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The Comedian wrote:I’ve said it going back to last year. but I think it’s a real possibility that Rob is our second most important player. Not saying he’s better than Jaylen, but I do think losing Rob would hurt more.
31to6 wrote:https://www.basketball-reference.com/players/w/williro04.html
Rounding up only slightly, he’s playing 30mpg and averaging 10/10/2/2/1 while “shooting” 72%.
My favorite play from last night was when he got an ORB against Jokic and went up to try to score with a layup — got blocked or missed, and did it again! Usually he’s looking to kick out to shooters in that situation, but this was the very rare case of Rob being like nah imma get mine!
Homerclease wrote:Brads biggest failure as a coach was not force feeding this guy minutes years ago. Danny had to railroad Theis outta town just to get Rob minutes. Low and behold, they gave him a consistent role and he’s thriving.
zoyathedestroya wrote:Homerclease wrote:Brads biggest failure as a coach was not force feeding this guy minutes years ago. Danny had to railroad Theis outta town just to get Rob minutes. Low and behold, they gave him a consistent role and he’s thriving.
Whether intended or not, Brad holding out Williams turned out to be a blessing. I want players to be paid their due, but I also realize the difficulty of building a team with the cap/tax restrictions. Imagine Rob playing like this in his 2nd or 3rd year? His agent would've demanded upwards of 20M per year. The extension he's on would be a bargain if his body holds up and this type of production continues.
Now that Theis is back in the fold, I'm hoping Ime can limit Rob's minutes to 30 or less in the reg season. I think his minutes is trending upwards atm. 18 minutes between Al and Theis at center is reasonable esp against smaller benches.
Homerclease wrote:zoyathedestroya wrote:Homerclease wrote:Brads biggest failure as a coach was not force feeding this guy minutes years ago. Danny had to railroad Theis outta town just to get Rob minutes. Low and behold, they gave him a consistent role and he’s thriving.
Whether intended or not, Brad holding out Williams turned out to be a blessing. I want players to be paid their due, but I also realize the difficulty of building a team with the cap/tax restrictions. Imagine Rob playing like this in his 2nd or 3rd year? His agent would've demanded upwards of 20M per year. The extension he's on would be a bargain if his body holds up and this type of production continues.
Now that Theis is back in the fold, I'm hoping Ime can limit Rob's minutes to 30 or less in the reg season. I think his minutes is trending upwards atm. 18 minutes between Al and Theis at center is reasonable esp against smaller benches.
That’s a fair point, the ole Jordan Mickey strategy seems to have worked with Rob. I’ll disagree on Theis tho, don’t want him playing at all but i foresee some maintenance days for Rob and Al down the stretch
zoyathedestroya wrote:Homerclease wrote:Brads biggest failure as a coach was not force feeding this guy minutes years ago. Danny had to railroad Theis outta town just to get Rob minutes. Low and behold, they gave him a consistent role and he’s thriving.
Whether intended or not, Brad holding out Williams turned out to be a blessing. I want players to be paid their due, but I also realize the difficulty of building a team with the cap/tax restrictions. Imagine Rob playing like this in his 2nd or 3rd year? His agent would've demanded upwards of 20M per year. The extension he's on would be a bargain if his body holds up and this type of production continues.
Now that Theis is back in the fold, I'm hoping Ime can limit Rob's minutes to 30 or less in the reg season. I think his minutes is trending upwards atm. 18 minutes between Al and Theis at center is reasonable esp against smaller benches.
The Celtics have the NBA’s best defensive rating since January 1, and Robert Williams is one of the central reasons. Lately, he’s been defending non-bigs so he can occasionally cheat off them and roam near the rim as a shot blocker.
Celtics head coach Ime Udoka uses Williams, who is 6-foot-8 with a 7-foot-6 wingspan, everywhere. Sometimes, he might defend in a traditional sense by dropping to the paint or battling on the post. But he’s also one of the NBA’s most frequently switched bigs in the league, according to Second Spectrum.
Versatility is key in today’s league, both for individual players and collective units. What Boston has now is a rotation of versatile players. White joining Marcus Smart gives the Celtics one of the best—if not the best—defensive backcourts in the league, and their wings and bigs can all defend across multiple positions.
The Celtics are figuring some stuff out. Defense is fueling their recent success; at 16-6, they are tied for the NBA’s third-best record in 2022. If the offense can begin clicking on all cylinders behind Tatum, Brown, and a cooler and calmer version of Smart at point guard, Boston could go from looking like a catastrophe to a contender. Some good things just take time.
zoyathedestroya wrote:Timelord gets some love from KOC here:The Celtics have the NBA’s best defensive rating since January 1, and Robert Williams is one of the central reasons. Lately, he’s been defending non-bigs so he can occasionally cheat off them and roam near the rim as a shot blocker.
Celtics head coach Ime Udoka uses Williams, who is 6-foot-8 with a 7-foot-6 wingspan, everywhere. Sometimes, he might defend in a traditional sense by dropping to the paint or battling on the post. But he’s also one of the NBA’s most frequently switched bigs in the league, according to Second Spectrum.
Versatility is key in today’s league, both for individual players and collective units. What Boston has now is a rotation of versatile players. White joining Marcus Smart gives the Celtics one of the best—if not the best—defensive backcourts in the league, and their wings and bigs can all defend across multiple positions.
The Celtics are figuring some stuff out. Defense is fueling their recent success; at 16-6, they are tied for the NBA’s third-best record in 2022. If the offense can begin clicking on all cylinders behind Tatum, Brown, and a cooler and calmer version of Smart at point guard, Boston could go from looking like a catastrophe to a contender. Some good things just take time.
Joshyjess wrote:If Rob can add an outside shot to his arsenal (like 15 feet out), and at least hit an occasional three, he could jump into the "Best Big Man" in the league conversation. As good as he is, whenever he gets the ball outside of the paint, nobody expects him to take a shot. I think if he could do that, it would elevate his game even higher.
Also, I would like to see him drive to the rim more when he does get the ball outside. His first, second, third and fourth thoughts seems to be to pass the ball, instead of driving hard to the rim.
Hopefully this off-season he'll work on both of these things.
Joshyjess wrote:If Rob can add an outside shot to his arsenal (like 15 feet out), and at least hit an occasional three, he could jump into the "Best Big Man" in the league conversation. As good as he is, whenever he gets the ball outside of the paint, nobody expects him to take a shot. I think if he could do that, it would elevate his game even higher.
Also, I would like to see him drive to the rim more when he does get the ball outside. His first, second, third and fourth thoughts seems to be to pass the ball, instead of driving hard to the rim.
Hopefully this off-season he'll work on both of these things.
Williams belongs to augmented reality as a twitchy, ubiquitous presence whose greatest weakness is his own (totally rational though unrealistic) desire to send every single floater into the fourth row. There aren’t five more disruptive forces in the NBA today.
This season Williams has finally been healthy, averaging over 10 more minutes than he did last year, in a switch-almost-everything system that’s allowed him to wreak all the havoc from different spots on the floor. A whopping 58 of his blocks—out of 103 total—have been on shots launched between 4-14 feet from the basket. (Myles Turner ranks second, at 43.) Williams also ranks second in blocked long twos and third on non-corner threes. He swats everything because he exists everywhere.
According to NBA.com, there are 131 players who’ve defended at least 500 shots this season. Those launched near Williams are 6.1% less accurate than they’d be on average, which is the third-largest difference (trailing Jarrett Allen and LeBron James) among that group.
