Boston Celtics: Robert Williams III could prove to be key in team’s front court success

Boston Celtics second year big-man Robert Williams III may be the key to the team’s front court success during the 2019-20 season.

With the departures of Al Horford, Marcus Morris, Aaron Baynes and Guerschon Yabusele this offseason, significant minutes within the Boston Celtics front court have become available.

Though the team has signed Enes Kanter to presumedly fill in at the starting center position, and is expected to slot both Jayson Tatum and Gordon Hayward at the three and four, respectively, there is still playing time up for grabs amongst these three positions. And, after his impressive play during this year’s Summer League, don’t be surprised if second year big-man Robert Williams III benefits the most from the team’s current lack of depth up front.

Through five outings during the Las Vegas tournament, Williams managed to put up impressive averages of 9.0 points, 9.8 rebounds, 2.0 assists, 1.3 steals and 1.8 blocks per game on 51.7% shooting from the field. His play was so good, in fact, that President of Basketball Operations Danny Ainge hinted at the idea of Williams receiving a larger role with the Celtics this upcoming season.

While some have argued Summer League play can sometimes be misleading, as a majority of the participants won’t see actual NBA action for quite some time — if ever — Williams’ stat-sheet stuffing performance should still be seen as a positive for a guy who consistently found himself in and out of the G-League during his rookie season.

As previously mentioned, Hayward and Kanter are the two frontrunners to be the team’s starting four and five this upcoming season. While the duo should produce a solid amount of points for the Boston Celtics, defensively, they could run into some problems.

For all his scoring and rebounding pluses, Kanter has proven to be a less than stellar defensive contributor, posting a minus -2.361 defensive player impact plus minus last season which, in layman’s terms, is just flat out bad. As for Gordon Hayward, historically he is not known to be a poor defensive player. However, with his lackluster performance on that side of the ball last season — albeit presumably due to his horrific injury the year prior — the jury is out on how he will hold up on defense this year.

While Robert Williams is no where near the type of talent both these aforementioned players are offensively, defensively, on the other hand, is a completely different story.

Coming out of the 2018 NBA Draft, the 6-10 forward was penciled in as a big with excellent athleticism for someone his size, and a knack for swatting shots at the rim. In limited action last season with the Celtics, Williams proved both of these claims true and he showed the ability to stay with his assignment on defense and, in 8.8 minutes per game, managed to average 2.5 boards and 1.3 blocks.

While these numbers at first glance may not be eye popping, when calculating the averages on a per 36 minute basis, the big man averaged a whopping 10.3 rebounds and 5.1 blocks per contest.

Currently speaking, the Boston Celtics have a lot of fire power down low offensively heading into the 2019-20 campaign. Defensively — not so much. However, if given the opportunity, Robert Williams III could prove to be a valuable asset on that side of the ball.

If he can produce at the level he has shown capable of in both his per 36 minute averages as well as during his Summer League action, Williams could prove to be a huge part in whether the front court this season succeeds or not.