After time working rope ladder, Grant Williams climbs Celtics heirarchy

https://www.bostonherald.com/2022/02/11/0207-bh-s-grantwilliams/



After time working rope ladder, Grant Williams climbs Celtics heirarchy




BOSTON, MA – February 2: P.J. Washington #25 of the Charlotte Hornets falls on Grant Williams #12 of the Boston Celtics during the second half of the NBA game at the TD Garden on February 2, 2022 in Boston, Massachusetts. (Staff Photo By Matt Stone/MediaNews Group/Boston Herald)


By MARK MURPHY | Boston Herald
February 11, 2022 at 4:35 a.m.



As an answer to the NBA’s early COVID restrictions, when players and their coaches were only allowed to work separately, Brandon Bailey threw a rope ladder on the floor for Grant Williams.

Williams’ coach at Tennessee, Rick Barnes, sometimes held up P.J. Tucker as an example for him to follow, and to get there he needed footspeed and burst to go along with his strength and physical nature.

So Bailey, the former Celtics assistant who is now the team’s advance scout, began devising ways to compensate for the lack of group work. There was the rope drill, and change of direction drills, and a “misdirection” ball.

“We couldn’t do body on body because of COVID,” said Bailey. “My niche since I got into the NBA and the people I worked for was defense. Spent extra time studying that kind of stuff. Especially during COVID what I was focusing on was one-on-one type stuff, and the ladder evolved out of that, and because of the restrictions that’s what we had to do.

“Coming out of college I thought he did a decent job of containing his man, but it was just a different level of athleticism, especially because of his size and what he was going to have to do for Brad (Stevens) in the defensive end — he wasn’t going to be a drop big and protect the rim or anything. He was going to have to be a switcher if he was going to stay on the floor and have a long career. That’s really what we honed in on, especially early.”

Next up were one-on-one sessions against the assistant coaches — all of them former college point guards — with Alex Barlow (Butler), Evan Bradds (Belmont) and Kwame Graves (Amherst) driving hard at Williams.


“Throw me the ball in a compromising position, and I’d have to work my way out of it, basically,” Williams recalled. “Just going on the wing while I’m in the paint, and having to guard him in close-out situations. (They) got buckets originally and then I started getting stops.”

Williams withstood the indignity of getting scored on by the assistants, and by the time he was matched against the speedy Graves, his feet were truly scrambling to keep up.

But he kept searching out Bailey for more work. Sometimes coaches have to hunt down players when it’s time for individual work, but Williams was always the initiator.


“He really embraced it. He’s the one initiating everything — pre-game, the last five minutes of all his warm-up was dedicated to defensive fundamentals, angles, close-outs, switching technique stuff, personnel, who’s he guarding that night,” said Bailey. “Just a way to work on that stuff. It was a really good activator for him. By the end of it he had a good sweat and he was ready to go. He was able to get really warm and loose.”

As evidenced by Williams’ place in Ime Udoka’s rotation this season on one of the finest defensive units in the NBA, those steps through the rope ladder have led to something substantial.


Breaking through the ceiling

The Danny Ainge era was as filled with debatable draft choices as it was laden with picks in the wake of the infamous Brooklyn swap-off in the summer of 2013. The high end has produced, in the forms of Jayson Tatum (third, 2017), Jaylen Brown (third, 2016) and Marcus Smart (sixth, 2014), while the middle and lower selections have produced mixed returns. It’s that way for most teams,

Williams, taken in 2019 with the 22nd pick, was a four-year college player with leadership makeup and a low ceiling on his future as a 6-foot-6 paint-oriented forward. He opened eyes as a rookie in the Orlando bubble, plateaued the following season, and after asking Ime Udoka for an improvement punch list last summer, shed weight and returned as one of the most improved players in the NBA.

He’s certainly lived up to Brad Stevens’ early projection.

“Young guys go through a phase where they just try to prove that they belong. A lot of guys become jacks of all trades — they try to do everything well and you end up doing nothing well or nothing special,” said the Celtics President of Basketball Operations. “For Grant it was pretty simple. It was, you have a chance to be a great role player, you have a chance to become a physical, hard-nosed defender who can defend multiple positions, and you have a chance to be a good spot-up shooter who can then make the effort plays on rebounds and charges and those types of things. Not everybody can accept that at 22 or 23.

