2 current players Grant Williams should mold his game after

https://hardwoodhoudini.com/2020/10/01/boston-celtics-grant-williams/



2 current players Grant Williams should mold his game after



by Andrew Hughes1 week ago


The Boston Celtics appeared to hit on at least one of their 2019 draft picks in Grant Williams. Which current players should the combo forward mold his game after?

While disappointment is still a prevalent feeling for most Boston Celtics fans (understandably), optimism should also have a place on any retrospective feelings of the 2019-20 season–as well as any projections for the 2020-21 season.

Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown are obvious bright spots for the season that was, and Marcus Smart’s ability to once again step into a starting role was pivotal. Daniel Theis turned out to be a fine starter, and the postseason showed that Robert Williams may be on the cusp of serving an essential role in the rotation as well.

Obviously, injuries to the team’s two highest-paid players in Gordon Hayward and Kemba Walker were worrisome. The perpetual state of pain Romeo Langford appeared to be in all year was also disappointing to see for the #14 pick in last year’s draft.

But of all of the pleasant surprises this past season brought, perhaps none were as unforeseen as Grant Williams‘. Now granted (heh), his 3/3/1 stat line on a 41/25/72 shooting split is not exceptional by any stretch. His name was not included in the same breaths as the likes of fellow rookies Ja Morant or Zion Williamson–or even second-tier rookies like Brandon Clarke and Jaxon Hayes.

Boston Celtics fans saw his tangible impact on games, though. His late offensive rebound in the fourth quarter of Game 7 of the Eastern Conference semifinals against Toronto led to two free throws (he may have missed) that led to a Jayson Tatum offensive rebound and two made free throws. Rookie mistakes!

How can he avoid making those sorts of mistakes? Well, the Houdini believes he can learn a thing or two from these two current NBA players based on his skill and body type:




Draymond Green

The best-case scenario for any non-traditional center–think anything from a Joel Embiid type to a Nikola Jokic or even a DeAndre Jordan in terms of size and skill set–is to become a linchpin on a 3x NBA Champion and winner of five consecutive Western Conference Finals like Draymond Green has become.

As a ball-handler, rim-protector, ball-hawk, distributor, and–at least in 2015-16, an elite 3-point shooter–Green has perfected the art being a small-ball center. It was his ability to embrace banging in the post with bruising fives that unlocked the full potential of the Golden State Warriors offense via Steve Kerr’s vaunted “death lineup” that eventually morphed into the “Hamptons Five”.

Williams has almost identical attributes to Green, likewise standing six-foot-six and around 230 pounds. In fact, Williams’ rookie season was identical in an almost spooky fashion to Green’s. Encouragingly enough for Cs fans, the former Defensive Player of the Year also posted an underwhelming 3/3/1 but shot even worse from the field.

Boston appears pretty close to contention as it stands. Further improvement of Brown and Tatum along with good health from the rest of their core could be all it takes to get to the promised land. But man, Williams eventually morphing into a Green-type big man could create a juggernaut in Beantown.





P.J. Tucker

Up until the early 2000s, the idea of a starting center in the NBA being shorter than 6-10 was seen as an absolute farce. With the Bill Russell’s, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s, Shaquille O’Neal’s, Patrick Ewing’s, and, yes, even the Dwight Howard’s of the world dominating the league, it was a widely perceived notion that the bigger you were, the better off you’d be.

Now, fast forward to 2020 and you’ll see that the small-ball era of basketball has taken the sport by storm, and a prime example of this is Houston Rocket’s starting-5, P.J. Tucker.

Playing in his 14th season in the league, and his third in Houston, Tucker found himself tasked with an interesting request from head coach Mike D’Antoni — to become the starting center for the ball club.

Even in a positionless era such as this, the idea of the 6-5 Tucker rolling out into the starting pivot spot was a highly questioned decision right from the get-go. However, despite the noticeable challenges, the journeyman proved that, with sheer effort, hustle, and determination, the feat can be accomplished, and well at that.

