Celtics’ Robert Williams Ruled Out With Yet Another Leg Injury

Celtics’ Robert Williams Ruled Out With Yet Another Leg Injury
Williams will miss his 37th game of the season

NESN by Keagan Stiefel

The Boston Celtics have fallen behind in their race for the Eastern Conference’s No. 1 seed, and they’ll have to start the climb back without one of their starters.

In what has been a theme throughout the season, Boston lost a starter Saturday when they ruled out Robert Williams III for Sunday’s matchup with the New York Knicks at TD Garden. It will be the 37th missed game of the year for the 25-year-old, who suffered a left hamstring strain in the Celtics’ season-worst loss to the Brooklyn Nets on Friday.

The majority of Williams’ absences this season came due to the surgery that was performed on his left knee this offseason. That’s the good (???) news, as he doesn’t appear to be dealing with any ill effects at this point in the season.

The bad news? It’s yet another injury that will prevent the Celtics from deploying their best starting five.

That unit, which consists of Williams, Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown, Marcus Smart and Al Horford, was the NBA’s best last season and spearheaded a run to the 2022 NBA Finals. In attempting to get back, the Celtics have only seen that unit play less than 100 total minutes on the season.

Boston had been at full strength coming out of the All-Star break, but will not have to revert back to watching head coach Joe Mazzulla tinker with lineups in an attempt to get back on track. The Celtics will start that trek at 7:30 p.m. ET on Sunday.

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Brad you should have pulled the trade with SAS at the deadline for their center!

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Yeah, the last trade we did with SAS worked out ok!

db

Let's not forget that Jakob Poeltl has an expiring contract and he wanted to start. Our offer, which did not break up the core, was refused by SAS. I don't think he has ever shot a three pointer.

Such a bad fit, the team was right to let this trade pass.

I agree with your thinking Gyso, but.......looks like he would have gotten his wish as far as starting. I have said before, I love Rob, but I think he is never going to reach the potential we are all wishing for. This kid has real health issues, and will NEVER play a full season in green. I am frustrated that Brad could not have seen this coming, I know there is talent there, but bits and pieces are NOT going to get us anywhere. Now what???? Blake?? Mike??? Maybe White will get the start, remember, we played great ball with him in the starting lineup This is a troubling event. That #18 banner just looked like it took a long walk away from the rafters

This is not good. Obviously we need Rob. Hopefully its just a minor strain and he's not out long. However, the question is can he ever be healthy? If he's healthy for the playoffs that's our best hope. Let's not give up the ship. This is still a deep and talented team. I am more concerned with Brogdon at this point. I don't know what this ankle soreness is all about? Now that Rob is out we need big production from Brogdon. We have minimized his minutes so he should be fresh. It's time to unleash him, if he's healthy. He adds another dimension that we need with Rob out.

There are different considerations at play here.

When we first started to see rumors that the Celtics had an interest in making a trade for Poeltl, I did not think the Celtics would make that trade mainly because he will be an UFA after the season.  As such he would become a rather expensive short term rental.

Apparently the Celtics were interested in trading for him and must have felt that he could fit.  I certainly do not agree with gyso as he surmised that he would be a bad fit.

There was something about him that interested the Celtics.

The good and the bad of it

Poeltl is a very solid rebounder including averaging 3 per game on the offensive glass.  He also can blocks shots so the rim protection aspect would be the other thing that would fit into a need that the Celtics have.  He is also a double digit scorer (three years including this season) with a career FG% of 63%.

On the other hand he is not an offensive weapon on the perimeter.  He has only taken 4 (3) point shots in his entire 7 year career.  He is also a poor shooter from the line.   Is he a different version of Enes 'Freedom" Kanter? Sort of but Enes was not a shot blocker.

At the end of the day it all comes down to what Boston was really looking for.  I think they wanted a guy who could be impactful in the post on offense and defense so that in the event that RW could not play, you would have an alternative.

The Celtics went with a cheap option in trading for Muscala.  However he is more of a stretch 5 and clearly not a guy who can play extended minutes in the post.

Kornet is a weak player in the post as well. He simply does not play with physicality.

Overall I think that the question surrounding the Celtics pursuit of Poeltl has legitimacy.  If the Celtics were willing to move Gallo and PP plus some 2nd rounders, including a 1st does not seem like a big deal to me.  The reason why Brad has been so successful in building out this roster was because he has been willing to move a 1st rounder to get what the team needs.  

You have to be all the way in to win.

RW is out now and it probably means he misses a few games and comes back.  That's fine but the risk of him not making it through the rest of the season and into the playoffs hangs over the Celtics heads like an ominous dark cloud.

If Robert Williams cannot play, our chances for winning the title takes a big hit.  I would have made the trade for Poeltl.  That first round pick does not help us win a title this year.

Rob played on March 3rd.  That makes 9 days recovering.  He is on The trip so I think we can assume that he will be back soon.  The Celtics stated that he would miss 7-10 days (Not games0

I am going out on a limb and predict that Rob will return on the Ides of March.  That would be a total of 12 days off.

RW + everyone else = #18

Everyone else - RW = wait until next year

dboss wrote:Rob played on March 3rd.  That makes 9 days recovering.  He is on The trip so I think we can assume that he will be back soon.  The Celtics stated that he would miss 7-10 days (Not games0

I am going out on a limb and predict that Rob will return on the Ides of March.  That would be a total of 12 days off.

RW + everyone else = #18

Everyone else - RW = wait until next year

+1

We won last night and if we could have controlled the defensive board, would have won by 20 easily.

Unlike Pritchard, Rob is travelling with the team on this long road trip. According to Joe, we could possibly see him at some point during the trip. Pritchard stayed in Boston, which must have killed him since he would have been closer to home and maybe seeing some family at some point. As far as last night, if one more guy drove down that middle uncontested I was going to scream, No one was guarding the center until Griffin came in

RosalieTCeltics wrote:Unlike Pritchard, Rob is travelling with the team on this long road trip.  According to Joe, we could possibly see him at some point during the trip.  Pritchard stayed in Boston, which must have killed him since he would have been closer to home and maybe seeing some family at some point.  As far as last night, if one more guy drove down that middle uncontested I was going to scream,  No one was guarding the center until Griffin came in

Rosalie

The Portland game would have been a great time for PP friends and family to see him play.