“Grant has really embraced it, and the key now is just become the best at that stuff. He’s gonna play in the league for 15 years because of that. A lot of guys never get to a position on a team where they understand how they impact winning and how best to maximize their career, and that’s right in front of him. If he does all those things at a high level, he’s going to have a long career.”


A slump buster

Williams’ rookie shooting slump got so bad — he missed his first 25 3-point attempts, a franchise record — that teammates started calling him Ben Simmons. But he and the exiled Philadelphia star couldn’t be further apart now when it comes to shooting the basketball. He’s shooting a career-high 42.8 percent from 3-point range – eighth highest in the NBA. He’s now treated as a perimeter threat.

“Now they’re running me off, so I have to make the right read and drive and be able to make plays a little more in transition with the ball in my hands,” he said. “Complete offensive growth is the next step.”

Complete offensive growth takes time, but so does a long career. When asked about Stevens’ 15-season prediction, Williams chose to think of it in terms of his overall growth, including his work with the Players Association. Now that Jaylen Brown is a NBPA vice president, Williams has taken over duties as the Celtics’ player representative, and when it comes to keeping teammates informed and engaged, it’s inconceivable of someone being better suited to the social part of the job.

“Just in terms of my ability to be committed to helping the league grow, and players association stuff,” he said. “My work ethic on and off the court, being in the facility at all times, being coachable, trusting the guys around me at all times, and that’s what I think (Stevens) was hinting at. I don’t think he said I’d be a superstar someday, but he thought I’d be in the league a long time because of the type of player and person that I am.”

And now the comparisons seem to be clearer.

“That’s what coach Barnes used to say — P.J. Tucker, Draymond, guys of that nature,” said Williams. “He’d always tell me you’re a little more offensively skilled than P.J. P.J. is a tough dog, so you have to be that more than he is, and then Draymond and Jae Crowder — those are the comparisons I heard.”

But he’s not quite there yet.

“He still has a lot to do and like everybody, he could be doing a little bit more, but he’s certainly on the right track,” said Bailey. “There’s a lot more that he needs to accomplish. Is he on the right track? Yes. Does he need to get more consistent? Absolutely.”


Bob
MY NOTE:  After last night's Nuggets game Grant is shooting 43.3% from 3.  He's also shooting 58.6% from 2.  He doesn't take a lot of 2s, in fact he takes 2X as many 3s as 2s, but he's very efficient when he does.  His eFG%, which is his shooting percentage when he receives credit for the extra points a 3pt fgm gives him, is 62.8%.  That's pretty good.  He's shooting 89.6% from the line.  Once again not many ftas, but he's lethal when he does.  You cannot Hack-a-Grant your way out of trouble.  His Offensive Rating is 124, his Defensive Rating is 108, for a Net Rating of +16, which is very good.  Should he be a go-to player?  No, but he has become quite efficient when his chance comes along.  My expectation for him for next year will be to expand his offensive repertoire.  They will scout him thoroughly and will not leave him alone, especially in the corners, next year.  He needs to be able to put it on the floor when they try to close him out at the arc, and drive and dish.  He's a high BBIQ player (higher than either of the Js?  They have more talent, and are more right-sized for their positions, but IQ?) so I'm fairly confident he will take that next step.


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No one was harder on Grant than I was.  He has clearly established himself as a solid rotation guy.  He remains limited in many areas but has maximize what he can do.

l
Last night while our elite wings where in competition to see who could build a brick wall the fastest, I turned to my wife and said, "They need to get the ball to Grant"

I used to be pissed we had Grant and Semi, thought they were both redundant and useless. Who would have thought GWill would surpass both Romeo and Nesmith this year, 2 guys with better athleticism and supposedly better skills? Of course now Romeo is gone, but did not see slow plodding no game GWill being such an integral part of the team. Props to him for putting in the work and getting the results.

He needs to sit down with JT and show him the 3-point shooting accuracy secret.

db

I have so much more respect and admiration for players who have really had to work hard and climb that mountain. GWill is the poster child.

dboss wrote:No one was harder on Grant than I was.  He has clearly established himself as a solid rotation guy.  He remains limited in many areas but has maximize what he can do.

l
Last night while our elite wings where in competition to see who could build a brick wall the fastest, I turned to my wife and said, "They need to get the ball to Grant"

dboss,





Welcome to the Dark Side.  The banana flambes here are excellent.  LOL.


Bob


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