Robert Williams, aka "Timelord"

[zoyathedestroya]

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Low volume. But impressive nonetheless.

[steefP2]

https://theathletic.com/4741115/2023/08/02/kristaps-porzingis-celtics-robert-williams/
Good article by Weiss. Ill share some of the better parts for folks without a subscription.



"So how can Williams stand out? All of those shots from that workout clip address the key issue for the Celtics center: He doesn’t score away from the rim. He can pass from anywhere, and his rim runs force defenses to collapse a bit, but they don’t have to worry about him taking a shot if he isn’t within arm’s reach of the restricted circle.

Once he can start pulling up for those little 15-foot float shots on the short roll, that’s when things change dramatically. Williams is most comfortable being a facilitator, but that’s hard when his defender can sag all the way down to the middle of the paint while the rest of the defense face-guards the Celtics. Williams doesn’t have a scoring move to go to and usually tries to lob a pass over the top to a teammate trying to seal off a defender. Those slow, risky plays don’t feed into how he or the team wants to operate.

Developing any semblance of a pull-up jumper from 10 feet or out will provide enough room for teammates to cut and especially open up the weakside corner shooter, whom Williams has the passing ability to hit.

Though Williams is a skilled passer, we don’t see a lot of it because he is rarely put in a position to make reads. Most of the great passes he makes are in bizarre scramble scenarios or when he is running a delay action up top, which has Williams dribbling the ball across the arc to hand it off to a curling scorer.

Even if he had a shot out of the post, which he appears to be working on, that would at least give him the position on the floor where his bullet passes over the top can create open looks. The problem has been that he doesn’t really get the ball on the block.


Most of these are coming as a hard roller in middle pick-and-roll or put-backs. So the first way to diversify his game is to use him in the short roll, something the Celtics will likely rely on more than before with Derrick White taking over the starting point guard role and Porziņģis joining the roster.

Part of the struggle for Williams has been that every time he rolls through the paint and a teammate can’t find him, he then has to flush out somewhere else and find another purpose. The standard is to cut down to the dunker spot, the portion of the baseline near the basket but away from the play. That way, anyone else who attacks the rim and draws another defender can slip it to him for the finish. This works a few times a game, but great defenses will have a help defender get to him early before he can put the ball on the floor.

Of course, Williams doesn’t like to dribble, and most of his looks at the hoop are coming off one or maybe two bounces. Only 13 of his 170 field goal attempts last season even had a dribble, per NBA Stats. He took just a pair of shots off two dribbles last year. Handling the ball is just not a part of his game unless he is out in space trying to move the ball toward a teammate for a handoff.

Building these one-dribble pull-ups on the short roll will help Williams find a way to consistently get up shots without having an epiphany with his handle. Developing that jump hook will give him a sense of purpose if he can get a mouse in the house when he takes a crossmatch down to the post. Right now, a smaller defender can just swipe for the ball and not worry he’s going to score on them."

[165bows]

https://theathletic.com/4741115/2023/08/02/kristaps-porzingis-celtics-robert-williams/
Good article by Weiss. Ill share some of the better parts for folks without a subscription.



"So how can Williams stand out? All of those shots from that workout clip address the key issue for the Celtics center: He doesn’t score away from the rim. He can pass from anywhere, and his rim runs force defenses to collapse a bit, but they don’t have to worry about him taking a shot if he isn’t within arm’s reach of the restricted circle.

Once he can start pulling up for those little 15-foot float shots on the short roll, that’s when things change dramatically. Williams is most comfortable being a facilitator, but that’s hard when his defender can sag all the way down to the middle of the paint while the rest of the defense face-guards the Celtics. Williams doesn’t have a scoring move to go to and usually tries to lob a pass over the top to a teammate trying to seal off a defender. Those slow, risky plays don’t feed into how he or the team wants to operate.

Developing any semblance of a pull-up jumper from 10 feet or out will provide enough room for teammates to cut and especially open up the weakside corner shooter, whom Williams has the passing ability to hit.

Though Williams is a skilled passer, we don’t see a lot of it because he is rarely put in a position to make reads. Most of the great passes he makes are in bizarre scramble scenarios or when he is running a delay action up top, which has Williams dribbling the ball across the arc to hand it off to a curling scorer.

Even if he had a shot out of the post, which he appears to be working on, that would at least give him the position on the floor where his bullet passes over the top can create open looks. The problem has been that he doesn’t really get the ball on the block.


Most of these are coming as a hard roller in middle pick-and-roll or put-backs. So the first way to diversify his game is to use him in the short roll, something the Celtics will likely rely on more than before with Derrick White taking over the starting point guard role and Porziņģis joining the roster.

