Grant Williams thread

[Green89]

Draymond Green's rookie season: 2.9ppg, 3.3rpg, 0.7apg, 33%FG, 7.1 PER
Grant Williams: 3.7ppg, 3rpg, 1.7apg, 36%FG, 14.1 PER

Small sample size, but just saying.

[Fencer reregistered]

We few about his high understanding of the game months ago.

We knew. We happily knew. We band of knowers. (And Happy St. Crispin's Day to all!)

Watch on YouTube

Well, this post just made you my favorite poster on this board forever.

By the Lord, thou sayest true!

[Andrew McCeltic]

He is a basketball savant with no weaknesses other than his size.

The size is important, though - ultimately his ability to adapt to larger defenders (and to scoring from the perimeter) will decide how close he gets to the impact he had in college as a primary scorer.

[jmr07019]

Grant could be a really nice complement to Tatum and Brown. Offensively he will set screens, go after offensive rebounds, knock down open 3’s, keep the ball moving and be perfectly happy with a low usage role. Defensively he can take the larger wing or PF, box out, do the dirty work, etc, Some of the things I listed aren’t guaranteed (shooting 3’s, ability to defend larger players) but the potential is certainly there.

[ddb]

comps are comps and the comp has already been made, but Grant is Baby Dray. His size, style, personality. He's the glue guy the Celtics wanted as a front court piece. He's young and it'll take some time to develop, but he's going to be an important piece to the Championship puzzle.

[5InOfLouisville]

comps are comps and the comp has already been made, but Grant is Baby Dray. His size, style, personality. He's the glue guy the Celtics wanted as a front court piece. He's young and it'll take some time to develop, but he's going to be an important piece to the Championship puzzle.

This is an optimistic take, and I hope you're right, although he lacks Dray's length.

The only think I quibble with is "personality".

Draymond is a ****. Grant seems like a nice, thoughtful kid. Don't get me wrong, if Green was a C i'd cheer for him because then he would be our ****, but I don't see that in Grant.

[Gomes3PC]

He is a basketball savant with no weaknesses other than his size.

The size is important, though - ultimately his ability to adapt to larger defenders (and to scoring from the perimeter) will decide how close he gets to the impact he had in college as a primary scorer.

Let's worry about what his ceiling is in a few years. In pretty much three pro games, Grant has proven that he is already capable of being a league-average rotation player. Just look at the track record of guys who are picked in the 21-23 range to understand how unusual that threshold is alone:

2018 - Grayson Allen, Chandler Hutchison, Aaron Holiday
2017 - Terrance Ferguson, Jarrett Allen, OG Anunoby
2016 - DeAndre Bembry, Malachi Richardson, Ante Zizic
2015 - Justin Anderson, Bobby Portis, Rondae Hollis-Jefferson
2014 - Mitch McGary, Jordan Adams, Rodney Hood
2013 - Gorgui Dieng, Mason Plumlee, Solomon Hill

It is really freaking hard to find a starting-caliber player outside the top 15. You've got basically one of them (Anunoby) in that entire list, with an at-best 50% hit rate on finding a rotation player in that range of the draft.

[Green89]

comps are comps and the comp has already been made, but Grant is Baby Dray. His size, style, personality. He's the glue guy the Celtics wanted as a front court piece. He's young and it'll take some time to develop, but he's going to be an important piece to the Championship puzzle.

This is an optimistic take, and I hope you're right, although he lacks Dray's length.

The only think I quibble with is "personality".

Draymond is a ****. Grant seems like a nice, thoughtful kid. Don't get me wrong, if Green was a C i'd cheer for him because then he would be our ****, but I don't see that in Grant.

He doesn't have to have the same length as Dray, as long as he's making Dray like plays and contributing in that fashion. As far as personality, he's like Gentle Dray.

[Bleeding Green]

Draymond has an 8'9" standing reach, Williams is 8'8.5".

[Darth Celtic]

Draymond has an 8'9" standing reach, Williams is 8'8.5".

Watching summer league and preseason, I think the kid is already a better 3pt shooter than Green ever was and he's a rookie.

[claycarver]

Draymond has an 8'9" standing reach, Williams is 8'8.5".

According to draft express, that puts them at average reach for a small forward. Both of them have closer to a power forward''s wingspan (Greg is an inch off). I think where they both more than make up for length is in their strength and impeccable timing and positioning.

http://www.draftexpress.com/average-measurements-by-position/2018/all/all/60/

[Bleeding Green]

Draymond has an 8'9" standing reach, Williams is 8'8.5".

Watching summer league and preseason, I think the kid is already a better 3pt shooter than Green ever was and he's a rookie.

100%. Draymond shoots like he has a backpack on; Grant is going to be above average for sure. Now if only Grant could be the ballhandler when the greatest shooter of all time ever was on the court (enter: Tremont Waters, next year; or: Carsen Edwards after the ASB this year).

Draymond has an 8'9" standing reach, Williams is 8'8.5".

According to draft express, that puts them at average reach for a small forward. Both of them have closer to a power forward''s wingspan (Greg is an inch off). I think where they both more than make up for length is in their strength and impeccable timing and positioning.

http://www.draftexpress.com/average-measurements-by-position/2018/all/all/60/

I'm not worried about Grant's anthro measurements. He showed he could hang—and beat Marc Gasol—who has a lot of height, weight and length on Grant. Of course he's on the downswing, but just a few months ago Gasol was bodying Embiid on his way to the Finals.

