Let's talk Robert Williams

[Gomes3PC]

Great Post! Yes this is the problem with big men. When you have tools like he does - it's just very easy to coast in life and in hoops. It's not even that he might be a hard drinker or anything that extreme - just unwilling to put in the kind of effort needed which is pretty tremendous - do not get me wrong.

I never got the sense that it was a lack of passion from Williams. When he is out on the court, he plays with a ton of energy, especially on defense.

Where his "lack of passion" may show up in his willingness (or lack thereof) to learn the nuances of NBA floor spacing and NBA rotations. It takes a lot of hard work for young guys to learn how to do that - it's not college where you can just stand in the middle of a zone and swat guys who run right into you, and you (mostly) can't make a career off just chasing offensive rebounds and putbacks.

I'll be massively disappointed if Timelord can't find his way into 15 MPG this year. He's our best bet to defend true low post scoring threats and I think he can be an asset offensively if used the right way.

I know one thing...the longer he sits at the end of the bench, the less interest he is likely to have....It's just human nature...

Secondly, the best way to learn is to just do it....

If you give a guy minutes that aren't earned, they will develop a mentality that they don't have to work hard to get on the court.

I'm not in favor of burying him on the bench, but he shouldn't be getting lead cast minutes right away either.

[TheTruth316]

Stats don't say desire. They don't show how easy that board was, or how easy a block was. They don't show a person grasping for breath on the bench. They should show defensive assignments missed. I saw him play, he made several mistakes. Couldn't catch a pass. Doesn't react quickly, aggressively with the ball. The one time I saw him work hard was when he had messed up, but even then there was a hesitation. Like a sluggards getting out of bed, or just mentally not focused. But it's there. He s graceful, talented. Decent passer. I don't see any progress in his game. I hate his attitude. I want to showcase my talent.

[Bad-Thoma]

RW is still raw as all hell, I don't get the impression (from watching) that defensive or offensive rotations come naturally to him but his court vision (both in passing and attacking for a block) gives me hope and it sounds like he is putting the work in. I'm optimistic he'll be a rotation player, this season in short minutes by necessity and in the future those minutes will pay off as the game slows down for him. He's going to take patience though, which is why he was available so late in the draft.

[zoyathedestroya]

LFG!

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[brackdan70]

LFG!

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As long as this guy doesn’t crack his skull on the rim, I have faith he will develop into a very nice rotation level or maybe even starter. I’d like to see him get some run this year for sure...and I expect he will

[Theocy]

How better was young de Andre Jordan?

[tombattor]

LFG!

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As long as this guy doesn’t crack his skull on the rim, I have faith he will develop into a very nice rotation level or maybe even starter. I’d like to see him get some run this year for sure...and I expect he will

For sure. I expect him to get some major minutes. It's basically him and Kanter at this point, so he has to be able to handle himself for 20 min or so this year.

[Gomes3PC]

How better was young de Andre Jordan?

DAJ was statistically worse almost across the board in college vs. Williams, but his physical size is hard to teach...

He is closer in physical profile to Larry Sanders. If Timelord eventually just became that and not Peak DeAndre, that would be a huge addition. I think he has potential to be more simply because he is a better finisher around the rim than Sanders was.

[Upperclass]

He's literally a carbon copy of Larry Sanders/Keon Clark on and off the court.

Hopefully the end result is different

[Gomes3PC]

Yeah I mean I think the one difference as mentioned is that Williams is a much better finisher than both those guys. They both hovered at ~50% FG% for their careers. Williams was at 71% on a small sample size in the NBA and 60% in college. I'd be shocked if Williams winds up converting less than 57-58% from the field; if he does it will be because the team is asking him to try out a jumper more or something.

[zoyathedestroya]

Yeah I mean I think the one difference as mentioned is that Williams is a much better finisher than both those guys. They both hovered at ~50% FG% for their careers. Williams was at 71% on a small sample size in the NBA and 60% in college. I'd be shocked if Williams winds up converting less than 57-58% from the field; if he does it will be because the team is asking him to try out a jumper more or something.

He took his shots mostly in garbage time, but Williams's shot chart is a thing of beauty.

[Gomes3PC]

Yeah I mean I think the one difference as mentioned is that Williams is a much better finisher than both those guys. They both hovered at ~50% FG% for their careers. Williams was at 71% on a small sample size in the NBA and 60% in college. I'd be shocked if Williams winds up converting less than 57-58% from the field; if he does it will be because the team is asking him to try out a jumper more or something.

He took his shots mostly in garbage time, but Williams's shot chart is a thing of beauty.

Yeah I mean the nature of how he scores tells me he will likely be a high FG% guy. He hit 79% of shots within 3 feet of the rim, which is unsustainable, but if he sticks to what he does best he can easily be one of the elite interior finishers in the NBA.

