Scouting Grant Williams: How the Boston Celtics rookie forward fared in his first summer league game

https://www.masslive.com/celtics/2019/07/scouting-grant-williams-how-the-boston-celtics-rookie-forward-fared-in-his-first-summer-league-game.html



Scouting Grant Williams: How the Boston Celtics rookie forward fared in his first summer league game




Posted Jul 6, 10:42 PM




By John Karalis | JKaralis@masslive.com




LAS VEGAS -- Until today, most of what we heard about Grant Williams the Boston Celtic has been about his goofy, gregarious nature.

That’s fun and all, but the Celtics didn’t draft him to be the locker room cut up. They are paying him to be a versatile forward and part of the team’s next generation of talent that might someday raise a banner. The goofy stuff is just a fun bonus.

Saturday evening in Las Vegas, Williams finally got to show off some of what he can do at the next level.


Of course, this all comes with a huge caveat: This is one summer league game. There are some good results that come from things that may not translate in October, so what we’re looking for is the sign of things that will help Williams at the next level.


Playing under control

https://twitter.com/maxacarlin/status/1147622793321820160ax Carlin
@maxacarlin
This is going to be fun

11:46 PM - Jul 6, 2019


This play from Williams is impressive, even though some of it might not happen at the NBA level, most notably someone falling for the upfake.

Forget that for a minute. What we have here, most notably, is a player under control. He’s not trying to be something he’s not. This is terrible defense, but there is still a rim defender to contend with. Williams calmly gets himself to an open spot and floats a shot over the defender.

Will the defense he faces in the NBA be better than this? Of course. That doesn’t matter. What matters here is that Williams was in total control of himself the whole time, and that was a theme for him throughout the game.

If he got a rebound, he either found an outlet or took a dribble or two to push the ball until he found a guard. He patiently tried to make the right play. It never felt like he was uncomfortable with what he was doing.


Shooting

Offensively they put Williams on the perimeter and he spent a lot of time waiting for kick-outs.


https://twitter.com/celtics/status/1147641259487449088

Boston Celtics

@celtics
GW

1,612
12:59 AM - Jul 7, 2019


Williams hit two of his four 3-point attempts. His ability to shoot from deep was one of the question marks, but they looked pretty good in this game. Again, he calmly took each 3 without rushing or worrying about the close out. He seemed to be aware of the time he had to release the shot and unbothered by the possibility of it being blocked.

“They encouraged me to shoot it and I was like ‘wow that’s kind of different,'" he said after the game. "Normally I’m the one that’s catching the ball with his back to the basket, so it was really nice to be able to play a different way.”

Scott Morrison said “Coach Stevens and myself and the other coaches are really encouraging him to let it go when he’s open, to be a spacer and to really develop that spot-up three, and he did a good job tonight a couple times shot-faking when the closeout was coming a little too hard and I know he got fouled one time. He did a good job with that, but also he made his presence felt on the glass.”


Communication

Williams was constantly talking on defense, letting his guards know what was coming and what pick-and-roll defense to play. He was also very vocal on the bench and often the first one onto the floor during timeouts to say something encouraging to his teammates.


Two things about this: First, people don’t always talk on defense, and that leads to breakdowns. The best defenders are great communicators. Even if he screwed up some of the coverages, he’s trying and talking. He’ll learn as he goes, but the talking is important.

Secondly, he’s bringing energy to the floor. Pumping up teammates and being vocal puts out a level of energy that people around him will tend to match. This is an intangible that is very important to a team no matter what role he ultimately plays.


Defense

Every time a shot went up, Williams turned and looked to see if there was someone to box out. He didn’t just turn and look, which is a bad habit in the NBA. He ended up with six rebounds in almost 20 minutes of play.

He was very willing to throw his body around, though sometimes he might have gotten a little too overzealous.

https://twitter.com/maxacarlin/status/1147623905366032384

Max Carlin
@maxacarlin
This is what happens when GRANT tags the roll man

11:50 PM - Jul 6, 2019


Maybe he took the tagging part of tagging the roll man a little too far. It’s pretty funny, but that’s not going to be allowed in the NBA.

“Yeah. It was kind of weird, I knocked like five guys onto the ground today,” Williams said. "Normally it doesn’t really happen, but with the spacing of the court you have to be able to tag and get back to your man. So I didn’t realize you had to hit guys pretty hard to get back.”


It’s easier to dial it back than it is to pull that aggression out of a player, so there’s that. He was in the right spot, which is good. The goal there is to just impede the progress so there’s no easy alley-oop and then get back to your man on the perimeter.

I guess flattening a guy is one way to stop an alley oop.

Out on the perimeter, the positives were that he did a decent job moving laterally and trying to keep a guy in front of him. He didn’t always succeed, and that will be something to watch for as the competition improves, but he was sliding his feet rather than turning and running. From there he can learn how to take better angles and guide guys away from the basket.

Obviously the first step is staying in front of a player, but if Williams switches onto guards, he’ll need to learn how to keep those angles and discourage a drive. All he needs to be is good enough to not allow blow-by’s.

He did a good job of getting around picks, or at least trying to. Again, he wasn’t always successful, but he didn’t stick to picks. At least he was trying to make the right play. With time and repetition, he’ll learn how to better navigate the screens. Having better defenders around him will also help because they’ll know when to switch.


There were a few times where Williams was too deep on the help side but it didn’t really hurt the team. That’s something that will need to be addressed because NBA teams will torch him there. That will either lead to open 3′s or dunk when he closes out too hard and gets burned on a drive.

All in all, this was a very solid performance by Williams. He didn’t do any one thing particularly great, but he did a lot of things pretty well. He played smart, controlled basketball and tried to make the right play, which is more than a lot players can say in summer league. The things he does well will help him in the long run. He puts himself in positions to succeed and help his team.



bob


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