Celtics President Brad Stevens has seen the work put in by Grant Williams; ‘When guys do that, they take that next step’

https://www.yahoo.com/sports/celtics-president-brad-stevens-seen-205936416.html



Celtics President Brad Stevens has seen the work put in by Grant Williams; ‘When guys do that, they take that next step’



Justin Quinn
Sun, January 2, 2022, 12:59 PM



One pleasant surprise in a season with more disappointments than most Boston Celtics fans would care to dwell on is the growth of forward Grant Williams as a shooter.


By now, the near-legendary status of his entry into the NBA in that capacity has been eclipsed by the steady reliability of the Tennessee product as a power forward on a team without any clearly-defined candidates for such a role. Veteran big man Al Horford may prefer to play it, but Boston has been at its best this season with the Florida product at the 5 — and more importantly when Williams is bombing open looks while sharing floor time with the starters.

This has not been lost on former coach and current team president Brad Stevens, who recently had a lot to say about how the Charlotte native “has taken his biggest leap” in a recent article from the Boston Globe’s Adam Himmelsbach.


Hitting a sizzling 45.3% of his 3-point attempts, Williams has been the most reliable shooter on his team while being one of the Celtics’ better defenders, to Stevens’ delight.

“I think his rookie year he did some good things, but in typical rookie year fashion I think sometimes the good things you do get really, really hyped and the other things you do get pushed to the side,” Stevens explained. “Last year was a bit more of a struggle and more inconsistent, but I think he’s been really good for us this year. And I give him a lot of credit.”

“He was in the gym all summer here,” suggested the Celtics president. “He worked hard.


“I’ve seen that time and again, when guys do that, they take that next step,” Stevens added.

“Grant’s thing is if you can figure out what you do best in this league and how you can best impact winning, and you just get really good at it, you have a great career. I think he’s starting to figure that out.”

We are inclined to agree, and from the perspective of his teammates in desperate need of shooting, it came not a moment too soon.


Bob
MY NOTE:  Grant is in a mini-slump from 3, but he's still in 5th place shooting 44.1% from 3.  Joe Harris of Brooklyn (46.6%) and PJ Tucker of Miami (45.5%) have better 3pt fg% than Grant, but both of them have only taken 88 3pt fgas this season.  Grant has 111.  To qualify for this leader board requires a minimum of 82 3pt fgm. A shooting slump by either of them and/or an injury that doesn't allow them to take fgas, and Grant will leapfrog them.

A bigger 50,000 foot view of this is the underlying point Brad is making.  He works there.  He has an office at the Auerbach Center.  He knows exactly who's spending time in the gym and who isn't.  He's probably seeing the reports being prepared by the training staff regarding how many reps on each machine each player is taking, how often and with how much weight.  We don't know any of that.


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