[Gomes3PC]

To give some further context, according to hoop-math.com (https://hoop-math.com/TexasA&M2018.php), Williams shot 84% at the rim his sophomore year and 72% as a frosh. The only reason his very good college FG% wasn't higher is that TAMU played him at PF and so the spacing was terrible and he wound up taking a bunch of jumpers while floating in the midrange to offer space to let Tyler Davis operate.

Playing center in the NBA, he doesn't/won't have that issue. The C's should be sending him clips of DeAndre, Nene, Amir Johnson and others who know how to make a living scoring off scraps and keeping the ball moving when they don't have a good chance to dunk the ball.

[zoyathedestroya]

Yeah I mean I think the one difference as mentioned is that Williams is a much better finisher than both those guys. They both hovered at ~50% FG% for their careers. Williams was at 71% on a small sample size in the NBA and 60% in college. I'd be shocked if Williams winds up converting less than 57-58% from the field; if he does it will be because the team is asking him to try out a jumper more or something.

He took his shots mostly in garbage time, but Williams's shot chart is a thing of beauty.

Spoiler:

Yeah I mean the nature of how he scores tells me he will likely be a high FG% guy. He hit 79% of shots within 3 feet of the rim, which is unsustainable, but if he sticks to what he does best he can easily be one of the elite interior finishers in the NBA.

Yep, I hope Williams gets more opportunities playing alongside our best PnR drivers/dishers in Hayward and Kemba. Just cleaning up missed layups alone would be a boon for our offensive efficiency. Smart can still be reckless with his lobs and isn't as much of scoring threat on those PnRs except when he puts his defender on his back.

[ITYSL]

Talented player, good passer, good vision. Often neglects to do the little things like box out properly, and takes possessions off. Trotting back on defense on the first few possessions of the first SL game annoyed me, but yeah, it's still early. Curious to see how he does tonight and throughout the rest of SL.

Maybe Kanter's ferocity at boxing out and crashing the offensive glass will wear off on him.

[Smog]

Some players have naturally good wind, just like you can have hops or size. IT had great endurance, Ray Allen too, looks like Grant Williams does. Robert Williams doesn’t, he’s very disadvantaged there naturally, and I think people mistake that for him not giving effort. You can tell the difference between a player who is dogging it and one who just doesn’t have the oxygen to get there. Williams is pouring sweat from the first minutes. It might also be nerves, which is one reason to give him more run. He looked more comfortable in Maine.

[greenroom31]

Some players have naturally good wind, just like you can have hops or size. IT had great endurance, Ray Allen too, looks like Grant Williams does. Robert Williams doesn’t, he’s very disadvantaged there naturally, and I think people mistake that for him not giving effort. You can tell the difference between a player who is dogging it and one who just doesn’t have the oxygen to get there. Williams is pouring sweat from the first minutes. It might also be nerves, which is one reason to give him more run. He looked more comfortable in Maine.

You don’t think endurance is something you can develop? It’s innate and you either have it or you don’t? Trying to understand what you’re saying here.

[darrendaye]

Some players have naturally good wind, just like you can have hops or size. IT had great endurance, Ray Allen too, looks like Grant Williams does. Robert Williams doesn’t, he’s very disadvantaged there naturally, and I think people mistake that for him not giving effort. You can tell the difference between a player who is dogging it and one who just doesn’t have the oxygen to get there. Williams is pouring sweat from the first minutes. It might also be nerves, which is one reason to give him more run. He looked more comfortable in Maine.

Even if we account for this theory, there surely are a number of things attributable to laziness that is cause for concern. His effort against Anton in college was undeniably awful on national tv. I'm pulling for him. He comes across as a good guy.

BTW, here's a page still available on the old Draftexpress site:http://www.draftexpress.com/profile/Robert-Williams-89995/
Curious write-up in the bottom section of the page. Suggesting he was a potential 3pt shooting big prospect.

[cloverleaf]

Some players have naturally good wind, just like you can have hops or size. IT had great endurance, Ray Allen too, looks like Grant Williams does. Robert Williams doesn’t, he’s very disadvantaged there naturally, and I think people mistake that for him not giving effort. You can tell the difference between a player who is dogging it and one who just doesn’t have the oxygen to get there. Williams is pouring sweat from the first minutes. It might also be nerves, which is one reason to give him more run. He looked more comfortable in Maine.

Ray worked on his endurance as a runner. Rob has been limited with his knees. I actually suspect that with another year working on his shooting range, he could drop a good 15 pounds and play at the 4 pretty well. But in any case, he does need to work on his game conditioning, one way or another. I think he'd really benefit by the team getting enough guys into their facility from early to mid-August to play a lot of games. (After the two weeks I'd like to see him and Tacko spend with KG in LA, that is.)

[OldCeltics]

Robert Williams, Grant Williams, and Tacko can be change makers for Celtics team significantly if given the chance.

In 3 years one of best front courts in NBA

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