hands, he hopes to use it wisely – a hope the Celtics sincerely share. One of the first goals is to find the right basketball and conditioning trainer.

“I’m planning on being in a couple of cities working with a couple of different people until I find a person that I just connect with,” Williams said. “We’ll just see how that goes.”

As for this past year, he certainly found a good teacher beyond the coaching staff in Al Horford.

“I feel like Al’s obviously a great person for anyone to watch play, you know? Not just me,” Williams said. “And that’s on the court and off the court, he’s a guy you want to watch and learn from. He led by example all year, and we had conversations about certain players or something that happened in the game, things like that.”

And next season Williams hopes there will be more of his play to discuss. He believes that, assuming he remains a Celtic after what could prove to be a tumultuous summer for the roster, he’ll be ready to accept a larger role.

“Yeah,” Williams said. “That’s what this summer is for. I’m going to grind and do the work to get better so I can be more ready next year.”



bob


.

Nothing I saw this year changed my mind; given the opportunity, Williams can and should become a rotation player, was a good find where he was drafted, and can help in areas of critical need.

I'm convinced. He just needs regular game minutes.

His attitude is exactly what you would want from a young player fighting for playing time.

I hope Stevens decides to play him next season. I believe, at least with the present roster, he should be given regular minutes, with the understanding it's his spot to lose.

Biggest hurdle may be the lack of a bigman coach.

cowens/oldschool wrote:

NYCelt wrote:Nothing I saw this year changed my mind; given the opportunity, Williams can and should become a rotation player, was a good find where he was drafted, and can help in areas of critical need.

I'm convinced. He just needs regular game minutes.

His attitude is exactly what you would want from a young player fighting for playing time.

I hope Stevens decides to play him next season. I believe, at least with the present roster, he should be given regular minutes, with the understanding it's his spot to lose.

He should have been getting minutes as a young Dennis Rodman clone, just defend and board and be an energy
bunny

Cow,

Dennis was a 26 year old rookie.


bob


.

Wasn't the rumor that he was a janitor just before stepping on the court?

db

For a guy with high potential to be a good rebounder - the question is what flaws did Danny see in his play that limited him to just 32 games and 8.8 minutes per game. Ah yes potential - to be or not to be.

swish

cowens/oldschool wrote:Williams 
Horford
Tatum
Brown
Smart

No scoring.

swish wrote:For a guy with high potential to be a good rebounder - the question is what flaws did Danny see in his play that limited him to just 32 games and 8.8 minutes per game. Ah yes potential - to be or not to be.

 swish

swish,

I would say it was Brad who limited him, not Danny. Also that there were more experienced players ahead of him on the depth chart and we're not the Phoenix Suns.

He needs work on his defensive awareness and rotations. He got pulled, QUICKLY, a few times because he blew rotations. I'm sure he'll figure it all out, he's still quite young of course, but we aren't in rebuild mode anymore, we're "in the hunt" and so losing games for "player development" isn't something Brad is inclined to do.


bob



.

bobheckler wrote:

swish wrote:For a guy with high potential to be a good rebounder - the question is what flaws did Danny see in his play that limited him to just 32 games and 8.8 minutes per game. Ah yes potential - to be or not to be.

 swish

swish,

I would say it was Brad who limited him, not Danny.  Also that there were more experienced players ahead of him on the depth chart and we're not the Phoenix Suns.

He needs work on his defensive awareness and rotations.  He got pulled, QUICKLY, a few times because he blew rotations.  I'm sure he'll figure it all out, he's still quite young of course, but we aren't in rebuild mode anymore, we're "in the hunt" and so losing games for "player development" isn't something Brad is inclined to do.  


bob
.

Bob,

How would you describe the fact that Brad played a "not ready for prime time" Gordon Hayward so much this season? At first Gordon Hayward was a starter and then he came off the bench as a 6th or 7th man. GH couldn't drive to the hoop, shoot from distance or defend for the majority of the season.

Gordon Hayward could have gotten reps in the G-League, as a way to get his legs under him. That way, Brad could have given Gordon Hayward's minutes to the J's and some of the resentment may have been avoided and we may have added a handful or two of wins to our record.

Instead, Brad chose to lose games in order to "develop" Gordon Hayward. The entire planet knew that Gordon Hayward was just not ready to contribute in a meaningful way to team success.

With the lack of time to practice, Brad should have given Williams some more time on the floor. Just my opinion.

gyso

bobheckler wrote:

swish wrote:For a guy with high potential to be a good rebounder - the question is what flaws did Danny see in his play that limited him to just 32 games and 8.8 minutes per game. Ah yes potential - to be or not to be.

 swish

swish,

I would say it was Brad who limited him, not Danny.  Also that there were more experienced players ahead of him on the depth chart and we're not the Phoenix Suns.

