Final week, The Athletic performed a ballot, asking Celtics followers their ideas on a number of storylines surrounding the group, together with whether or not or not the fanbase believed that Robert Williams III might change into an All-Star.
Simply 33.2% of voters had religion in The Time Lord, whereas one other 51.7% felt that his offense was both too restricted or that he wouldn’t enhance his recreation sufficient to ascend to that degree.
Is it an excessive amount of to ask for Williams to seek out his manner onto the All-Star group? Perhaps, nevertheless it won’t be due to his lack of expertise, however extra so due to the celebrities in his manner. The frontcourt within the Japanese Convention is fairly loaded in the intervening time, with Giannis Antetokounmpo, Jayson Tatum, Joel Embiid, and Bam Adebayo all eclipsing Rob for an All-Star spot — simply to call just a few.
Simply because he might not earn an All-Star nod, doesn’t imply that Williams is a nasty participant by any means. He’s really fairly vital to Boston’s success. When he was largely obtainable within the 2021-22 season, the Cs had been one of the crucial unstoppable groups within the league and it wasn’t a coincidence. He was a key a part of the Celtics beginning lineup, which held a defensive ranking of 94.2 in 443 complete minutes collectively. Rob’s excellence in his roamer position on protection prompted loads of issues for opposing groups and earned him a spot on the NBA’s All-Defensive Second Crew.
To date in his five-year professional profession, Williams’ ceiling has been simply that — second-team All-Protection. Final 12 months, he missed a big chunk of the season as he recovered from knee surgical procedure and didn’t fairly have the identical flare.
My query is, “can he ascend greater?” It positive appears like he can due to how drastically he can influence the sport.
Plus, we’ve seen footage this summer time of Williams engaged on his soar shot — one thing Celtics followers have gotten a small style for and are clamoring for extra of.
Robert Williams III hit this mid-range jumper in opposition to the Grizzlies.
I went again, and put collectively a video with all of his made jumpers all through the years. As you possibly can see, he even drilled a step-back as soon as. Additionally value noting: he is 29-for-34 (85.3 p.c) on FTs in 2022. pic.twitter.com/N5T0Yalvur
— Tomek Kordylewski (@Timi_093) March 6, 2022
I personally have all the time thought his jumper regarded fairly clear, so it’ll be fascinating to see what it might do for him and the Celtics offensively. On the very least, it’ll hold defenses trustworthy when he’s noticed up on the baseline, creating house for whoever it could be driving the ball to the cup.
Rob’s need to enhance his reliability outdoors of the paint is fairly admirable and it units him aside from a few of his high comparisons on Basketball Reference.
The entire comps are decided by “similarity scores,” which Basketball Reference defines as:
“It makes an attempt to seek out gamers whose careers had been related by way of high quality and form. By form, I imply issues like: What number of years did he play? How good had been his greatest years in comparison with his worst years? Did he have just a few nice years after which a number of mediocre years, or did he have many good-but-not-great years?”
One other vital merchandise to notice is that gamers are solely in comparison with different gamers who performed a comparable place. In different phrases, guards are in comparison with guards and guard-forwards; forwards are in comparison with forwards and forward-centers; and facilities are in comparison with facilities and center-forwards. This isn’t all the time excellent, nevertheless it works properly sufficient absent extra exact positional designations.”
So, it doesn’t imply Rob is strictly like people who the positioning determines him to be just like, however there’s one thing there for positive. Amongst the highest 5 in similarity to Boston’s No. 44 are Hassan Whiteside, Tyson Chandler, and Clint Capela — none of which ever developed a lot of a jumper.
Hassan Whiteside must be the worst-case comparability for Robert Williams
Whiteside burst onto the NBA scene within the 2014-15 season, when he joined the Miami Warmth. He did have a earlier stint with the Sacramento Kings, nevertheless it ended with him heading abroad to play for just a few years, after not sticking within the Kings’ rotation.
The seven-footer had a blistering ascension to stardom throughout his time in Miami. He posted a triple-double with 14 factors, 13 rebounds, and 13 blocks (!!) in opposition to the Chicago Bulls in January of 2015. The sport was in primetime on ABC and Whiteside went viral when he cited his need to enhance his NBA 2K ranking as the explanation for his sturdy show.
Whiteside’s play continued to point out up properly within the stat sheet for the subsequent few seasons. He was named to the All-Defensive Second Crew within the 2015-16 season, the place he additionally led the league in blocked pictures — a feat he achieved once more within the 2019-20 season. He adopted up his All-Defensive season by main the NBA in complete rebounds in 2016-17.
Because the years continued to move, Whiteside’s play started to fall off, with blocks serving to to erase his defensive lapses — sort of. Miami finally offloaded the massive man to the Portland Path Blazers within the four-team deal that landed Jimmy Butler with the Warmth in 2019.
Since leaving the Warmth, his flaws started to change into increasingly more distinguished, finally main him to be teamless for all the 2022-23 season.
The rationale why changing into Whiteside can be the worst case situation for Williams is due to his “pretend” defensive output — to not point out that he’s most likely already handed him by way of effectiveness. After all, the stats are actual, however the effort and influence simply weren’t.