Through 72 games played in 2019-20, Tucker put up averages of 6.9 points, 6.6 rebounds, 1.6 assists, and 1.1 steals per game on 42 percent shooting from the field and 36 percent shooting from deep.

His excellence ran right along into the postseason for the Rockets as, due to his efforts going up against the 7-0 Steven Adams in round-one and the two-headed monster of JaVale McGee (7-0), and Anthony Davis (6-11) in LA’s frontcourt during the Semifinals, Houston boasted the third-highest defensive rating in the league (106.eight) behind only the Boston Celtics and Toronto Raptors.

The parallels between Tucker and C’s rookie Grant Williams are uncanny.

Both are scrappy players who are relatively on the smaller side for the power forward/ center position — Williams is listed at 6-6 — and possess similar hustle, floor spacing, and defensive-minded skills that, frankly, have gotten them to where they are right now.

If there ever were a current player the 21-year-old would wish to mold his game after, it should be P.J. Tucker.


Bob
MY NOTE:  GWill was getting trashed a bit on another thread so I thought I'd post this to stimulate some thoughts on whether these are possible.  

Needless to say we'd ALL be thrilled to death if he became Draymond Green.  Green is a 3X All-Star and DPOY.  He is also a 3X All-Defense 1st Teamer and 2X All-Defense 2nd Teamer.  He was the NBA steals leader in 2017.  He is an All-NBA 2nd Teamer and 3rd Teamer.  The knocks on Green is that he's not a good shooter and his emotions run away from him at times.  GWill 25% from 3 during his rookie season but, as we know, that was incredibly diluted by his 0-25 start.  He shot .40%+ from 3 in January and February and shot 58.8% (10-17) from 3 in the playoffs.  His defensive rating was 108, 109 in the playoffs.  So, steady defense.  Green shot 27.9% from 3 last year.  He's a career 31.9% 3pt shooter.  So, NOT a good 3pt shooter.  His defensive rating last year was 110.  The loss of Steph and Klay didn't make that go up, it's something else.  Green's biggest values are in his versatility, his BBIQ and his competitiveness.  Grant showed he is versatile on defense, he now needs to find his place on offense.  Green's biggest weakness, aside from his shooting, is his lack of professionalism.  Grant doesn't have that problem.

PJ Tucker is a very interesting comparison.  A solid 3pt shooter on a Antoni team that treasures 3pt shooting, and lots of it.  Hard-nosed as they come.  It's hard to use stats like Defensive Rating with Tucker or anybody else playing for Mike "No D"Antoni but his Defensive Rating for the 5 seasons he was in Phoenix (also NOT known as a defensive powerhouse) was 108.

I'm not as down on Grant as some are.  I wish we didn't need to count on him off the bench as much as we did but that's on Danny, not Grant.  I think we're going to see a much improved Grant Williams next season.  His shooting jitters are gone.  At least some of his learning curve on defense will be flattened out.  It's asking a lot of a rookie to do a good job on both ends of the floor, especially late 1st rounders.  Players taken that far down usually are picked down there precisely because they are either one-dimensional or underdeveloped or undersized.  They focus on the thing that got them into the league and worry about their weaknesses when they can.


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Any comparison between him and Green is preposterous.

The P J Tucker comparison makes more sense but only in terms of size. PJ has more skills across the board than GW.

When I look at Grant I cannot come up with a single skill that is not well below average.

I will bet anyone on this board $100 that he will either get traded or Danny will let him walk after his contract expires.

I did not care for him in the draft and I like him even less now. He's a real scrub. His head is just about hitting the ceiling.

Bob, I admire your optimism. Grant's 3 pt shooting in the playoffs does give me some hope, but Dboss's perspective sadly seems to be a more realistic assessment. In any case, RWill deserves more minutes.

I like Grant Williams. I like very much about him.

Intangibles are usually unquantifiable and therefore, easy to ignore.

It is way too soon to come up with any final conclusions about either Grant Williams or the Boston Celtics 2019 draft class.

The rule of thumb dictates that it takes three years to see the true fruits in any draft. Why is it any different for Grant?

gyso wrote:I like Grant Williams.  I like very much about him.