He needs work on his defensive awareness and rotations.  He got pulled, QUICKLY, a few times because he blew rotations.  I'm sure he'll figure it all out, he's still quite young of course, but we aren't in rebuild mode anymore, we're "in the hunt" and so losing games for "player development" isn't something Brad is inclined to do.  


bob



.

Right team - wrong name. Coach Brad of course. Williams is a proven leaper - sooner or later we will find out if he is capable of developing the other basketball skills.

 swish

Of course hindsight is 20/20, but looking back at this past season, what would it have hurt to give Williams minutes to see if he can figure it out and develop? It wasn't a championship roster, and that became obvious fairly early.

Easy to be a perfect coach from here, I know, but I think it was a blown call not to play Williams, raw as he is, since we're in such bad shape with bigs. Now the team has picks, but will be forced to decide how to use them to acquire bigs, without fully knowing what they already have.

Beyond that, if they do come up with another young big or two, they're going to have to have a Diaper Derby to figure out the pecking order.

Minutes for Williams could have come from Theis and Hayward. One limited in upside, the other still recovering. Bad personnel decisions in my opinion.

gyso wrote:

bobheckler wrote:

swish wrote:For a guy with high potential to be a good rebounder - the question is what flaws did Danny see in his play that limited him to just 32 games and 8.8 minutes per game. Ah yes potential - to be or not to be.

 swish

swish,

I would say it was Brad who limited him, not Danny.  Also that there were more experienced players ahead of him on the depth chart and we're not the Phoenix Suns.

He needs work on his defensive awareness and rotations.  He got pulled, QUICKLY, a few times because he blew rotations.  I'm sure he'll figure it all out, he's still quite young of course, but we aren't in rebuild mode anymore, we're "in the hunt" and so losing games for "player development" isn't something Brad is inclined to do.  


bob
.

Bob,

How would you describe the fact that Brad played a "not ready for prime time" Gordon Hayward so much this season?  At first Gordon Hayward was a starter and then he came off the bench as a 6th or 7th man.  GH couldn't drive to the hoop, shoot from distance or defend for the majority of the season.

Gordon Hayward could have gotten reps in the G-League, as a way to get his legs under him.  That way, Brad could have given Gordon Hayward's minutes to the J's and some of the resentment may have been avoided and we may have added a handful or two of wins to our record.

Instead, Brad chose to lose games in order to "develop" Gordon Hayward.  The entire planet knew that Gordon Hayward was just not ready to contribute in a meaningful way to team success.

With the lack of time to practice, Brad should have given Williams some more time on the floor.  Just my opinion.

gyso

gyso,

Hayward's problem, a lot of it anyway, was in his head.  It wasn't that he didn't understand the plays or rotations, like Williams, it was that his brain didn't trust his body to respond in time.  He was thinking too much. Could he have gotten his body and mind into sync in Maine?  Sure, but his body was already good enough to excel there because of the inferior competition.  Williams was blowing defensive assignments, some of them out-of-bounds plays after a time out.  That's not "I can't get there in time because my body's not there yet" that's just forgetting what you were told in the huddle in the time it took to walk out onto the floor.  

One of the problems with the NBA, for rookies, is that there isn't a lot of time during the regular season for practicing and off-court development like there is in college.  This means that if you're blowing assignments there isn't a lot of one-on-one time with coaches to fix that during the season.  Furthermore, if you remember, he missed almost all of summer league and all of pre-season camp.  Show me a rookie that misses pre-season, I don't care which one, and I'll show you a rookie that is woefully underdeveloped for their entire rookie season.  Camp is FAR more important for them than for any veteran player, healthy or not.

Last year was last year. Hopefully Williams will stay healthy this summer and show up ready for pre-season. Then we'll see. He's still only 21 years old. There's plenty of time and there was no need to throw him into the fire last year.


bob


.

Bob.

I would tend to agree that some of Hayward's problem was in his head.  Maybe a 50-50 split between head and body.  Remember, Hayward had a second surgery to remove the hardware and he ended up not ready for preseason.  I don't agree that he body was already good enough.  Hayward had no lift on drives to the hoop and he blew his share of defensive assignments early on.

Many people (here and elsewhere) had the opinion that if Hayward played at all, the best thing would be that he come off the bench with limited minutes, in order to ease him into the season.  It took Brad a full month to change it so that Hayward came off the bench.  Even then, Hayward was given too many minutes.

