Can Celtics' Robert Williams earn enough trust to get more playing time?

https://sports.yahoo.com/celtics-robert-williams-earn-enough-131600398.html



Can Celtics' Robert Williams earn enough trust to get more playing time?



Chris Forsberg

Tue, October 13, 2020, 6:16 AM PDT



*Each weekday for the rest of October, our Chris Forsberg will put a member of the 2019-20 Celtics under the microscope, assessing their season and what the future holds for that player. :


79.5
That’s the field goal percentage posted by Robert Williams over his final 10 appearances of the regular season. Zoom in on Boston’s time in the bubble and that number spikes to 84.6 percent — both over Boston’s final six seeding games and his final 10 playoff appearances (in both instances Williams made 22 of 26 shot attempts).

And yet "Timelord" could never quite earn the defensive trust of Celtics coach Brad Stevens, limiting his floor time in the Eastern Conference finals.


What went right for Williams in 2020
When healthy, Williams was an alley-oop-finishing fiend. He averaged 1.3 points per play as the roll man in pick-and-rolls, per Synergy’s tracking data, and that was by far the best number among Celtics players (next closest: Jayson Tatum, 1.18).

Williams also rebounded well, could spray the ball around as a facilitator in the high post, and unveiled a newfound midrange touch inside the bubble. He always seemed to be knocking on the door of opportunity but ...  


What went wrong for Williams in 2020
Health woes limited his appearances for the second time in as many seasons after the Celtics nabbed him with the 27th pick in 2018 draft. After playing only 32 games in his rookie season, Williams missed three months due to a hip ailment during the 2019-20 season and logged only 29 regular-season appearances overall.

Williams, who put himself on the map with loud volleyball-like blocks, tried to play defense with more discipline this season, but that sometimes left him looking like he was overthinking the game. Williams needs to play more freely and let his natural abilities take over. His troubles defending the pick-and-roll caused his minutes to dry up against Miami in the conference finals.


Early outlook for Williams for 2021
Full disclosure: We own more real estate on Timelord Island than anybody and we’re convinced that, with proper nurturing, he can evolve into the perfect big-man complement to this team’s core.

The Celtics leaned heavy on a center-by-committee approach this season and, while it was largely successful due to the diverse nature of talent that Stevens could deploy, it might have conspired against Williams, who had a short leash after defensive miscues.

It’s time for Boston to find out whether Williams can be a consistent rotation presence. That’s on Williams to learn from game tape in this short offseason and it’s on Stevens to allow Williams to play through some of his mistakes.

It’s time, lord.


Bob
MY NOTE:  This will be The Time Lord's 3rd year.  His first year was largely a bust because of injuries.  He was also injured a lot of this year, he only played in 29 games.  His offense is virtually all lobs off of pnrs.  There's nothing wrong with that if you can get the penetration, or the bite from the post defender, but he cannot create any offense himself.  He still gets confused on defensive rotations occasionally.  That is the kiss of death for Brad.  He also is a 60-something-percent frito shooter.  You cannot have a hit-or-miss frito shooter in the game at crunch time, he must improve that part of his game if he wants to be there at the end and any player who cannot be inserted in crunch time due to injury or foul trouble by the starter isn't much of a true rotation player.  These are some of the reasons why Grant was the Williams who was in there at the end and not Robert.  Grant's playoff eFG% and Robert's are comparable.  Grant's were a combo of 2pt and 58% 3pt shooting while Robert's were all 2s, of course, but their points/fga numbers are very close.  Grant shot 70% from the line in the playoffs, Robert shot 33.3%.  That is not a typo, The Time Lord wasted his time, and opportunities for us, at the line in the playoffs.  I'm not trying to set this up as an either/or choice between Grant and Robert, I don't like Grant at 5, but I am saying that if Robert can't outshoot Grant when all over Robert's points are at the rim, and if he cannot hit fritos, we should not be surprised if we see more of Grant being played out of position and less of the player who should be in at 5.