Intangibles are usually unquantifiable and therefore, easy to ignore.  

It is way too soon to come up with any final conclusions about either Grant Williams or the Boston Celtics 2019 draft class.

The rule of thumb dictates that it takes three years to see the true fruits in any draft.  Why is it any different for Grant?

It isn’t.

Grant will be successful in life, regardless of what he does in the NBA.

I would argue that Grant Williams has a longer NBA career than Robert Williams will (assuming no injury).

Rob is flashy and we all go ....wow! sometimes. But he also still makes stupid mistakes on the floor that get him pulled out of the game.

Grant seems to have a high BB IQ, and so far looks like a hard worker. Two things can keep an NBA paycheck coming year after year.

Ryan Gomes?

What I admire about GWill is that he steadily  improved throughout the season and the playoffs. He's very smart and I don't think Danny likes to trade away smart players.

Berlin-T

gyso wrote:Ryan Gomes?

I think that might be a more appropriate target for Grant Williams' game.

gyso wrote:Ryan Gomes?

Gyso,

Gomes wasn't a bad player, he definitely was NBA material, he just wasn't an NBA starter and neither is Grant.  Doesn't mean he can't be a good rotation player.


Bob


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bobheckler wrote:

gyso wrote:Ryan Gomes?

Gyso,

Gomes wasn't a bad player, he definitely was NBA material, he just wasn't an NBA starter and neither is Grant.  Doesn't mean he can't be a good rotation player.


Bob


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Exactly my point. I looked up Gomes' numbers before posting his name. He had a nice career, eight years or so.

gyso wrote:

bobheckler wrote:

gyso wrote:Ryan Gomes?

Gyso,

Gomes wasn't a bad player, he definitely was NBA material, he just wasn't an NBA starter and neither is Grant.  Doesn't mean he can't be a good rotation player.


Bob


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Exactly my point.  I looked up Gomes' numbers before posting his name.  He had a nice career, eight years or so.

I previously referred to Gwill as a poor man's Ryan Gomes.  The key phrase here is poor man.

Ryan played for the Celtics for 2 years and he started 93 games.  His first year he averaged 7.6 PPG and 4.9 rebounds as a rookie.  In his second year he averaged 12.1 PPG and 5.6 rebounds.  He was traded in year 2.  Ryan Gomes was much better than Grant Williams.  It could almost be considered an insult to Gomes to even compare the two but based on their physical profile, it seems reasonably comparable.  The bottom line is that skills really matter.  Ryan was an excellent mid range guy and he was a good rebounder for his size.  He was more of a starter level guy than a rotation guy. He started 371/487 total games during his career.

https://www.basketball-reference.com/players/g/gomesry01.html

I know I have been beating up on Grant.  Some of that is based on his utilization.  (He is definitely not a viable center)  The rest of it is based on observational evidence.  On offense he has no handle and he cannot create his own shot.  His lack up jumping ability limits him as both a post scorer and a defender.  Whatever he did at TN does not look transferrable into the NBA.  When the Celtics drafted him I knew that he was a below the rim player and the scouting report stated that he may have problems scoring against NBA size and length.  I figured well maybe with his bulk and strength he can carve out a role as a guy who is a beast on the glass.  That would be a very useful skill for a guy who's offensive game is limited.  But after watching him all year I have come to the conclusion that his skills for the NBA game are minimal.    I do not see a lot of room for improvement.  His ceiling is very low because you cannot improve on skills that you never had.  Over the past 60 years I have seen a lot of players put on the green.  Some were elite, some were good to average and the rest were below average because their skill level was of poor quality.  Unfortunately Grant falls into the latter category.  

Grant has no long term future with the Celtics.  He would make a great filler in a trade to add a quality basketball player.

100% agree dboss.

Sadly dboss you may be right, in SL he seemed to score in variety of ways, but big difference between SL and the real thing.....

I root for him, but this may be a terrible waste of a draft class, especially if Romeo never comes around.

Bobby Orr.

Yogi Berra.