Hayward needed to build his confidence.  He needed to jump and land, take contact and get his shot off, get knocked to the floor a time or two, on and on.  That could have been accomplished in Maine with a call up to Boston once in a while.

As to Williams, I don't tend to concentrate so much on single plays.  I remember that Williams had some success in short minutes during the season and he had a really good showing against AD when we played New Orleans.  Why didn't Brad accentuate the positive and build his confidence up as the season went on?  Other players blew assignments on defense (Rozier, for instance) but Brad gave him plenty of court time.

Of course we don't have any inside info as to how bad Williams looked in whatever practices they did have.  The lack of a bigs coach didn't help our cause.

The season looked to be a lost cause early on.  Brad could have done things differently, that's all.  "Patience" was a word that many (including me) use for most of the season.  Little did we know that our patience may not be rewarded until next season.

gyso

My observations of Williams indicated to me that he does not know where to be on the court. On offense he is a good high screener and can make the dribble handoff play.

However he does not know where to position himself in the post get get a pass. His pure athleticism got him a few alleyopps but other than that he is green.

On defense he is a decent rotating presence. Rebounding is a problem because he fails to establish position and will often be found too far away from the action.

Again we need a bigman coach or consultant that can work with him.

If your hoping for a center to replace Horford in the near future - beware - Williams is probably not a good bet to be your man. Since 1979, picks 25 thru 30, have produced 38 centers of which only 5 have averaged 25 minutes per game. That's 13 percent.

swish

cowens/oldschool wrote:

bobheckler wrote:

cowens/oldschool wrote:Williams 
Horford
Tatum
Brown
Smart

No scoring.

Smart and Horford forced to pass and score, the guys carrying the offense would be 2 J’s, hopefully they grow into 18-20 ppg scorers real soon. That line up will defend like crazy....

cowens

 Future promise sounds good - but I'm still waiting for the Celts to crack the .695 winning percent mark - as 90% of the champs play .695 ball or better.

  swish

As a former coach, I am very concerned with Williams' off season plan to get better at "everything" as it has been my experience that a plan to cover "everything" ends up with not much of any improvement.

I would much rather see Williams pin point three of four key areas and then concentrate on them so that when pre season opens he will be able to show marked improvement helping him to move closer to getting rotation minutes.

Of course, if he is working on some key areas his overall game will improve as well just by gaining more confidence in his specific areas in his summer plan.

Maybe I'm crazy...but i will NOT be counting on rob Williams to be a rotational player, much less a starter next season.

I fully hope I am dead WRONG though!!!

I mean Avery Bradley had that big jump after his rookie year of sitting on the bench....so I guess their is some hope.

kdp59 wrote:Maybe I'm crazy...but i will NOT be counting on rob Williams to be a rotational player, much less a starter next season.

I fully hope I am dead WRONG though!!!

I mean Avery Bradley had that big jump after his rookie year of sitting on the bench....so I guess their is some hope.

He’s shown some good skills. Likely had more positive minutes his first year than did Bradley. He does have though more he needs to learn than Bradley (especially after it became clear Bradley wouldn’t play PG, just undersized SG). Important offseason for him.

In Bradley's first season, I believe he also missed pre-season due to surgery. Also, Doc tried and tried (and tried) to use Bradley as a point guard that year. We all know how that worked out.

wideclyde wrote:As a former coach, I am very concerned with Williams' off season plan to get better at "everything" as it has been my experience that a plan to cover "everything" ends up with not much of any improvement.

I would much rather see Williams pin point three of four key areas and then concentrate on them so that when pre season opens he will be able to show marked improvement helping him to move closer to getting rotation minutes.

Of course, if he is working on some key areas his overall game will improve as well just by gaining more confidence in his specific areas in his summer plan.

Hey coach, Robert Williams is probably being very honest about what he needs to work on.  Can we assume that is what was told to him by Brad or Danny?

My concern is that Williams is not sure who to work with.  I see this as a reflection on the Celtics.

Where the hell is the big man coach or consultant that can work with this kid?

I realize that a #27th pick is really a longshot but when I look at RW potential I see Clint Capela.  He was the 25th pick in the 2014 draft.  He averaged a whopping 2.7 PPG playing 7.5 minutes, 3.0 rebounds and 0.8 blocks. Robert averaged 8.8 MPG with 2.5 points, 2.5 rebounds and 1.3 blocks.

See the similarities? you have to know how to develop players based on the position that they fit.

http://www.espn.com/nba/player/stats/_/id/3102529/clint-capela