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I would like to see RW3 get traded to a team that can utilize his skills.  A team with a great passing point guard would be nice.

A team with a philosophy that creates more post scoring opportunities for him.

In my opinion Robert has not been coached up well.  I mentioned this before.  Robert is an ultra athletic big with an instinctive ability to defend the rim.   The Celtics thwarted his aggressiveness because they basically told him not to go after every shot.  If you recall he was blocking tons of shots but we were getting beat on the offensive glass.  They wanted him to stay home.

Bill Russell he is not.  If defense is really a team game then just maybe you should have turned him loose and focused attention on the other guys blocking out and controlling the defensive glass.  

Rotation minutes must be earned however I saw too many times where RW did not get consistent minutes based on his performance.  Repetition is important but without it improvement is more difficult.  

On offense RW clearly has a knack for scoring at the rim yet we rarely saw Brad Stevens run any plays for him.  You never see any screens set for him and his signature alleyoop finishes were mostly initiated by Marcus Smart.

RW had to share rotation minutes with Daniel Theis and Kanter.  He also had to share rotation minutes at center with Grant Williams, who is a make believe center and will never be a viable option at center.  

A good coach has multiple players to figure out.  That coach should avoid trying to jam a square peg into a round hole.  A good coach needs to figure out how he can maximize a player's contribution by emphasizing and implementing a strategy that may be unique for that player but takes that player's skills and turns them into a weapon.

RW is a guy that is not complaining but he may be nearing the point where it turns into a play me or trade me request.  

I think he would fit down in NO or maybe we could entice the Hawks to part with Capela.

Bob, RW had six frito attempts in the playoffs. He made 2. GW had 10 frito attempts. he made 7. Way too small a sample size to condemn RW to Celtic pine hell. GW was .722% for the year. RW was .647%. That is not a huge difference considering how much RW out rebounded (4.4 vs. 2.6 rpg) and out blocked GW (1.2 vs. 0.5 per game). RW had 13.4 mpg vs. GW's 15.1 mpg. RW had 388 total minutes in the season. GW had 1043.

This is really a very poor use of the talented vs the untalented. The way Brad misuses RW reminds me of how badly he has misused Jaylen, especially in Brown's first and third seasons - 17.2 mpg and 25.9 mpg.

This all really pisses me off. Brad pisses me off.

Danny needs to get in a better backup, playoff experienced point guard and a BIG. After that the rest is on Brad.

Final comment on RW vs. GW.

RW, despite less mpg got 1.4 offensive rbpg this season.
GW, with more minutes, got .9 offensive rbpg.

I don't care how much better Grant's bball IQ is compared to Rob's. He should not be taking Rob's minutes which are important for Rob's development. Grant sucks at the 5. Offensive rebounds are very important. End of story.

worcester wrote:Bob, RW had six frito attempts in the playoffs. He made 2. GW had 10 frito attempts. he made 7. Way too small a sample size to condemn RW to Celtic pine hell. GW was .722% for the year. RW was .647%. That is not a huge difference considering how much RW out rebounded (4.4 vs. 2.6 rpg) and out blocked GW (1.2 vs. 0.5 per game). RW had 13.4 mpg vs. GW's 15.1 mpg. RW had 388 total minutes in the season. GW had 1043.

This is really a very poor use of the talented vs the untalented. The way Brad misuses RW reminds me of how badly he has misused Jaylen, especially in Brown's first and third seasons - 17.2 mpg and 25.9 mpg.

This all really pisses me off. Brad pisses me off.

Danny needs to get in a better backup, playoff experienced point guard and a BIG. After that the rest is on Brad.

worcester,

A lot of RW's limited minutes come from his inability to stay healthy. Another part of it comes from his slow defensive rotations.

It doesn't matter how good he is if he can't stay healthy. That has been an ongoing concern with him since he came into the league.


Bob


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Yes, Bob, the essential ability sine qua non is availability.

worcester wrote:Yes, Bob, the essential ability sine qua non is availability.

Morticia! That's latin!