Part of the struggle for Williams has been that every time he rolls through the paint and a teammate can’t find him, he then has to flush out somewhere else and find another purpose. The standard is to cut down to the dunker spot, the portion of the baseline near the basket but away from the play. That way, anyone else who attacks the rim and draws another defender can slip it to him for the finish. This works a few times a game, but great defenses will have a help defender get to him early before he can put the ball on the floor.

Of course, Williams doesn’t like to dribble, and most of his looks at the hoop are coming off one or maybe two bounces. Only 13 of his 170 field goal attempts last season even had a dribble, per NBA Stats. He took just a pair of shots off two dribbles last year. Handling the ball is just not a part of his game unless he is out in space trying to move the ball toward a teammate for a handoff.

Building these one-dribble pull-ups on the short roll will help Williams find a way to consistently get up shots without having an epiphany with his handle. Developing that jump hook will give him a sense of purpose if he can get a mouse in the house when he takes a crossmatch down to the post. Right now, a smaller defender can just swipe for the ball and not worry he’s going to score on them."

The last sentence says a lot.

He is a great passer but he also doesn’t have great ball control - ie, it’s easy for him to get stripped. In addition to the above, my take is he doesn’t even take many no dribble shots from bounce passes like a lot of less skilled bigs do in PnR. He really is focused on receiving the pass high in the air - so imo he’s elite at what he does but what does is a subset of a subset.

[zoyathedestroya]

I need to see at least one workout post a week so I'm not worried he's injured again lol. Haven't seen him in any of the elite bball training clips in a while. Hope he's just chilling on a family vacation somewhere.

[darrendaye]

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[Shak_Celts]

I need to see at least one workout post a week so I'm not worried he's injured again lol. Haven't seen him in any of the elite bball training clips in a while. Hope he's just chilling on a family vacation somewhere.

First pics/videos no brace, could be under the sweats but didn't look like it, next set with knee brace. I'm scarred and scared!

[Parliament10]

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[Fencer reregistered]

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And yet his trainer supposedly said he moved to Houston and was working out there.

The quality of "journalism" on this has not been consistently great.

[shackles10]

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And yet his trainer supposedly said he moved to Houston and was working out there.

The quality of "journalism" on this has not been consistently great.

I was just thinking this exactly. The guy even said they had Celtics staff out there with Rob.

[zoyathedestroya]

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And yet his trainer supposedly said he moved to Houston and was working out there.

The quality of "journalism" on this has not been consistently great.

I was just thinking this exactly. The guy even said they had Celtics staff out there with Rob.

Boston. Houston. Same thing. We should know by now that Big Rob isn't confined by the normal parameters of time and space.

[Fencer reregistered]

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And yet his trainer supposedly said he moved to Houston and was working out there.

The quality of "journalism" on this has not been consistently great.

I was just thinking this exactly. The guy even said they had Celtics staff out there with Rob.

The previous claim that he had MOVED to Houston made little sense to me.

Even visiting Houston in the summer seems odd, but presumably there are family reasons.

[165bows]

I need to see at least one workout post a week so I'm not worried he's injured again lol. Haven't seen him in any of the elite bball training clips in a while. Hope he's just chilling on a family vacation somewhere.

Yeah I don’t know if I even want to see this thread get bumped lol. Maybe it needs a thread title update every time there is a new post - “ROB, still working out!!”

[ConstableGeneva]

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[ConstableGeneva]

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[playa-hater]

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Kind of concerning to see RW wearing what appears to be a knee brace on his left knee. We all know that RW deals with knee issues. But it just reinforces the idea that it may be a miracle for RW to get through this season without knee issue flareups coming again.

Boston's "Achilles heal" may end up being RW's knee

[Hal14]

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Kind of concerning to see RW wearing what appears to be a knee brace on his left knee. We all know that RW deals with knee issues. But it just reinforces the idea that it may be a miracle for RW to get through this season without knee issue flareups coming again.

Boston's "Achilles heal" may end up being RW's knee

The knee brace is there to help prevent more knee injuries in the future.

He'll probably always need to play with it on moving forward.

I'd probably feel more nervous if I saw him playing without the brace on - cause then I'd be scared that anytime he lands on the floor or falls down on the knee it'll be another 30+ games on the injured list.

This article gives a good breakdown of his knee injury:
https://www.celticsblog.com/2021/4/30/22412215/robert-williams-knee-injury-unrelated-to-his-hip-celtics-spurs-shootaround-interview-boston

That article was also before he had not 1 but 2 knee surgeries in less than a year. So yeah, I'm fine with him playing it safe and wearing the knee brace to reduce the chances that he injuries it again.

[ConstableGeneva]

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