Williams’ influence on the defensive finish is partly due to his shot-blocking capacity, but additionally due to his elevated sense of the sport. There’s a purpose why he couldn’t discover his manner into the rotation for his first few seasons in Boston. He was jumpy, fell for pump fakes frequently, and couldn’t be trusted down low, regardless of his athleticism.
His psychological development is what’s helped him ascend above Whiteside’s degree.
Clint Capela is stable, however not fairly the ceiling for Robert Williams
Controlling the glass and ending near the basket have been staples of Capela’s recreation. He was capable of reap the benefits of enjoying alongside James Harden with the Houston Rockets early on in his profession, earlier than being traded to the Atlanta Hawks in 2020. As soon as he joined the Hawks, Capela pieced collectively what has been one of the best marketing campaign of his profession to date. He averaged 15.2 factors and a league-best 14.3 rebounds per recreation that season and helped the Hawks make a shock run to the Japanese Convention Finals.
Since then, he’s nonetheless been capable of common a double-double however has regressed ever so barely at simply 28 years outdated and Atlanta hasn’t been capable of recapture the magic of that 2021 playoff run.
Celtics followers acquired an actual shut take a look at Capela final spring when Boston bounced the Hawks within the opening spherical of the NBA Playoffs. A part of the explanation why the collection went so long as it did was due to the Swiss huge man’s work on the glass.
He was a colossal ache for the Cs, as he battled alongside Onyeka Okungwu to safe loads of second probabilities for the Hawks. Capela averaged 2.5 offensive rebounds per recreation in opposition to the Celtics in that collection.
The offensive glass has change into a big a part of Time Lord’s recreation, ever since he’s gotten a bigger position in Boston’s rotation. He ripped down about 3.9 per recreation in 2021-22, then adopted that with one other 3.0 per contest final 12 months.
Proper now, the largest distinction between the 2 must be Williams’ mobility. He’s proven an incredible capacity to stay with smaller gamers on the perimeter, making him an incredible match with Boston’s switch-everything protection. In the meantime, the Celtics constantly focused Capela in that first-round matchup. He’s simply not as fast and it makes him extra restricted defensively.
With all of that being mentioned, the Hawks huge man must be one of the crucial comparable gamers to Boston’s high-flying middle, although it does really feel as if Williams has the sting over him.
It’d be fairly candy if Robert Williams might make a DPOY influence like Tyson Chandler
Chandler must be in direction of the highest by way of expertise in the case of Basketball Reference’s comps for Williams. He had a prolonged 19-year NBA profession and performed for a handful of groups alongside the best way.
Most notably, Chandler was a part of the Dallas Mavericks’ 2011 championship run. Whereas enjoying alongside Dirk Nowitzki, he helped management the paint for Dallas, defending the rim and hustling after unfastened balls.
Within the following season, he joined the New York Knicks and gained the Defensive Participant of the 12 months award. That Knicks group wasn’t something particular. They misplaced within the first spherical of the playoffs to the Heatles in a sweep.
The following 12 months, the Knicks rose as much as second within the Japanese Convention and Chandler earned his one and solely All-Star choice.
His recreation was similar to what Celtics followers see from Williams on a nightly foundation. In case you go and watch his profession highlights, you’ll discover a ton of similarities between the 2 — a number of high-flying finishes within the pick-and-roll on offense and stout effort on the defensive finish to maintain the paint on lock.
To be truthful to Rob, he very properly might’ve stolen Marcus Sensible’s 2022 Defensive Participant of the 12 months win, had he not torn his meniscus in direction of the top of the season.
There’s no purpose that — when wholesome — Williams can’t make a championship-level influence for the Celtics, very like Chandler did for Dallas in 2011.
Bonus: Robert Williams with a jumper may be a extra athletic Marcus Camby
Shout-out to CelticsBlog’s Invoice Sy for this comp. Camby — very like Chandler — had a prolonged professional profession and was capable of have an effect on a number of groups. Alongside the best way, he earned himself 4 All-Defensive picks and gained the 2006-07 Defensive Participant of the 12 months award due to his elite shot-blocking capacity.
The UMass alumni averaged a staggering 2.4 blocks per recreation for his profession, which is fairly spectacular contemplating how lengthy he performed for.
On high of his presence within the paint, Camby supplied his groups a bit extra spacing than the opposite comparisons listed right here. He wasn’t elite by any means, however I’m undecided Rob will likely be both. Camby knocked down roughly 34-35% of his mid-range makes an attempt all through his NBA tenure.
After all, immediately’s NBA is a bit completely different and it’s robust to visualise the Celtics letting Williams take jumpers if he’s solely knocking them down at that clip. To be trustworthy, I really feel if he was taking soar pictures all through these first few seasons, they’d most likely be falling at about the identical fee.
Hopefully, this work he’s placing in over the summer time permits him to transform at a share nearer to 45-50% on these makes an attempt.
So, what’s the ceiling for Robert Williams?
Of the gamers listed right here, it’s possible that he might ascend to the extent of Camby. It wouldn’t be stunning if Williams earned a DPOY down the street right here, in addition to just a few extra All-NBA shouts.
Well being is the largest issue for him, because it all the time has been. The 2021-22 marketing campaign was one of the best pattern of how a lot Williams’ presence might be felt when he’s capable of be on the court docket constantly. After a comparatively wholesome second half of the season in 2022-23, let’s hope that we see the Time Lord on the market flying on a constant foundation.