There just aren't that many bigs who will be able to embarass Grant Willaims (Embiid, KAT [lmao teams sucks plus in the West], Ayton [lmao suspended, in West], Porzingins [lmao probably injured, in West], Jokic [West, gets by on craftiness, which is negated by Grant], Nurkic [West, injured], AD [West, probably injured soon enough]. There just aren't that many good bigs in the NBA, and the ones that exist are either some form of injured, suspended, or in the West.

[LarryBirdsFingr]

comps are comps and the comp has already been made, but Grant is Baby Dray. His size, style, personality. He's the glue guy the Celtics wanted as a front court piece. He's young and it'll take some time to develop, but he's going to be an important piece to the Championship puzzle.

Yep

[GoGreen]

If Jaylen and Jayson come into their own, Grant would make an excellent compliment to them. We might be looking at 3 of our long-term, future starters - looking at it very optimistically, of course.

[FlatearthZorro]

Draymond has an 8'9" standing reach, Williams is 8'8.5".

Watching summer league and preseason, I think the kid is already a better 3pt shooter than Green ever was and he's a rookie.

And probably ever will be. Geeens shot release looks pretty broken, the mechanic aint there.

[Green89]

Grant Williams net rating - +18.6
Al Horford net rating - +10.2

Just saying.

[ddb]

comps are comps and the comp has already been made, but Grant is Baby Dray. His size, style, personality. He's the glue guy the Celtics wanted as a front court piece. He's young and it'll take some time to develop, but he's going to be an important piece to the Championship puzzle.

This is an optimistic take, and I hope you're right, although he lacks Dray's length.

The only think I quibble with is "personality".

Draymond is a ****. Grant seems like a nice, thoughtful kid. Don't get me wrong, if Green was a C i'd cheer for him because then he would be our ****, but I don't see that in Grant.

yes, different personalities, but infectious & outgoing. length there isn't much of a difference I don't think

[Gomes3PC]

Biggest difference with Dray is he has much quicker feet IMO than Grant, which is why he's such a tremendous help defender. He also reads the floor better than any big in the league save for maybe Jokic. I really like Grant and think he will be better than Draymond as a shooter, but doubt he ever is as good overall because of that footspeed / reaction skill gap. Not a knock on Grant - Dray is the best at that I have seen since Pippen.

[5InOfLouisville]

comps are comps and the comp has already been made, but Grant is Baby Dray. His size, style, personality. He's the glue guy the Celtics wanted as a front court piece. He's young and it'll take some time to develop, but he's going to be an important piece to the Championship puzzle.

This is an optimistic take, and I hope you're right, although he lacks Dray's length.

The only think I quibble with is "personality".

Draymond is a ****. Grant seems like a nice, thoughtful kid. Don't get me wrong, if Green was a C i'd cheer for him because then he would be our ****, but I don't see that in Grant.

yes, different personalities, but infectious & outgoing. length there isn't much of a difference I don't think

yeah, somebody above posted that green's standing reach is only half an inch longer

So I have to admit i was wrong about the length being much of a difference. My knowledge of player length is lacking (insert aron baynes joke here)

[BostonCouchGM]

He is a basketball savant with no weaknesses other than his size.

The size is important, though - ultimately his ability to adapt to larger defenders (and to scoring from the perimeter) will decide how close he gets to the impact he had in college as a primary scorer.

Let's worry about what his ceiling is in a few years. In pretty much three pro games, Grant has proven that he is already capable of being a league-average rotation player. Just look at the track record of guys who are picked in the 21-23 range to understand how unusual that threshold is alone:

2018 - Grayson Allen, Chandler Hutchison, Aaron Holiday
2017 - Terrance Ferguson, Jarrett Allen, OG Anunoby
2016 - DeAndre Bembry, Malachi Richardson, Ante Zizic
2015 - Justin Anderson, Bobby Portis, Rondae Hollis-Jefferson
2014 - Mitch McGary, Jordan Adams, Rodney Hood
2013 - Gorgui Dieng, Mason Plumlee, Solomon Hill

It is really freaking hard to find a starting-caliber player outside the top 15. You've got basically one of them (Anunoby) in that entire list, with an at-best 50% hit rate on finding a rotation player in that range of the draft.

people have made this bad argument and poor comparison for years. Those teams, with better drafting G.M.s, should have taken different players. It's not about who these teams chose but who was still on the board when they made their choices.

The following players could have been chosen picks 21-23 instead:

2014: Capela, Bogdanovic, Dinwiddie, Jokic
2015: Portis, Harrell, Osman
2016: Siakam, Murray, Brogdon
2017: Kuzma, Bryant, OG
2018: Simons, Robinson, Kurucs, Bonga, Nunn

and in a few years we'll look back at several better players that were still on the board when high floor low ceiling Grant Williams was chosen by atrocious drafting Danny Ainge, like we do every single draft.

Take the Kyrie trade for instance. It's not about Sexton, who they chose at #8. It's about a full career's worth of who was still available at that pick that we lost out on. Case in point: Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Miles Bridges, Michael Porter Jr., Anfernee Simons, Mitchell Robinson, Bonga, Musa, Kurucs, Nunn. That's why the Kyrie trade was dumb from the beginning. We get a two year rental of a disgruntled moron and lost out on all those players we could have traded Crowder, IT and Zizic for (CLE ended up getting Nance, Hill and Clarkson) AND the opportunity to draft a Tatum level talent that could be here for a decade.

Thanks Danny!